Martin Lockett
Benefitting Pear Mentor
After serving 17 ½ years in prison for drunk driving and manslaughter, 42 year-old Martin Lockett is now a free man, stepping into a very different world than the one he left (what’s a macbook?). He emerged from prison with a graduate degree, two published books, and a certification as a substance abuse counselor…ready to continue sharing his story and keeping his promise to his victims to do whatever it takes to prevent others from following in his footsteps.
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In this episode, You’ll learn:
How to identify the origin your pain and suffering is rooted in.
The role and impact alcohol can have at a young age.
The importance of finding an outlet for your creativity.
Navigating your identity, belonging, and finding your place in the world.
Learning the repercussions of our decisions and the lives that can be severely impacted.
The willingness to change and embark on a purposeful path, regardless of what that may look like.
The reality that humanity and goodness does reside behind bars.
The importance of visualizing your future self and how powerful that can be.
The power of story, restorative justice and people coming together.
The importance of forgiveness.
Wise Words
When I was going to Cub Scout meetings and things like that, [00:06:00] they would always take place in a middle class white neighborhood, which was staunchly different from the way that I grew up. Literally 15 minutes away it was a completely new world. It was manicured lawns, there was no trash on the street, everything was clean and fresh. It was just vastly different from the neighborhood that I grew up in. This kind of embedded in my 10 or 11-year-old brain that all white people must live like this and all black people live the way that I live, and why is that the case.
I’m looking out the window, and I’m kind of staring off into space and contemplating my life at 15 and 16 years old and thinking, “This is all that’s ever going to be for me. I’m going to be confined to the ghetto. I am going to work a dead end job. I’m not going to have what I see other people have.” At that point, the pain became so unbearable for me that I just drank.
I literally drank and drove for the last 19 months every day. There was not a single day where I didn’t drink and drive, as scary as that sounds.
Here’s how vain and superficial I was. When I got out of my vehicle, I didn’t go check on the car that I had just hit or the people and how they were doing. I immediately began to assess the damage on my car.
So, I’m talking to the police officer. He’s asking me had I been drinking, how much, where was I coming from, things like that. I was very coherent. I was very lucid. I knew exactly what was going on. He informs me about two or three minutes into that interview that the person who had been lying on the pavement had perished. At that point, I am promptly placed under arrest, and I’m put into the back of the cruiser, and we head for downtown for processing. I drive past my parents’ block, and I knew that I would not see that house again for about 20 years.
I’m reluctant to say accident, so I purposely say crash because when you make the decision to get behind the wheel after you have been drinking and driving, it’s no longer a total accident at that point.
It was what came at the very end of the article that actually changed my life forever. I’ll never forget the quote. The columnist ended the article by saying, “Perhaps the person they will have ended up helping the most is the man who is charged with killing them.”
I took two beautiful, amazing people who were doing tremendous work away, I took them away forever. That simply is not adequate enough for me to do 17-and-a-half years in prison, so that’s merely the down payment. This is a lifelong bank account, if you will, that I will be making deposits in to atone for what I’ve done, because that’s what society deserves.
I just wish more people could see the humanity and just the goodness that resides behind bars.
You’re pulled in many different directions when you have no sense of direction. When you don’t have a blueprint by which to follow, you’re subject to following anybody’s blueprint for your life, and that’s very dangerous. But when you figure it out and you thrust everything you have into that direction and that aim, you’re probably going to surprise yourself how much you can accomplish and what you can do.
The dream is to share my story and do everything I possibly can to honor my victims’ lives by warning people of the dangers of drinking and driving. But not just the dangers of drinking and driving, but the ways in which we can delude ourselves into thinking that we can have a few drinks and get behind the wheel of a car and be okay, because so many people do it.
Honestly, I wouldn’t wish prison on my worst enemy, but the perspective it has given me and the sheer appreciation for the simplicities of life is unparalleled.
No matter how bleak or insurmountable the circumstances may appear that you are currently in, all hope is not lost.
Take time out every day to appreciate what you do have.
LINKS
Website: www.martinlockett.com
Instagram: @martinllockett
Books:
Prison to Purpose Pipeline: How one sentence led to a life of service
My Prison Life: A Blogger’s Insight from the InsideCharity Donation: Pear Mentor