Wallace was in prison before he ever got to prison, and AA was where he finally learned the difference between being locked up and being free.

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Wallace B. tells the story of growing up poor in North Carolina, feeling restless and apart from everyone around him, and discovering in his first drink the confidence and ease he had never known. What began as relief quickly became blackouts, arrests, lost jobs, broken marriages, violence, and finally a sentence of natural life plus 40 years in the North Carolina prison system. Inside prison, Wallace found that being physically locked up did not automatically make him sober, and after a desperate night brought him back to Alcoholics Anonymous with real willingness, he began to recover through the Big Book, sponsorship, Step Five, service, and carrying the message into correctional institutions.

Wallace B. from Sanford, NC speaking at the 49th Florida State Conference at the Wyndham Palace Resort in Orlando, FL - August 2005