How to Escape Prison
Most never see a prison cell.
But most live in one anyway. Trapped by identity, fear, resentment, addiction to validation.
In 2009, Damon West stepped into a real Texas prison—steel bars, concrete walls—and a reputation: the Al Capone of Dallas.
They gave him 65 years. “Six dimes and a nickel” in prison slang.
BUT
While most of us rot away in comfort, Damon got free in hell. And in 2015, they let him out.
I had him on my podcast to talk about it—and about his new book, Six Dimes and a Nickel.
I expected a prison story. What I got was a blueprint for rebuilding a life from below zero.
Let’s rewind.
Bad Mailman
Damon was a college quarterback from Port Arthur, Texas. He had the golden ticket: talent, charisma, a full ride to a Division I school.
But when a shoulder injury ended his career, he spiraled—fast. Then meth showed up, seductive and clingy.
Burglary was how he kept her happy.
He dressed up like a mailman to case luxury condos and used spy tools like peephole reversers.
“When I broke into people’s homes,” he said, “I didn’t just steal their property. I stole their sense of security. I can’t give it back to them. I can’t change it.”
One of his victims was a woman whose fiancé had died in Iraq. Damon stole the engagement ring—without realizing what it was.
Years later, she emailed him. Four words: “Damon, I forgive you.” That email changed his life.
But Damon’s pivot didn’t come from forgiveness. It came from a word he told the parole board when they asked what kind of man he wanted to become:
Useful.
He didn’t say rich. Or innocent. Or even free.
Useful.
Inside prison, he taught inmates how to read. Picked up trash when no one else would. And started spreading four words they’d never heard: “I believe in you.”
Those four words became a movement. A book. And, thanks to one old inmate, a metaphor that took on a life of its own:
Be a Coffee Bean
Prison—like life—is a pot of boiling water.
You can let it make you soft like a carrot. Hard like an egg. Or—you can transform it, like a coffee bean changes the water itself.
That became Damon’s mantra.
He fought—literally fought—to live it. When you walk into a maximum-security Texas prison refusing to join a gang, you're marked.
Damon took beating after beating. He lost most of those fights. But he kept showing up. Kept trying to be a coffee bean. And everyone—outside and in—eventually respected him for it.
But here’s what hit me the hardest: Damon told me, “The hardest prison to do time in, James, is the prison in your mind. I meet more people out here in the free world who are locked up than I ever did when I served time in a real prison.”
Most people never see a prison yard.
But they serve time anyway—in jobs they hate, lives they fake, fears they feed. Confined in roles they didn’t choose and lives they’re too scared to leave.
Damon got out. And now he’s showing others how to do it.
And yeah—I needed to hear it. Maybe you do too.
Listen to his story on my latest podcast.
It’s worth it.
It just might set you free.
