Evaristo Salas Jr.

And so I had this thought, okay, I'm going to save $10,000 to $20,000 by the time I get out.

And what I'm going to do is forget buying, you know, the luxury, the little store and stuff so you can, you know, like the canteen and all that kind of stuff.

So I opted out and just said, okay, I'm going to focus on just $10 a month

because they provide you with food.

The food's horrible, but I can eat it.

Once you look at it, it's just sustenance rather than just something to enjoy.

You can kind of get past it.

What I did is I bought one box of ramen, which was like $6, $7, two bars of soap, and if I needed deodorant, I'd buy deodorant.

The next month, if I needed lotion, I'd buy lotion.

I maintained that for four and a half years.

It wasn't easy because everybody else around me

They're getting their, you know, $50, $55 paychecks, which is for a whole month of work.

And they're just buying all the store.

Mind you, the store is owned by the prison or correctional industry.

So it's just like a circle.

And I always tell them, this is what I tell these guys.

I said, look, so they're paying you.

You're making basically $200 a month.

They're taking half of it.

And then you're buying their product.