I could have never guessed 6 years ago that I'd be sitting here today with a new Thinkpad writing this blog post from my Zed editor [insert programming editor here]. If you asked me 6 years ago if I thought I would have to go back to prison, I would have said "Absolutely not". But, I did go back to prison, and I am here writing this blog post. And today, I do think it happened for a reason.
No young person ever consciously thinks "You know, I think I might mess my entire life up. Older me can just handle it later." But whether we like it or not, that's how it goes for some people. And in that respect, I'm "some people".
Against my adolescent judgement I started using at 14 with a group of older kids. By 16 I caught my first criminal charge which led to a prolonged stay in a youth center, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. I spiraled into a cycle of trouble, release, trouble, release. By 21 I was back in prison, this time "big boy" prison where I'd spend the next two and a half years of my life. Those years catch us up to "6 years ago".
From there I was released and almost before I could make it home was re-arrested for the same old stuff, but this time it seemed like I was out of second chances. I got 18 years in all but 7 years suspended, which, for those of you that haven't spent time around prisons, means I would serve 7 years in the state prison, and if I messed up I would then serve another 11 years.
Now, you may have noticed that the math surrounding my release doesn't add up. How could I be writing this? We'll get to that.
In the Covid days, any arrest meant mandatory quarantine, so 14 days on intake on 23 and 1's. That means 23 hours in your cell, 1 hour out per day. It also meant that you were by yourself...for the entire 14 days, unless someone else happend to be arrested at the same time. Because I was arrested in a county with just over 67k people I spent all 14 days alone.
So I had time to reflect. The natural feelings of hopelessness mixed with withdrawals, which really made my head spin. My kids' mother had passed away just a couple months prior, and I had once again let them down and spiraled into chaos, and here I was, with no way out. I knew I had done it this time, no more "second chances". But as I lay in my cold sweats staring at the white bricks on the wall, I felt that maybe I could do something to change my predicament. I asked the guy in the cell over if he had pen and paper. Amazingly he did, and I got to work. This time, one way or the other, was going to be different. Even if they slapped me with 20 years, I'd be someone that the people I love could be proud of when I walked out.
Over the next 13 months I studied anything and everything I could. I read about economics, fitness, engineering, technology, and finance. I read books like Magee's Technical Analysis of Stock Trends for fun, filling entire pads of paper with notes. Shortly into my stay I made a call to a number that I wasn't even sure was my future wife's. I'd known her nearly my entire life, and she was arguably the only person that's always been there for me outside of my Gram. We hadn't spoken in a few years, but quickly remembered why we fell in love all those years ago and re-kindled a relationship that neither of us were expecting. It felt too good to be true, but although I was facing a slew of charges with no end in sight I had her, I had my books, and my kids were healthy. Though I didn't know it at the time, I had God. My future wife and I were making bulletproof plans, they just didn't have a start date yet.
In October of 2022, after what felt like a life-time of back and forth, I was finally handed that sentence: 18 years total with 7 to serve immediately.
According to the Judge I was lucky, and looking back I would agree, it was the best thing to ever happen to me. Within a week of sentencing I was transferred to an intake facility (MCC), and then shortly thereafter was pushed along to Maine State Prison. I was still "new" to the system because I was in on new charges, so I had to start at "level 1". Maine has a level period, you start at level 1 with the ability to move up to level 4 with good behavior. While at lower levels you're restricted in what areas you can live, when you can go to rec, what programming you can do, those kinds of things. So at the beginning it was all I could do to stay sane and just keep moving forward.
I kept studying, still reading tirelessly, calling my now wife and kids whenever I could get access to a phone. I Immediately signed up for college upon being given the opportunity, and MSP was its own kind of education. A roommate tried to cut me with a razor becase I asked him not to leave dirty dishes in the sink. That's the kind of place it was. But I kept my head down, and kept studying. As with everything in DOC, it was a hurry up and wait game. I would quickly rise in levels and earned my minimum-custody level right at my 5 year mark (5 years left). At that point I was eligible for a lower custody due to my behavior and I was transferred to my "final resting spot" at BCF (Bolduc Correctional Facility) in June of 2023.
This is where the everything started to look up.
I bolted for the education department as soon as I arrived, speaking to the education director about my plans. I told he about what I wanted to accomplish with my incarceration and she (Thanks Jen) got to work helping me. At the time I was on a waitlist for college at MSP, and at BCF I would be eligible to start college that next semester in 2 months. I was incredibly excited, but honestly, a little confused. I had dropped out of high school and gotten my GED a couple of months into my sophomore year, felt there was a high probability I was unprepared for college.
Within a few weeks I met with my advisor to pick classes, but for some odd reason I was only be allowed to take 2 classes for my first semester, and couldn't pick my own major, which seemed frustrating at first. But, things happen for a reason, and I still remember it plain as day when in the middle of our conversation the advisor said, "Ya, most undergraduate degrees usually take about 4 years or so, I would expect you to be able to finish in probably 5 or 6"
...Did I hear that right? Is she saying I'm stupid?
I was angry and confused at the time, but, I'm glad she said it, because it gave me the ambition to find a way, and find a way I did. My first two classes were "Intro to Programming" and "Interpersonal Thinking", it was never my intention to get into software engineering, especially to the extent that I have now, I wanted to be an electrical engineer. I've always been a tinkerer, and I wanted to work with my hands and build electrical products, but I guess God had a different plan, because there was absolutely no electrical engineering path available.
I had 5 years (at least) of dead time, so there was no chance I was going to sit around and wait for an opportunity in an electrical engineering program. The next closest thing was Information Technology. I had always loved computers, and was in an afterschool "computer club" during my middleschool years, but never was willing to get more serious than some HTML on MySpace.
Information technology was my option and I was going for it.
I quickly became infatuated with that intro to programming course, Professor Graziano made this "Python" thing fun, and I enjoyed it, as Mr.Graziano would put it, Computer Science was about the science of "What could be computed" and that stuck, with me. What I was doing didn't feel like that, but I sure did enjoy writing plain text that magically transformed into algorithms and visuals on the screen.
That first semester lit a fire in me and I was starting to love this idea of software engineering. But I also realized I didn't want to just "learn about the science of what could be computed", I wanted to learn how to write the strings of text that could transform into the magic that was in front of my eyes. But to be clear, I didn't just want to know that it worked, I wanted to know why it worked.
UMA was the only school that I could go to within MDOC so I started to devise a plan. What would happen if I could just take all of the courses that UMA had to offer that were somewhat related to a Computer Science degree, and then later, I'd find another school, transfer as many credits as possible, and finish there? I started to research like it was going out of style. I worked in the plate shop at 6:30 AM to 2:30 PM, then would program and do my school work until count (at 9:45 PM) and then research, research, and research.
I learning about how transfer credits worked, what was required for a Computer Science degree, what schools allowed transferring what. I dove into pricing, really everything I possibly could. This led me to alternative credit pathways; CLEP exams, ACE credits, anything that could transfer toward a degree in Computer Science. Administration let me sign up, and I started stacking credits alongside my UMA courses. I took Linux, C++, and Machine Learning. Anything related to the knowledge I was searching for, and all while working at the plate shop full-time.
Not too long after starting that second semester I was hired for the position of "Resident Tech Worker" at BCF and introduced to Preston Thorpe (github.com/pthorpe92) and where things really took off. In Preston and I's first meeting he showed me a world that academic programming never would have, he introduced me to the idea of Linux as a tool for development, Neovim, and showed me what config files were. Preston started teaching me Go, and what things like a "server" and "containers" were.
He recommended I get on Boot.dev if I was going to study online, so I did (and quickly moved up to the top 100 on the leaderboard). On Boot.dev I got to work and dove even deeper into the depths of backend engineering and Go, because I wanted to learn something lower-level than Python. It was a new world to me, and excited me in a way so much different than Python. By this time I had about finished my second semester, I had taken alternative credit courses and worked on guided projects that Preston recommended. I was also still full-time at the plate shop, and was faced with a tough decision.
I felt that I couldn't continue doing so much, so it was time to take a chance on myself. I wanted to be done with the plate shop, and go pedal to the metal on my new found passion. It was a tough decision, but the plate shop wasn't making me rich. I mean, I was "prison rich" at $5.50 an hour, but I decided to take the plunge. I spoke to my bosses at the plate shop, and even wrote a letter to the director of the facility and explained what I wanted to do, and why I thought I could be successful. In June of 2024 I put in my 2 weeks notice at the plate shop and went full-time on this software engineering idea. Needless to say, it paid off, Preston's mentor-and-friendship landed me an internship at Unlocked Labs in October of 2024, my first ever programming job.
The incredible thing is that I was able to work as a programmer while still serving my 18-all-but-7-year sentence. In August, I got my Associates of Applied Science from Pierpont just 11 months after beginning at UMA with the help of my alternative credits. In December my manager (Josh T.) informed me that Unlocked Labs was interested in bringing me on full-time! By this time, I have accrued about 140-150 college credits between CLEP's, ACE, and my credits from UMA and it was time to figure out where to go next.
Research led me to Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey due to their transfer credit policy, and in May of 2025 I enrolled for my final semester with the degree I wanted, Computer Science. I know you don't need a degree to be a software engineer. But this was never about opening doors, it was proving to myself that I'm not just some criminal from a small town in Maine that never got past 10th grade. My semester at TESU would be fun, and I took classes way more computer science'y than anything at UMA. I wrapped up my capstone by writing a paper titled "Blockchain Anchored Identity Credentials and Cryptographic Watermarking as Countermeasures to AI Driven Impersonation". This paper finalized my undergraduate career with a nicely designed certificate, and a perfect 4.0 academic career.
I went on to graduate in August of 2025 with my degree in Computer Science and around 160 college credits in about 24 months flat. You could say it was just a bit faster than the projected 5-6 years. Graduating allowed me a little more free time to dig deeper into the things I am really interested in, deeper systems programming, Rust, distributed systems, things like that. With the help of Martin Nisser from the University of Washington and MIT I was able to start a first-of-its-kind Rapid Prototyping and Digital Fabrication class at BCF, a class where 12 residents learn about robotics, programming, 3D printing, and what it takes to bring an idea about an electronic product from idea to fruition.
The class allowed residents to play with electronics, 3D print models that they designed themselves, and allowed me the opportunity to 3D print Halloween and Christmas toys to donate to people in need. It even provided residents the opportunity to surprise their children at visits with a cool toy. This class has officially been added into the Brave Behind Bars network with hopes of expanding it into other prisons across the state and country as well as another cohort in BCF next fall.
What I'm Doing Today
In January of 2026 I was granted a privilege I never thought possible. I was released about 18 months early from my sentence to Maine's SCCP program. It's for people that have put in substantial work in the corrections setting and who are believed to be rehabilitated enough to be let back out on the street. That's where I write to you from today. I'm almost a month out from that January 16th day that changed my life, and doing the same stuff I've been doing for the last 2 and a half years. I wake up, I write code, I try to learn, I write some more code, I work, and I even still meet with Preston once a week.
The difference is, I now do it in the comfort of my home, with my beautiful wife, and my daughter in the next room. When I was arrested almost 6 years ago you could have asked me a thousand questions, and I can almost guarantee that none of my answers would have included me sitting here today. But, I beleive God had a plan, if it wasn't for my Wife coming back into my life, or a member of the corrections staff from when I was in Juvy now being the head of educational IT, or even if that same man wouldn't have introduced me to Preston, or if any of a thousand stars hadn't aligned in the last 5 years, I wouldn't be here.
Yes, it was me who gave up the old bad habits, and yes I was willing to work 16 hours a day for a long time, but at the end of the day, the people who helped me; my wife, Preston, staff that took chanced on me, the first manager to believe in me, and the professors who made me stop and think about things, were a huge part of my transformation. There were so many amazing things I was able to do, and opportunities I was able to participate in. To you all, I owe my life, and I just hope I can continue to prove the chances you took on me will never be in vain, because today I lead a life worlds different than I could have ever imagined. One so much more worth living.
Also, sidenote! I do have high hopes of writing technical posts from here on out. I think writing can help me learn and be better, and that's all I want to do. I want to get better at my craft, day in and day out, and if you've made it this far, thanks for sharing with me some of your time, and if you want to connect or work together, please, email me! -> clydekallahan@gmail.com
And, a special thanks to Lane Wagner (Boot.dev) for graciously helping me edit my first blog post!
Clyde
Thanks for reading!
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