Austin resident Deric Whaley published his first book, “The Ride,” last year. The story outlines his journey to and inside the Illinois penal system, highlighting his daily victories and losses, emotions and fantasies of freedom.
Now, Whaley is trying to get more traction with his book, especially among young people on the West Side.
“If I can motivate some teenagers that are possibly on the road to have the same circumstances … my book might be a deterrent or motivating factor for them to avoid those traps,” Whaley said. “I hope that the teenagers read the book and get the harsh realities of prison life.”
Whaley added that one of the main purposes of “The Ride” is to encourage young people to prioritize their education.
“It’s a tool to help incorporate education in a child’s mind and place that seed to want to learn, to read more and develop more,” he said.
But the book could also teach college students “the experience of somebody that was in captivity and address some social psychological issues in society,” Whaley said, teaching adults the same.
Whaley is networking with West Siders to see how he can get copies of “The Ride” into schools and local programs, possibly leading to speaking engagements where he can share his experience first-hand. He said he’s met with people who work with violence-prevention organizations and is hoping they’ll help him get a grant that will allow him to give away more free copies of “The Ride.”
Growing up on the West Side
In addition to exploring Whaley’s emotional response to the prison system, “The Ride” details what it was like for him growing up in North Lawndale, in a single-family home with a single mother.
“She told me about the struggles that she had growing up, and I also had a chance to experience the struggle that she went through as being a single parent.”
Whaley said he found himself wanting to be an overachiever. In high school, he took a scholastic test that allowed him to transfer to Westinghouse College Prep in Humboldt Park, which Whaley said was prestigious. But he missed his friends and transferred again to Harrison High School in South Lawndale, where he was exposed to drinking and drugs, then dropped out.
Recognizing his level of intelligence and the talent that he wanted to cultivate in himself, in 1978 Whaley enrolled in Job Corp trade school in Chicago to get his high school diploma, which he achieved in the 89th percentile of his class. But he was dismissed from Job Corp “as a result of me continuing to gravitate towards people that were engaged in negativity,” Whaley said.
“I realized my life was at a standstill,” he added. So, Whaley enrolled in Columbia College for radio broadcasting. There, he learned about television production, journalism and creative writing. “Those things excited me. They were intoxicating.”
“The focus of the writing was to make readers see, feel, touch and taste what they’re reading, and that’s what comes across in the book,” Whaley said. “I wanted readers to see, feel, taste and be able to emotionally touch” the prison experience.
But Whaley says, at that time, he was still engaged in negative activities and was arrested as a result.
“I became a victim of the crack epidemic, and I struggled with addiction,” Whaley said. He was sentenced to nine months at an Illinois Department of Corrections facility.
In “The Ride,” Whaley describes his experience getting on the bus to the penitentiary, where new adults joined him.
“I saw 18-year-old boys that had committed heinous crimes, and the sentences they got were life. The opportunity of returning to the city was obsolete. I could see the emotions that they were going through as they were making that transition away from a life that they would never see or experience again,” Whaley said. “They looked out the bus and tears rose to their eyes because, in their heart and in their mind, they’re experiencing the loss of something that can never be regained, which is freedom.”
“At that particular moment, what I was focused on was the sense of being incarcerated against your will, being forced to serve a sentence,” Whaley added of the bus ride to prison. “I was experiencing the same emotions that those individuals were experiencing, but theirs were more intense because I knew that someday down the road I would return to society.”
Whaley got out in less than a year.
In “The Ride,” Whaley writes: “My time was a piece of cake. It was cake, but it’s still hard to swallow. You’re disconnected from family, friends, and associates. The greatest gift in life is to be connected to the sources of family and friends you’ve developed during your existence on earth. And before you know it, it could be gone.”
Though much of “The Ride” centers on Whaley’s personal experience, he also covers bigger picture topics, like the role of the federal government in the 1980s crack epidemic throughout the country.
“In order to achieve their agenda, they did some scrupulous things to society at large,” Whaley said. “It’s been overlooked. I don’t know what needs to be done. It’s still happening across society with these drugs.”
But he says it’s not just drugs that young people should be wary of.
“Substance abuse and drug addiction is a major problem, but none of those addictions compare to the catastrophe that’s caused by alcoholism,” Whaley said. “Those are some of the issues that I discussed in my book too.”
Writing “The Ride”
Whaley started writing “The Ride” while he was in the penal system.
“It’s not a past-tense story. It’s a story that’s actually happening, it’s unfolding,” Whaley said.
When he got out of prison, Whaley moved to Austin.
According to 2019 research from the Safer Foundation, over 30% of people who go to an Illinois prison return to Chicago after completing their sentences. Nearly all of them live in six neighborhoods, including Austin, East Garfield Park and North Lawndale.
After serving time and with a disability, Whaley applied for Social Security benefits, which he’s been on since. He started networking with others who suffered from addiction “who are trying to put the pieces of their life back together,” Whaley said.
Whaley collected his musings from his time in prison and gave them to his sister to type up and put together. But she lost them. Five years later, Whaley’s sister found his copy, and Newman Springs Publishing of New Jersey published “The Ride.”
“That’s God,” Whaley said of his rediscovered story. “I got to stick with this and put it out there.” Whaley decided to share his story now because “This is a great story that needs to be told.”
Though Whaley said he hopes “The Ride” keeps young people out of the penal system, he also has advice for those who might want to publish their writing someday.
“Put pen to paper, stay connected and make time to write,” Whaley said. “My suggestion is to hold on to your dream and believe in love, and let love be the light to show the way.”
The Ride is available in paperback and digital version from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.