Having served nearly two decades behind bars, Marvin Simpson said he is ready for serious life changes. At 44, he believes returning to a criminal life "on the streets" is out of the question.
"There's a saying I heard: 'The streets ain't made for everybody. That's why they make sidewalks.' I'm on the sidewalk now. I bypass the streets," Simpson said. "On the sidewalk I'm safe, but once I venture off that curb into the streets, that's when it gets all bad for me. It's like I'm brainwashing myself. I'm not, but I killed that old 'Messy Marvin.' That's what they used to call me. I'm Marvin Simpson. Messy Marvin is dead and gone and he's never coming back."
Simpson moved to Alaska at 17 with his sister, her husband and their children. Things went well for a while. He got good jobs, he said.
He was 21 when he was first arrested for a serious crime, brandishing a gun. He spent time in prison for felony assault. Then he moved in and out of prison in the following years for probation violations and got a longer sentence for running from the police.
Once released, he settled in Anchorage and was doing well for a while. Then he started selling cocaine. In 2005, he was pulled over on the Old Seward Highway. He threw a bag of cocaine out the window. The bag was retrieved, which started an investigation ending in a 10-year sentence.
"The federal sentence woke me up. I was going to federal prison, where you deal with real-time criminals from drug dealers to white-collar guys," he said.