
Prison Journalism: My life works in 12sWesley Leong was incarcerated at the age of 15 in 1996 at Pollsmoor Prison. He is currently part of Restore's research and reintegration project.
by Wesley Leong
11-04-2024 13:58
in Prison Journalism
Prison
Image via pexels
Over my entire life, I have had so many ups and downs in the situations I find myself in, whether in my personal, private life. I made the discovery, realizing that there is a special type of numerology at play. Things ALWAYS take a turn for either the worse or the better.
--
12 Years Ago So, it's been 12 years since something really drastic happened to me. I won't mention too much in detail, but basically, it's 12 years on from then, so I am expecting something remarkable to happen this year, 2024! I know it will be something amazing, as I don't believe that life can throw me a curveball of the same degree twice. Something has to give.
My Personal Pledge I want to let you know that I will make a pledge that no matter what happens or transpires from this, I will change somebody's life around. Since the day I turned my life around, all I ever wanted to do was help another person establish the point of change in their life. It really is an out-of-this-world feeling, realizing the power that you possess and stepping out of the dark and into the light. THIS IS MY PROMISE!
Maybe The World Will Be A Better Place If the world's trillionaires or tycoons can sacrifice 1% of just one month's salary, did you know that the world can be a better place? Things like poverty and suffering will disappear; there will be nobody suffering, and certainly, I don't believe that there will be a huge influx of offenders.
--
I believe one day we will accomplish what we have set out to do or, at the least, started the ball rolling in that direction of change. Just like I believe that the youth will have accepted the knowledge and wisdom, not to follow just what they see in their lives and community. Gangsterism and violence should not be accepted as a choice of life.
My life walk so far has not been one of glory; however, it has been a life of learning how life works on both ends. I also had the blessing of changing my life from a life of crime and gangsterism to a life of good and part of a new perspective. A perspective that I believe will help others not to live the life I did.
DISCLAIMER: Submission published as received
--
Should you wish to assist in the rehabilitation of former inmates and help put money into the pockets of those who have struggled to earn a living during and after incarceration, click HERE
RESTORE is an NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa, providing inmates at Pollsmoor Prison with restorative justice opportunities.
If you have any questions you would like to ask our prison journalists, WhatsApp us on 060 011 0211.
Do you have contact with a prison inmate who would like to write for The South African website? If so, send an email to info@thesouthafrican.com or a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211.
You can also follow @TheSAnews on Twitter and The South African on Facebook to get the latest prison journalism articles.
Is jy Afrikaans? Kliek hier vir nuus in jou taal!
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
14/11/2025
Op-Ed: The Automation Imperative - Why AI Is the Only Scalable Defense Against L...
14/11/2025
FutureSPORT 2025: Caretta Research on why streaming won't save broadcasters By Jo Ruddock
Monday, November 10, 2025 - 14:37
Print This Story
Caretta R...
14/11/2025
Daneysse Daniels, Emmy-Winning Production Manager and Beloved Teammate at TNT Sp...
14/11/2025
The NBA 2K League Returns as an Immersive Entertainment Ecosystem' With Non...
14/11/2025
Inaugural SVG LIVE! Conference Brings 250 Top Sports and Entertainment Producti...
14/11/2025
(L-R) Suzette Quintanilla, Isabel Castro, and Chris P rez attend the 2025 Sundan...
14/11/2025
This week, Casa Spotify lit up Las Vegas with an unforgettable celebration of Latin music and culture ahead of the 26th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. Hosted at th...
14/11/2025
Boston Conservatory Orchestra to Perform at Carnegie Hall for United Nations Gen...
14/11/2025
Berklee Alum Lewis Pickett Wins Record of the Year at Latin Grammy Awards Pickett, a 2009 graduate, was nominated six times across three categories at this ye...
14/11/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. A group of about 20 TV technology vendors supporting NextGen TV are wrapping up their ATSC 3.0 Interop here at Heartland Video Services headquar...
14/11/2025
What if your idle operations centers, inactive cloud time, staff or you as a freelancer could start generating revenue tomorrow?
NECF Corporation today announc...
14/11/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, today announced that it has been recognized as a Major Player in the IDC MarketS...
14/11/2025
The recent ADAC RAVENOL 24h Race at Germany's legendary N rburgring circuit marked a milestone for live broadcast production, and Clear-Com played a pivota...
14/11/2025
Streaming tech companies M2A Media and Unified Streaming provided key software components that enabled the world's leading sports entertainment platform, DA...
14/11/2025
Lightware, an industry leader in signal management solutions, is strengthening its commitment to sustainability through a series of people-focused ESG (Environm...
14/11/2025
WASHINGTON As the federal government shut down comes to an end, the Federal Communications Commission has further extended some filing deadlines and issued some...
14/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. In the run-up to being spun off from Comcast, Versant has announced that USA Sports will be the new brand and division name for the company'...
14/11/2025
Friday 14 November 2025
Documentary short, Children No More, comes to Sky this December
Following its world premiere at DOC NYC yesterday, Sky today announces...
14/11/2025
Friday 14 November 2025
Sky to remain the home of Ryder Cup and DP World Tour through 2029
Sky and the DP World Tour have today announced a four-year partners...
14/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz redefines border security with comprehensive signals intelligenc...
14/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz, together with Samsung, first to validate 3GPP NR-NTN conformanc...
14/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Trailer of City of Shadows
Entertainment
14 November 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
PREMIERING ON NETFLIX ...
14/11/2025
Today's AI workloads are data-intensive, requiring more scalable and afforda...
14/11/2025
The Late Late Toy Show blasts off!
RT launches The Late Late Toy Show's of...
14/11/2025
Scripps Research study reveals how uterine contractions are regulated by stretch and pressure during childbirth Molecular insights could lead to improved labor ...
13/11/2025
Versant Announces USA Sports as New Brand for Sports PortfolioBy SVG Staff
Thursday, November 13, 2025 - 6:15 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highli...
13/11/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Mike Szlamowicz, Assistant Athletics Director, Sport an...
13/11/2025
REMI Realities: Finding Success in Switching, Replay, Graphics, Commentary, and ...
13/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: E1's Laurence Boyd Shares the Tech Challenges of the 2025 Race...
13/11/2025
Versant's USA Sports Inks Five-Year Rights Deal With New Pac-12 ConferencePac-12 Enterprises will produce all USA Network games in partnership with USA Spor...
13/11/2025
NBCU To Launch New NBC Sports Network on Nov. 17By SVG Staff
Thursday, November 13, 2025 - 10:40 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
NBCUniv...
13/11/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Glenn Adamo, Artist of StorytellingBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, November 13, 2025 - 11:29 am
Pri...
13/11/2025
(L-R) Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro, Stef Willen, Ryan White, Megan Falley, and A...
13/11/2025
By Roni Jo Draper
My father was born and raised in the Yurok village of Weitpus, in what is now considered Northern California. There at the fork of the Klamat...
13/11/2025
At Spotify, we're always working to help creators earn, grow, and connect wi...
13/11/2025
This year, Spotify has introduced even more ways for users to take control of their listening experience. Whether you're refreshing your Discover Weekly wit...
13/11/2025
Today, Spotify is beginning to roll out a powerful new feature designed to help listeners jump back into stories they've put down, whether it's after a ...
13/11/2025
NASA and L3Harris conducted a full-duration RS-25 hot fire test Nov. 12 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, ma...
13/11/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
13/11/2025
A groundbreaking new study by the BBC and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has found serious problems with news summaries generated by AI assistants....
13/11/2025
Luxembourg and Long Beach, CA, 12 November 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, announced today an extended multi-year, multi-launch services agreemen...
13/11/2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Field & Stream and Outdoor America have formed a strategic partnership to launch Field & Stream TV, rebranding Outdoor America's free ad-su...
13/11/2025
PHOENIX, Ariz. Silicondust has announced it is now an ATSC 3.0 Certificate Authority for NextGen TV and said that it is offering an Online Certificate Status Pr...
13/11/2025
NEW YORK Nielsen has announced that Peter Naylor, an ad sales executive who has worked at some of the largest media companies in the world, will be its first ch...
13/11/2025
PHILADELPHIA After more than 20 years at CBS Philadelphia and an award-winning career spanning nearly four decades, Jim Donovan, anchor of CBS News Philadelphia...
13/11/2025
BOSTON Frontline, PBS's investigative documentary series produced at GBH in Boston, has announced the newest class of partners for its Local Journalism Init...
13/11/2025
A groundbreaking new study by the BBC and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has found serious problems with news summaries generated by AI assistants....
13/11/2025
Back to All News
Made in Pennsylvania: How Netflix House Philadelphia Is Openin...
13/11/2025
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI On blog series, which explores the latest techniques and real-world applications of agentic AI, chatbots and copi...