A man who spent time in prison due to substance abuse issues has revealed six habits he still maintains from his incarceration.
Derrick Moore, from Alaska, USA, is a motivational speaker and recovering drug addict who has maintained sobriety for four years. He has written a book titled ‘7 Steps From Addiction to Sobriety’ and shares his journey on social media under the username Hardaway Learning.
Derrick spent 14 years “in and out of prison” as a result of his drug addiction, which began after he lost all his athletic scholarships at 18 and developed alcoholism. Despite having served his sentence, there are six prison habits he continues to practice, which he shared in a TikTok video.
The habits he mentioned include kneeling down to urinate, allowing only one person in the kitchen at a time, rolling his socks and underwear, taking a midday nap, eating quickly, and being addicted to caffeine.
Derrick elaborated that he kneels to pee and aims to the side of the bowl to avoid “urine splashing everywhere.” He also explained the rationale behind ‘one person in the kitchen at a time’.
He added: “Your prison cell is your kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom. Only 8×12 square feet. It’s not big enough for multiple people to hang out in it all the time. If your celly (cellmate) is using the room to cook, use the bathroom, chill, read etc. It’s common courtesy for you to allow him to occupy the room solo.”
Also, he shared that in prison there are laundry inmates you can pay to do your laundry. He learnt from one of them to “make sure you squeeze the elastic so it doesn’t get stretched out.”
He then disclosed: “Count is at 4pm every single day across the United States. Perfect time for a power nap.”
Count is when inmates are required to return to their cells to be counted by the guards. This ensures the number of inmates matches how many there should be on recoed.
Derrick also explained his quick eating habits, saying: “There is limited seating in the chow hall and everyone in the prison goes there to eat. Everyone from your ‘car’ shared two tables with four seats. To let everyone have their chance to eat, I ate fast.”
He would let others know he had finished eating by ‘knocking on the table’, courteously allowing others to take his spot.
Then delving into his ‘caffeine addiction’, Derrick admitted: “I never drank coffee in my life until I got to jail and prison. A lot of other people in prison are addicted to coffee as well because it’s a stimulant.”
The viral video has racked up six million views, garnered 107,000 likes and an avalanche of comments. The top comment suggests Derrick should abandon these habits: “I think you should forget these habits. Your thoughts can be your reality.”
But Derrick confidently responded: “These are not bad habits. You should actually develop them, get some structure.”
And one responder backed him up. They added: “All the people saying ‘Get outta the mindset, you’re not in there any more’ don’t get it. Usually someone who commits a crime has an imbalance in some sort of way.”
“So when you get sent to prison it takes away all the responsibilities of life outside and gives you a structured day so you can learn yourself and correct the imbalance. Obviously a lot of people hate the thought of being locked away but it teaches valuable life skills. All of these show that prison helped him to better understand how to respect another humans.”
