My name is Dr. Taurus L. DeVault. I have been incarcerated going-on ten years, wrongly convicted. I’ll be winning my case soon, in which I’ll be exposing the corruption of the prosecutors and others. I was a very well-known drug supplier who lived a lavish lifestyle.

Today, I am a thirty-three-year-old African American man. I was raised in a very strict household and grew up in business; my mother and father owned a grocery store, which we still have after thirty years. But the problem was that the store was in the Hood, where I saw drug dealers, money, fancy cars, women, and more all my life. Us as people, especially Black kids, growing up in the Hood we tend to learn by watching, not by formal education. So even when you have your parents tell you “Stay in school, don’t drink, don’t sell drugs,” it’s not going to work unless you move us away from the environment. 

See, the problem in society is this: A lot of us don’t know who we really are. 

And if you don’t know who you are then you will let people decide it for you. We begin to live this life of illusion and make it our reality. We think selling drugs, robbing, gangbanging and so on is the lifestyle just because we are around it. But it’s not. We somehow told ourselves this is correct. There’s a lot of people who made great choices that came from poverty.  I tell people all the time, “Don’t become a victim of your circumstances or situations.” That’s the number one thing we fail at. 

I know that what everyone wants in life is an opportunity, and opportunity will cause less violence no matter where you come from. The problem is that the youth don’t realize that there is opportunity in their faces, but their lifestyle and social aspects make them miss it. We need leaders out there, but nowadays the people that kids look up to are the wrong role models. You got guys and women at the age of forty doing the same thing the youth is doing. 

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From studying psychology, practicing Islam, reading books, running businesses, and becoming a motivational speaker, I earned the Doctor title. I have helped professors, college students, business owners, and black and white people struggling, all while in prison through the mail, visits, and the telephone. I came to prison and turned my life around. I took advantage of what prison had to offer. 

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I know I did wrong in my past. I know I destroyed my community. I feel ashamed, but I was ignorant then; and now I am going back to help make a difference in people’s lives the correct way. I am an example of a reformed man who came to prison, became successful in prison, and didn’t let my circumstances or situation make me a victim, and so can you.