[two colored photographs of the author placed adjacent to one another. He is a balding gentleman in gray shirt, a printed photograph of the forest wilderness behind him in both photographs. Left photo is dated 2012, where he is kneeling and facing the camera with a smile. Right photo is dated 2023, where he is standing with his hands joined before him. His facial features are heavily shadowed in this photo.]

Hello. My name is Joseph Dickey. At the time of this submission, I am 55 years old and I have been incarcerated in a federal prison for the last 18 years. The story behind my incarceration is a very long story, which I want to keep separate from this blog.

If anyone is interested in the circumstances of my incarceration, I invite you to visit my website at GovMisconduct.com. There, you will find everything you ever wanted to know about me. I had a blog in the past and, looking back, I realized it spiraled down to where I was posting nothing but negative posts about how wrong I had been treated by the justice system. Who wants to hear that, or better yet, what purpose does that serve?

After my most recent birthday, I re-evaluated my life and became concerned at how I was becoming a very bitter person. This was not a very healthy situation for me or my family. Even though I am in a terrible situation, I still wanted my life to somehow make a difference.

I have decided to try to focus on the positive things I can find in this horrible situation and to post funny stories I have ran across in my stay here at this beautiful lake resort (a joke based on the background picture [see above]. They provide for us when we want to make a picture of ourselves).

In the last 18 years, I have ran across some of the most interesting/disturbing people on the face of the Earth. Based upon these encounters, I have learned a lot about the world we live in and most importantly about myself.

There once was a commercial that some of you may remember in which the catchphrase was: "You can learn a lot from a dummy." It was talking about crash test dummies they use in cars to gather data. By using the collected data from the tests, the manufacturers of automobiles learned how to make cars safer.

Well, my life has experienced a tremendous crash and, through all the tears and laughter, I have learned a lot. Who knows, perhaps someone else could learn something from this "dummy" and his crashed life.

Because of this, I decided to name my blog Wisdom from Prison. Because I want to share some of the stories with you which have taught me more about life and human beings than any degree I have ever received. I hope those of you reading this will enjoy the crazy stories and hopefully find something useful in the things I will share on here. If not, just something to make you laugh. Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.