I have been incarcerated for the better part of fifteen years. I am currently working for the Home Town Hero Project at the Whetstone Unit in the Tucson Complex. I started out as a sales representative where I made cold calls and asked businesses to sponsor and advertise on our program to help veterans. I took the opportunity seriously and I applied myself. I was like a sponge, learning everything I possibly could. The hard work paid off; within my first year I became a trainer where I had the responsibility of training and helping the existing and newly hired agents.

My name is Michael Kona and to me ACI means an opportunity to do something positive with my time and be a productive part of the inmate population. Everything to do with the job, whether it be, getting up every day for work, doing my job to the best of my ability, and being held accountable for my actions have taught me a sense of purpose, responsibility, and ethics.

ACI Hometown Here Project has been a huge stepping stone and also a big learning experience for me. Starting from never having any telemarketing experience to finding a skill inside me that I never thought existed. Hometown Hero Project means a lot to me considering I am a father of a beautiful five-year old daughter who will need me back in her life and have to work every day to provide for her. This job is keeping me proactive mentally and physically from waking up Monday through Friday from 0400 to 1530.

I am a convicted felon, former drug addict, and halfway through a ten year prison sentence. Before my incarceration, I was a loving father and a proud veteran of the United States Navy- where honor, loyalty and pride had genuine meaning. Through addition and poor choices, I lost my self-worth. When I arrived to prison, I was lost and hopeless. For several years, my days were long and meaningless. Then I was blessed with the privilege of working for ACI. I have been working for the Hometown Hero Project for a year and it has been the most rewarding time I have spent in recent years.

This is my second term in prison, and I am currently serving a six-year sentence. I have been working for ACI Home Town Hero for seventeen months. My first time in prison I did not have an opportunity like this. I wish I had, for I may not have come back.