Finding openness in a closed space may seem contradictory. However, it is where our guests in this episode developed an openness for their own leadership. Michael Paxton and Ryan Humphreys are Leadership Coaches and Factory Managers at the Federal Prison Industries. Together, they share with us how they went beyond the “walls” of the prison environment to connect and support inmates. They each tell their journeys to coaching and what supported their buy-in, by diving deep into the struggles they often face and through gentle nudges that helped them along the way. Looking forward, Michael and Ryan also share their visions for their team and organization as they grow and develop. Join in on this great conversation to discover the importance of coaching in holding that space within the prison walls and beyond.
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Navigating the Closed and Curious Spaces Within Us with Michael Paxton and Ryan Humphreys
We’re welcoming to our space Michael Paxton and Ryan Humphreys. Michael began his career in corrections in 1998 in Beeville, Texas with the Texas Department of Corrections as an officer. In the summer of 2003, he made the move to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and began work at the Federal Correction Complex in Forest City, Arkansas. He transferred to the FCI Bastrop in January 2005. In 2018, he took over as a factory manager.
Their main focus in this work is to train federal inmates in a skilled trade in the automotive industry while supporting the Department of Homeland Security. They have since produced as many as 3,200 units in a single year and certified over 1,000 inmates in 1 or more of their 8 certification programs. Michael’s goal revolves around finding out how to coach. He’s a graduate of the e-Co Leadership Coaching Program at George Washington University. He is looking at how this fits into the correction law enforcement world. He says there are many possibilities out there and he can’t wait to see some realized.
I’ll also introduce Ryan. Welcome, Ryan. Ryan is the Factory Manager at the UNICOR Federal Prisons Industries at the USP Marion located in Marion, Illinois. Prior to becoming the factory manager, he worked as an Electrical Equipment Worker Supervisor with the UNICOR Federal Prisons Industry, also in Marion, Illinois. He started there in 2011 and finished that cycle in 2020, right next to the pandemic. He also served five years in the US Navy as an Information Systems Technician. Ryan’s also been going through the different coaching programs that GWU has offered. He’s also a peer coach facilitator. Welcome to both of you. We’re happy to have you with us.
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You both have been through our programs in some way or have been touched by the work that we collectively do. Michael, I want to start with something that has stayed with me while being with you and the process of learning and coaching. The first time that you engaged with us was through the UNICOR Coaching Program. Our center launched the coaching certification program and we partnered with your organization. Both you and Ryan are from that same space. We partnered with the organization to offer leadership coaching and support that vision of developing a coaching culture.
I remember your testimony and reflection at the end of the course and how you spoke to being in a place as closed as a prison environment where you’re supporting inmates to develop their own skill set in the workforce, and how in this closed space, you started to develop an openness for your own leadership, but then that with the little conversations or things as little steps as putting wellness upfront and engaging the inmates with nature pictures, puppy pictures, and kittens. It’s a way to open a new way of engaging. I could feel that it had landed in you and in your being. I would love to know more about that experience. How do you stay open when it can feel pretty close or pretty tight?
It is a challenge coming from many years of having that set way. This is the way it’s done. This is the way you interact with these people. There’s no give or intake. There’s no room for adjustment. This is the acceptable way. Through the coaching process, it was like you’re walking down a hallway and you’re headed towards something and somebody gently guiding you another way. Soft, gentle nudges by the coaches and the mentoring staff to see it differently and embrace it.
We’ve always lived in that world of whether it’s right or it’s wrong. There are only two places it can be. Now, the world is much more open than that after this coaching program. It is not just right and wrong. There are creative, intuitive, and many different options. Start to engage. Beth was my first coach. It was a fantastic experience. It was what I needed at that moment in my life. Also, she facilitated that soft, gentle nudge to say, “What if you saw it this way? What if you did this?”
It is a challenge coming from many years of having that set way. This is the way it’s done. This is the way you interact with these people. There’s no give or take. There’s no room for adjustment. This is the acceptable way. Through the coaching process, it was like you’re walking down a hallway and you’re headed towards something and somebody gently guiding you another way. Soft, gentle nudges by the coaches and the mentoring staff to see it differently and embrace it.
We’ve always lived in that world of whether it’s right or it’s wrong. There are only two places it can be. Now, the world is much more open than that after this coaching program. It is not just right and wrong. There are creative, intuitive, and many different options. Start to engage. Beth was my first coach. It was a fantastic experience. It was what I needed at that moment in my life. Also, she facilitated that soft, gentle nudge to say, “What if you saw it this way? What if you did this?”
There was an exercise where she had me look at a picture of myself. I was probably 4 or 5 years old, a small kid with blonde hair and a smiling face. She made me realize you can’t look at that and feel bad or upset. You look at that picture and that creativity and that willingness to learn and explore in my eyes and that picture. That sparked the whole images thing.
I was like, “You can’t look at a picture of a small, little beautiful puppy with bad intent.” I engaged several of our inmate clerks and some people that were there while I was going through this journey and challenged them to, “Let’s make it to where it’s not so ridiculous that it’s dismissed. Make it palatable for the environment that we were in.”
We did. We put inspiring little sayings. We put reminders to breathe, take a moment, pause, and reflect, little sayings all along the way. You would start to see the workers sitting there and staring at the TV while these images went across. It was landing soft, gentle nudges. It wasn’t a big transformation. It was when you look at it in its totality, but at the time, it was not. It was just this, “We’re going to go from this one day to this.” It was this beautiful guided journey with soft, gentle nudges to make you look another way, think a different way, or accept something a little easier.
Michael, hearing that maybe your process of manifesting that change was over time and through the process and a spectrum of changes, but there was a huge revelatory transformation there, which is deciding that there might be an alternative way of seeing things and that it might not just be black and white, right and wrong. However, you had concretized that point of view. I would love to know. Can you describe that?
It was awkward. In my second coaching session with Beth, we’ve just started this program. We’ve come back from DC. Ina tried to get us all to hold hands and stare into each other’s eyes. It was an interesting environment for us. Ryan knows because I had to stare at Ryan. During the second coaching session, we had done the intake. It was the first meat and potatoes. Beth sensed that I was reluctant to open up. I’ve said it many times before. It’s the perfect explanation of how we are.
We wear that vest and protective shield. Metaphorically, that is how we are working. We are working shielded from other people and dangers. I’m sitting in my office. I’ve got the doors locked so nobody can come in and see or hear what is going on because that shift is that uncomfortable. Beth asked me to take off my shoes and feel the carpet. In my mind, I’m thinking, “There’s no way I am taking off my steel-toe boots inside of this prison and putting myself at this huge vulnerability.
It dawned on me. It was like, “Why? When was the last time somebody rushed into my office and tried to attack me?” The words that came to my mind is, “What would it hurt to go all in to give this a chance?” I said, “To heck with it. Let’s do it.” I kicked my boots off and started wiggling my toes on the carpet. That was the moment that we did a centering exercise. I went all in. At the end of that centering exercise, it felt like somebody took about 20 pounds of weight off the back of my neck.
I could breathe, think, and maneuver. It was like, “If that little simple thing that maybe took two minutes can do that much of a shift, what else can this do? What are the possibilities?” From that point on, that was the moment I was like, “I’m all in on this. I don’t care how ridiculous it is. I don’t care how ridiculous it looks, sounds, or feels. I’m going to give it 100%. I’m going to see where this goes.”
It carried me through the rest of that year, which was difficult with COVID, political unrest, and everything else that went on. I saw the value. I was like, “This is what I want to do. This is where I want to go. I want to encourage as many people as possible to experience this.” We kept engaging to where we are now. This is a journey I don’t ever see with an end. There will never be a last page of this book that says, “The end,” ever.
When you discuss making those changes in the office with the inmate population, some people don’t or may not realize the whole criminal thinking aspect. The logic and the structures are sometimes a lot different than the way we think. When you try to introduce these concepts, some people feel like they’re ridiculous. I’ll admit I felt the same way at first, too, but then I got on board with things like centering and all that. When you introduce these concepts to people with those different backgrounds, how hard was it to buy-in?
It was hard. It’s what I’m going to use my couple of minutes of time to speak to at graduation. It is the one thing that is perpetuated by incarceration. That is fear. Most people, when they say fear, they think, “You’re afraid of spiders. You’re afraid of heights.” Being afraid of yourself is one of the toughest things. In a prison environment, being afraid of how you are seen is — you get caught staring at a picture of a puppy, “He’s soft.” Dropping that stigma of masculinity. It’s a good warm, inviting photo that puts your mind at peace.
The one thing that is perpetuated by incarceration is fear.
The one thing that is perpetuated by incarceration is fear. There’s no harm to it. There’s nothing about that picture of that puppy or that waterfall that’s going to jump out and ruin your day. That’s how I combated that. People would make comments here and there, it’s like, “That’s ridiculous. It’s silly.” There is no harm. There is only good that can come from a positive image and a positive message. If you always consume positive intent, what can that image do to you? It can only make your day better. In the position I’m in, being the head of the factory, seeing the head guy accept it and be all in and being at the forefront of that, what do we say, modeling the way?
Seeing me out there, appreciating the images, talking about the images, and engaging with people about the images, if the big guy has no problem with it, who’s got a problem with a picture of puppies? It doesn’t have to be that. That’s just an example. It could be flowers, nature, a beautiful red stag out in a field, or whatever it is that speaks to you. We would adjust them over time. We’ve got many generations since then.
All of the work teams now have their own created images and logos that represent them as a group. They engage in it fully, almost like teammates of a sports team. They all want to be represented by an image now. As before, this was not a thing. We’re embracing that imagery of this logo or this image or this name represents us and how we feel. They’re in touch with it.
I’m curious, what is that connection with the image, and how do people feel about it? I know the reason Mike brought it. This is just one example of creating a baseline, creating a grounding, allowing people to settle, and almost settling the nervous system. Can you say more about the image in that sense?
I love that they’ve moved now to create their own. The image works for us by taking everything that we’re experiencing, all the abstractions of feeling and emotion, and putting it in form. It’s the way that our body, which is a form. I see you, Michael, you’re not an abstract idea. You’re a form. You feel like form, Bonnie. Inside Bonnie, there are all these thoughts and feelings, which are abstractions.
The body does take experience. I’m having a certain experience here now that at some point if I think about it, I can describe as a feeling or as an emotion. It felt like a sunny day to talk to these guys. I might say that. Inside me, I have an image. If it’s a sunny day, how I’m describing it, I’m speaking to that sunny place or that lit-up place.
The image is our blueprint for action. It’s how we understand something. It’s the place that we then move from in terms of action. Ina and I were speaking to someone a bit ago who was talking about terms that are popular right now, things like conscious compassion. It feels good, but if I think about it, what does conscious compassion mean? What is the image of that?
If I’m asking people, “Become a community or become consciously compassionate,” what does that look like? What does that mean? What I love is hearing that these guys that you’re working with are coming up with their own images and saying, “This is us. This is what we mean. This is what we feel like somehow. We can’t describe it, but we can show it.”
It’s almost a grounding space because you have that image. The image gives clarity and gets you to the clarity of action. Bonnie said it’s the blueprint, but the more you can allow that image to be spoken, the more you can move towards that clear action. That’s why people then feel aligned and moved. They have contributed to it. It’s how they’re moving from. They build a new form, something that becomes more visible and concrete.
I want to go back to Ryan for a moment. Mike, you were talking about how that first day you were introduced to the coaching, and then you got to see each other and look at each other’s eyes and have this disarming way, and it’s like, “What is it?” Ryan, did you go all in like Mike went all in? What was your experience? How did you move into the space?
It took me a little bit longer to get there. When I came to the training, I thought, “Coaching, I know what this is,” but all of those terms of centering and imagining things, those were foreign to me. When we started getting into that in class, I was like, “So far, they’ve said a lot of good things, but I don’t know about all this. Maybe I can do the other part without this.” I was resistant. After that week and we got together with our one-on-one coaches, that’s when it started to set in because she would walk me through these things and I was like, “There’s nobody around. I’ll try it.”
It worked. It did allow me to focus more on what we needed to discuss or talk about like the issues. It helped me reason and think through things. With nudges back from Chrystal, I was shocked at how much I learned about myself going through this process, which then even furthered being able to open up and get involved because of realizing the underlying issues and biases and things of that nature. It took me a little longer, but that was my experience.
If I may build one tiny bit, and I know, Bonnie, you might have something here, too. I’m curious, Ryan, you described a little bit about how you felt in this process, but how was this process of coaching different from what you had been exposed to before? Can you speak a bit more about that?
The main difference for me was that somebody wasn’t telling me how to fix my issues. Somebody wasn’t telling me how I should feel. Someone was asking me questions to make me dig more into why, how, or what to do, and allowing me to come up with my own conclusion, which is also empowerment. “I did that myself,” instead of, “You do this. You do that. Feel this way.” That was the biggest difference for me.
I’m going to tack onto this also, a word that Ina talks about all the time is curiosity. What I’m hearing in both of you guys is the opening that’s caused by curiosity and allowing yourself. Michael mentioned the word vulnerable. Maybe vulnerability comes first before curiosity. They work hand in hand. Ryan, you and I had an email exchange a while back about this insight you had of open-ended questions, marrying, and being able to interact with the people you interact with as you move through the work area, as opposed to setting formal times aside to coach or do group work.
You said in that email about these informal conversations, some of your blocks, and how you move past them. These are blocks like, “I don’t have time for this. I don’t want to answer that question right now.” If I may, even the block of, “This isn’t interesting to me.” That moment I have to think, “It is to them.” That’s interesting to be able to have that space of being curious about the other person despite that internal dialogue that you’re having. Can you speak a little more about that?
Michael had said earlier about the macho masculinity thing. There’s also pride here. These guys hate to admit they had made a mistake because anytime they’ve ever made a mistake, something bad happened. They don’t know that sometimes it’s okay to admit it and have learned from it. The image of toughness that’s got to be there. If they come to you with an issue. “To me, this isn’t even an issue, why is this a big deal to you?” It’s because it is, or they wouldn’t be talking about it, even if they’re just venting.
Sometimes, it’s okay to make mistakes and to learn from them.
There’s an expression in prison that if they got it coming, they got it coming. If they don’t, they don’t. It’s black and white. Even if they don’t have it coming and they want to vent and that’s what made them feel better for somebody to listen to them, sometimes that’s all it takes. You have to be willing to do that. If you are willing to, you will find that it makes things a lot easier sometimes. Instead of saying, “No, you don’t got it coming,” now, they’re mad. You may move on, but now people are upset. It didn’t solve anything. If you took five minutes to listen, everything might be great.
You both are talking about this culture in the prison where you both work. It takes a lot to build that trust and to shift from this mindset to another mindset, which is more open, trusting, and curious. Especially as I heard you, Ryan, speaking from a mindset of, “This is a failure, so I can’t make mistakes,” and to a mindset that sometimes we make mistakes and we learn from them. That’s a significant shift. I’m wondering if each of you or any of you would have a practical story or an example of how, and we’re not talking here about major organizational shifts, but the small steps. The small steps are the ones that open up the space.
For my particular factor, we build electronic cables, harness assemblies, and wiring. Mistakes in this example would be that they cut a wire too short. They smash the connector when they print it. Not making a mistake is now I got to hide this part, I got to figure out how to cover it, or throw it away and steal somebody else’s. They’ve just made a simple mistake.
I dealt with trying to make them understand that, “You made a mistake. You either had the wrong tool, didn’t have the right training, or the part wasn’t the right part. There’s an underlying issue as to why you made the mistake.” If you say, “I made the mistake,” we can learn and improve the process. Your buddy down the line won’t make the mistake because we all learn together.
Don’t hide things. Let’s bring them all out and everybody learns. It took a while to shift that culture. Any issue, they immediately, “We got this going on, how do we fix it?” That’s anecdotal, but it saves money and time in the long run for an organization because you’re not chasing down new parts. You’re not wasting time with rework. Something that simple made a big difference.
It makes me think of my son. He was telling me about something that he did, this little thing. He knew it wasn’t right, like throwing something at one of his friends. He has this heightened awareness. He needs to talk about every single thing that he does that he feels it’s not right. He talks about telling the principal about it. He said, “I don’t even know why I went and told the principal about that thing. It’s not even a big deal. I told her because I wanted to be fair and right.”
I said, “What was the response?” At first, he said, “I saw this almost upset face. That scared me. I didn’t want to say anything to her anymore because that’s how she responded, but then something happened at the moment, and then it’s almost like she moved her head and then came back to me and she said, ‘It’s okay. We all make mistakes.’” That changed right there. He said, “In those three minutes, there were two different responses in a way. Maybe it was my fear because I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to tell or not tell.”
I bring this up. It’s such a human thing this fear. It’s our own fears and how we learn to discern in that space, but also how important are not just our choices, but the spaces and cultures we’re in. You can try all day to tell what’s right and what’s fair. If there is not a space like Ryan’s created for his team to honor and to make space for people to say that this is what happens, it’s a garden that does not have the proper moisture or the temperature and all of that. Things grow in the wrong places and then we have a messy garden. I wonder, Mike, if you have any stories.
I do. I’m going to loop Bonnie in on this one because she’s the reason for this one. I’m going to start out by making a reference to my supervisor. I was only in one day. I was in Tuesday, so a short eight-hour clip. So much stuff in the shop went wrong during those eight hours. I came to him and I said, “Boss, I’m sorry. I messed up on that one. I failed.” He then looked at me and said, “You know what I say about failure.” I said, “Yeah, it’s the first attempt at learning.” That’s how he describes it. This is where I loop Bonnie in. This is the same supervisor that months ago, I and Bonnie were having coaching sessions over about how we interacted and how things were going all down this path.
I have no idea to this day what shifted in one conversation with Bonnie. Between the first and the second check-in, it was a complete non-issue, a 180, the other direction. I don’t know that anything changed other than my perception. We go into a lot of things thinking this is the way it’s going to be. We’re manifesting that incident and dropping all that. We did a visualization exercise where I kept stepping back. I realized that the shift in stepping back was getting us both at a distance and a space.
We were no longer like two magnets with opposite poles shoving together, trying to force it. We got back to a place where we were comfortable working and learning about each other. We then gravitated back together as we probably should have in the beginning but there were certain things that didn’t align. Visually stepping back from him in that exercise allowed me to put him on my same level so I could better understand him, he could better understand me, and we could learn how to interact with each other. Now, it couldn’t be any further. We’re sitting around and I’ve got that ability now to say, “Boss, I failed. I apologize.”
He’s like, “You didn’t fail. You missed the first chance to do it right, but you’re going to learn from that.” It’s such a different environment that now learning can happen. Growth can happen. In that other environment, nothing positive could happen. We’re the same two people in the same two situations and the same two offices. What has changed?
That’s my story about how things, whether it be in work or in life. I can’t look at a body of water anymore with the same eyes that I did before coaching. My retirement plan has changed, thanks to some of the visualizations. I now know where I want to be in life at the end of it. Before, it was like looking through a foggy window, taking your hand, and wiping it off. I can see the picture on the other side now. That’s what it was like.
I remember that day clearly. I remember us doing that exercise at the tail end of our session. We had a session after that. As I was coming in, getting ready, and looking at my notes for the session after that. I was wondering, “There’s going to be some different interactions. We’ll see how that went and everything.” Michael comes onto the Zoom and he is serenely smiling.
I say, “How are you? What are we going to work on this session?” He says, “I’m 100% good.” That was such a huge shift. First, we do have to imagine it. It comes back to everything we’ve been talking about. Even being curious and open to, “Maybe I can see this person from another perspective.: This brings up something that both of you gentlemen have talked about.
After I see that image, which is the blueprint, I have to manifest that tangibly so I can learn, “There’s a new perspective here,” but then I have to put it in place. I have to respond to that supervisor differently, or as Ryan has done, I have to be with the team and say, “That’s okay. Let’s talk about it. Let’s figure it out.” I call it the two steps of dreaming. Both of you have a dream. You receive some new perspective. The second step is to tangibly enact it and put it in place. That takes a lot of courage to do that and channeling that willpower to do it. Do either of you want to jump in on that?
I’d like to say something because this entire e-Co program that you guys have put together masterfully sometimes confuses me because you have assembled the dream team of people that support us in what we do. Every person I have had an interaction with in this program has left a substantial impact on how I now do my business.
You’re talking about people who have probably never stepped foot in prison and have now changed and shifted the way I interact in prison on a daily basis. That is huge. From our first time together, Ina, the insights that you’ve done and been so masterful in coordinating all of this. Bonnie, the vision is huge. It speaks to me. I cannot wait to continue the work because I believe it is powerful.
I no longer fear my dreams. I no longer have the same repetitive dreams. You have no idea how it is to go to sleep every night after working in a prison and dream about being in a prison every night to the point where you can’t even write them down. I no longer fear that. To Beth and how she broke down the wall. I didn’t see her bring a sledgehammer in, but she broke down a wall in a matter of seconds.
To Paris, who is this amazingly understanding and supportive person. As a coach, Chrystal was pivotal this time for me. Chrystal was this amazing guiding person, even I had gotten to some lows during the coaching certification process. If you’re searching and looking deep, you’re going to hit some lows and doubt some of your abilities. She knew when and where and how to pick me up. It wasn’t gentle. It didn’t have to be cuddling and making you feel like your ego, “You’re okay. You’re good.” She told me the tough truth and the encouraging stuff when I needed it. It was appropriately placed every time.
If you’re really searching and looking deep, you’re going to hit some lows and doubt some of your abilities.
Roz and her spunk and her spirit are amazing working with us in our groups. Roz was our coach when I and Ryan did the facilitator’s group. Still to this day, that is the most effective group. That’s tough to say, considering this journey I’ve been on. For our organization, when we sat down with our facilitator’s group and Roz, we discussed things that were impactful to our agency and our business that I would like to see grow and develop.
That’s a great point because I’d love to hear Ryan also bit about how this work, and I know Michael has done a bit more coaching work with the program, but you did significant work as a leader with coaching and then you stepped into the facilitation for peer coaching. I’m curious, what’s moving you now in your own growth and development? What vision are you holding for your own team and for the organization?
I will agree with Michael on everything he said about Chrystal because she was my first go-around with the coaching. He’s spot-on with what he said. In that timeframe in my life, I’m struggling with some things. It put things in perspective and was selfishly more about me. I’m happy and thankful that I got to go a second round.
My experience with Bonnie was more, “How do I help people based on my perceptions and the techniques and how I can learn?” I got to work on myself and then work on me working on other people. In my role here as a leader, I love now that I know how to use these open-ended questions because it honestly saves a lot of time. If you’re trying to get information out of somebody, knowing how to ask the right question to get to the bottom of an issue helps or to be able to ask the right question to help them get to the bottom of the issue.
Either way, things are getting resolved in a much more efficient manner. Even with other personnel issues, I was being the environment that it is. Sometimes the staff is just as bad as inmates. I hate to say that, but we admit it. I had an issue with one of our staff that thought that everybody else was out to get him, nobody respected him, but he wouldn’t bring that out to the whole group. He says something about one person or that person or this person. I had decided early on that before we get our workers for the day, we all sit down for fifteen minutes every day. Whether it’s work-related, whether it’s not work-related, for those fifteen minutes, we all get together and talk.
I used that opportunity. He happened to be the last one on that day. He sat down and I said, “Here’s what we’re doing.” I whipped out the little coach format and I explained the process, “This is what we’re going to do. You’re the case giver. Tell us all about it.” In fact, no one knew that the issue was them. Everybody got their turn to hear it and reflect. The person, the case giver was a little resistant. I feel like that was fear. Change is happening. It’s not how I perceive it. Now I’m going to say nothing’s going to change. Two days later, it all changed. It soaked in and everybody started working better again.
I got to see it work in a real-world scenario. It went much better than I thought because I thought, “This is going to go off the rails fast with this throughout.” Everybody participated and took it seriously. I was shocked. Now my whole team has firsthand experience staff-wise with what the process is. Now they know it might come out again, but it worked. Everybody saw it work. Moving beyond that into the organization, we all realized that no matter what factory business group, we all have a lot of similar issues. I would love to be on that team to figure out how to make it better for everybody.
It’s amazing how opening up a little space and because the process that you guys went through in the case clinic is an example, but the foundation is space, a good intention, putting the question out, and holding the space to see perspective. It took a couple of days for people to sit with it and sink, but I feel that the intention and setting up the space and holding the space is critical. The one leader can move the needle in many ways, but then you need the followers, the whole leader-followership. The following comes with that presence, connection, and that clear intention. Bonnie, did you have any thoughts?
I have an image that is coming to me when I’m listening to you gentlemen talk about your work and these organizations. The image is that you guys are each such bright lights like a candle that’s illuminating and sparking the inner light of all these people that you’re working with. That’s powerful. It continues to shine out and spark the light of so many others. That’s a potent image that has been coming to me while listening to you all. It’s an interesting image for me because Ina and I speak to a lot of people who have, as a question, “How do we shift organizations?” Here is an image of how to do that.
It’s crazy because as I was sitting here writing down my thoughts, I put a statement in almost identical. It was a thank you to you, Ina, Beth, Chrystal, Paris, Roz, and Will for being the lighthouse in the dark, for being that guiding light. As you see us for our organization, we have seen you over this timeframe, being that guiding light, keeping us off the rocks, and guiding us safely to where we need to be. It was a good scenario. More importantly than that, Bonnie, when you talk about that space, and it is, I learned that through my case work this time as a person trying to generate that space and hold that space for my client. It is sometimes difficult, but it is critical. As we sit around as a group of correctional officers or law enforcement officers, we don’t like to feel silly.
We’re authoritative. We don’t like to sit around and feel silly. When you sit there and talk about what images come up, I don’t care if it’s a sparkly unicorn or a rose petal or whatever, those are not things that come up in our day to day. As you guys held that space for us initially, and somehow, oddly enough, the only people that make law enforcement officers feel safe are other law enforcement officers, but you guys did it. Somewhere in that, however you created that space and you held that space for us to where we opened up and started sharing, I promise you, if that space were not held and were not respected, this growth would not have occurred.
Credits to everybody that had anything to do with that. Credit to the coaches that continued to work with us and continued to create that space and made us feel safe when we are naturally paranoid creatures. That is the main pillar for me, creating that space and having that trust. It’s everything. I’ve poured myself into as a coach to be able to practice where I’m practicing within a prison. I know nobody’s going to talk when they feel like others may find out about their weaknesses or their vulnerabilities. That space, that confidentiality, and that trust are so much more important within the walls of the prison.
To build on what Michael’s saying there, we’re paranoid. We trust no one. We have a dark, twisted sense of humor. If you have feelings, you’re laughed at. All of those are contradictory to this whole coaching process. The space has to be there or it won’t happen. Learning how to hold the space, because you showed us how to hold the space was a big deal to help change.
We’re close to the closing here, but I have to ask one more last-minute question. That image that Bonnie had of the candle, the light shining, and then opening up the space, and we talked about holding space. My question is, how are you holding space for your own light? How are you doing that with your own self to keep your own light shining and moving?
Personally, it has been seeing the change or the help, how other people are affected. Seeing them become more positive has helped me stay positive and be more positive oddly like a reward almost, oddly enough. That sounds selfish. Seeing others get help and feel better and work better makes you feel good. Instead of me being closed off and closed-minded and I’m doing my thing and you need to do your thing or I’ll write you up, that’s not merely as productive in that way. Seeing my shift and then seeing their shift, it builds. That’s what motivated me.
For me, I have a better understanding of what I need around me to facilitate light to shine. I understand that if the environment immediately around me or even within me is not appropriate, the light will not admit. My candle will not stay bright and it will dwindle and die. I need that oxygen and spark. I need something to keep that wick lit. I continue to work on myself and the immediate area around me. With the greenhouse, you have to have the right temperature, moisture, seeds, and soil. I’m nurturing myself to be able to hold space for others without invading that space.
I have no problem modeling the way and showing people it’s okay to be vulnerable, admit failure, and admit fear. Once we get those limiting factors, once we lay those walls down, there’s a whole world of growth out there. What I’m focusing on is within our walls. Prison is walls, fences, and gates. It’s everything that tells you where you can’t expand beyond, but mentally, emotionally, and growth-wise, those walls don’t exist in getting people to realize that even though your physical being may not be able to leave this facility, your mental being can. It’s an interesting thing, but it starts right here. I continue to work on myself and I continue to improve myself so that I can build a brighter flame to guide others.
We are beyond the physical walls. That’s a beautiful way to maybe even think as we go in our own lives and to think about what are those physical boundaries or other boundaries that we’ve artificially created and how can we move and go beyond that. Bonnie, any last thoughts?
Again, that idea of there’s something outside of those walls. It’s being curious and finding that other perspective. It’s a nice way to bring this conversation full circle.
Look beyond the walls.
Thank you, Ryan and Mike, very much for this conversation. We look forward to continuing. I wish that you keep that light going in your organization and for yourself. Thank you.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you.
Important Links
About Michael Paxton
Michael began his career in corrections in 1998 at the William G. McConnell unit in Beeville, Texas with the Texas Department of Corrections as an officer. In the summer of 2003, he made the move to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and began work at the Federal Correctional Complex in Forrest City Arkansas. He then transferred to FCI Bastrop in January 2005. His journey with the program, known as UNICOR (FPI), began in January of 2008 at the Bastrop vehicular upfit factory as Lead automotive supervisor. In July of 2018, he took over as Factory Manager for FCI Bastrop vehicular plant. Their and main focus is training Federal inmates in a skilled trade in the automotive industry while supporting the Department of Homeland Security. They have since produced as many as 3200 units in a single year, as well as certified over 1000 inmates in one or more of their 8 certification programs. As a program, they are 85% successful in reducing recidivism. These training initiatives have been the backbone of the Bastrop vehicular plant for over 10 years. He was introduced to the coaching world three years ago as a pilot program between FPI and GWU. He participated in every opportunity that was offered. He had the benefit of several learning experiences during his career, including Green Belt LSS certification, Accenture manufacturing academy, and now, certification as a Leadership Coach with GWU. Coaching has been a life-changing experience for Michael, and he hopes it will be for you too.
Michael’s goals revolve around finding out how Coaching fits in the Correction/ Law Enforcement world. There are many possibilities out there and he can’t wait to see some realized!
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
About Ryan Humphreys
Ryan Humphreys is currently the Factory Manager at UNICOR Federal Prison Industries at USP Marion located in Marion IL. Prior to becoming the Factory Manager Ryan worked as an Electrical Equipment Worker Supervisor with UNICOR Federal Prison Industries at USP Marion, Marion, IL starting 2011 and ending in 2020.
Before working at UNICOR, Ryan was employed at AISIN Electronics located in Marion IL producing electronic controllers for automobiles. He was in the position of Production Engineer from 2005-2009 and Maintenance Supervisor from 2009 to 2011. In 2005 Ryan worked as a Maintenance Setup Technician at Technicolor Universal Multimedia Pinckneyville IL manufacturing CD and DVD.
Ryan served 5 years (1997-2001) in the US Navy as an Information Systems Technician
Ryan has obtained a Bachelor of Science Electronic Systems Technician – from Southern Illinois University Carbondale IL, along with other training and certifications such as Leadership Coaching Practice and Peer Coach Facilitator at George Washington University.