Pubdate: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 Source: Advocate, The (LA) Copyright: 2000 The Advocate, Capital City Press Contact: 525 Lafayette St., Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Website: http://www.theadvocate.com/ Author: Advocate staff report NO THOUGHTS OF PRISON WHEN DOING CRIMES Several current inmates at Hunt Correctional Center say the possibility of going to prison was not a deterrent to them: Mark Bruno, 26, of New Orleans: "I wasn't worried" about going to prison. ... "I didn't care about that. I was on drugs. I didn't think I had a problem." "Where I grew up... you had to hustle to get the things your mom could not afford. ... Now, I care about my life," he said. He is in the IMPACT program, a intensive six-month diversion program that includes boot camp discipline, drug treatment and education. He pleaded guilty to theft to support a drug habit. Failure exposes him to a seven-year prison term. Jeffrey Coates, 23, of New Orleans "I didn't think of it (prison). I didn't think of myself as a criminal," he said. In his mind, he was "just a poor little junkie" and he looked down on those who sold heroin for a living. He managed to keep a job to buy his drugs, he said. He is in the IMPACT program and pleaded guilty to possession of heroin. Tavalyn Session, 23, New Orleans: "I never really thought about" the possibility of prison, she said, admitting she dealt drugs to support her habit. "I always felt that whatever was going to happen was going to happen." She is in the IMPACT program, too, while serving her sentence at nearby Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. She pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine. Carlos Harrison, 33, of Houston "I had no idea whatsoever" what prison would be like. "It is not your main concern. It doesn't even come to mind." He is finishing up a sentence for a drug offense. He is in a program designed to sharpen educational skills as well as life skills to prepare him for release called Project Metamorphosis. Eric Kingston, 56, of New Orleans "Prison wasn't even thought of. You are just fulfilling your selfish desires," he said. He served time in the early 1980s, but that did not keep him from returning to drugs and eventually being sent back to prison in the mid-1990s. He is in a program designed to sharpen educational skills as well as life skills to prepare him for release called Project Metamorphosis. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea