Five Years of Bad Coffee: A White-Collar Criminal Does Blue-Collar Time

By Nelson Christensen

Prison is in many ways not as bad as one expects, and in some ways it is worse. It was different for me, as a white 58-year-old professional with no prior record, than it was for many of my younger fellow inmates. In a strictly physical sense, prison is generally not dangerous or brutal. You can safely 'drop the soap" (Just don't bend over to pick it up ) It's every middle-class American's worst nightmare. One day, author Nelson Christensen was a successful and respected attorney. The next, he is charged with fraud and embezzlement and is on his way to several years in prison.

Landing first in a tough and nasty high security prison, then in a remote forest labor camp, and finally herding cows on a prison farm, Christensen lives in close confinement and works with men of all races, most of them half his age. He is beat up twice by fellow inmates for comments he makes from his smart-ass lawyer's mouth. After resolving to do 'good time," Christensen decides to make the best of his situation. He works hundreds of hours with significant success in preparing appeals and petitions for his fellow prisoners. He also writes songs and poems about his experience and is a popular entertainer among his peers and the staff.

Five Years of Bad Coffee is an upbeat, inspiring story about a man who resolves to face the punishment for his crimes and, in the end, comes out a better person from the experience.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595373267
• ISBN13: 9780595373260
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Bad Coffee - Great Book!

This is the only book that I am aware of that actually tells the middle class American what it is like to serve time in prison. While that fear of the unknown lurks in the back of all our minds, Five Years of Bad Coffee takes us behind the curtain. It is well written, marvelously perceptive, often humorous, and just a very good read.

Ever wonder what's it like to go to prison?

Christensen is that rare criminal that's not white collar enough to do time in a country club prison but literate enough to write a good tale. Although I've never been inside a jail I suspect this book captures the nuance of the entire experience. He speaks with authority, humor and self awareness. I stumbled on Five Years by chance. It's good. Buy it and read it.