The Marshall Project

My First Job Out of Prison Was Back in Prison

“It felt like all eyes were on me.”

This article was published in collaboration with Vice.

I was released in 2015, after serving 20 years for murder in New Mexico. While inside, I worked as a baker in the cafeteria at the Corrections Department. Then, when I got out, my first job was in that same kitchen, serving green-chili cheeseburgers and burritos and chicken-fried steak.

Life Inside Perspectives from those who work and live in the criminal justice system. Related Stories

I was the first ex-prisoner allowed to work in the state system as part of

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