The Mishap

Although Eric was doing good in some areas while on the reprieve, he was not doing so good in other areas. This finally came to light about seven months later when he once again made some very dumb decisions. As Eric himself so aptly put it, “Education is no remedy for stupidity.” Stupidity, along with a weak aftercare plan for Eric’s supervision, made it easy for him to ruin the opportunity of a life time.

In April of 1993, Eric came home to Douglasville, GA from school in South Carolina for Spring Break. He still possessed a weakness for alcohol and acceptance. He went out drinking with some old buddies and during the course of the evening, in an attempt to be cool and to be accepted, possessed a pistol belonging to the dad of one of the other boys he was with. He was arrested two days later at his court service worker’s office, who had been assigned to manage his case while he was on the reprieve. Eric was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and carrying a gun without a license. As he states in his autobiography, “The car ride to the county jail was a short one, but it was the beginning of a very long road that I would travel in the system. I would not see freedom again for decades.”

Less than a month after Eric’s arrest, his reprieve was rescinded by the parole board and he was transferred to prison. He was given accommodations in one of the most violent prisons at the time in the state of Georgia—the infamous “Alto.” He went from a prep school to a prison cell; he didn’t want a scholastic education so the state of Georgia was going to give him a prison one!