Ernesto Rodriguez, a summary

Summary by Jeff Poff
Kissinger, Meg. "Ex-Convict Lauded for Making a New Life." Milwaukee Journal,
9 April 1984.
From the age of only 14 years old Ernesto Rodriguez was already a lost soul who
could've very easily died in prison a lonely and bitter man, but instead, he chose to tum
his life around and made liars out of everyone who had ever doubted him.
Back in the early seventies, while doing time at Waupun Correctional in Waupun, WI,
Mr. Rodriguez found him self in solitary confiment; where he stated that out of all the
prisons he had ever been in since he first started doing time at the age of 14 W.C.I, was
the worst of the worst.
The mental anguish and the physical conditions that Mr. Rodriguez had to endure while
in solitary confinement were what literally made him turn his life around. Rodriguez was
quoted as saying, "I saw Inmates chained and beaten and made lie in their own waste".
But instead of continuing to resort to violence and possibly dying in prison, he decided to turn his enemies into chess pawns by joking around with them and played on their weaknesses. When Mr. Rodriguez finally made it out, he decided to use his talents that he had learned while in prison and went to work at the Benedict Center in Milwaukee where he said that he learned to analyze things more thoughtfully.
He then met a beautiful woman named Penny who worked at the center as a staff member and later became his wife. This is a perfect example that people can change even when it sometimes seems impossible to do so or when all odds are against you.