Sometimes purpose is born in the places where opportunity seems least likely to exist.
For Crookd Crown Publishing, books are only part of the story.
What began as a way to put ideas, experiences and lessons into print has grown into something much larger: a platform for incarcerated voices, personal development, rehabilitation, peer leadership, community engagement and creating bridges between people inside prison and the communities beyond its walls.
At the center of much of that work is author and program creator Brandon D. Cox, who has spent years demonstrating a simple but important principle:
Your circumstances may limit where you are, but they do not have to determine who you become or what you contribute.
That belief has helped produce books, programs, mentorship, partnerships and conversations that now reach far beyond the walls of Minnesota Correctional Facility–Stillwater.
Publishing With a Purpose
Crookd Crown Publishing believes stories can do more than entertain.
They can educate.
They can challenge assumptions.
They can create conversations between people who might otherwise never meet.
And they can carry someone's voice into places that person may not be physically able to enter.
That is especially important when publishing the experiences of incarcerated people.
Men living inside prison are frequently discussed in conversations about criminal justice reform, rehabilitation, prison safety, reentry, education and public policy. Yet the people actually living within those systems do not always have an opportunity to participate meaningfully in those conversations.
Publishing creates another possibility.
Some of us cannot physically enter the rooms where important decisions are being made. Our stories can.
That idea has become central to the mission of Crookd Crown Publishing.
From Books to Something Bigger
Brandon's first books focused heavily on entrepreneurship, mindset, accountability and overcoming adversity.
Hustle Reimagined: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Beating the Odds explored how entrepreneurial principles can be applied even when circumstances are difficult. The book later received a Readers' Favorite Bronze Medal.
The 8 Laws of Hustle: The New Psychology of Self-Made Success expanded that conversation into psychology, discipline, accountability, personal development and the internal work required to create change.
But eventually, the work moved beyond Brandon's individual experience.
Together with Jermaine F. Ferguson, Brandon co-authored It Just Works: Real Stories & Behavioral Science From the Earned Living Unit.
The book documents experiences from men living inside the Earned Living Unit (ELU) at MCF-Stillwater and connects those experiences with behavioral science.
Approximately 300 men have participated in or lived within the ELU environment.
Instead of talking about rehabilitation only as an abstract concept, It Just Works asks people to look at what happens when incarcerated men are given opportunities to practice accountability, peer leadership, personal growth and community.
The names of Brandon and Jermaine may be on the cover.
The stories of the men are why the book matters.
When the Work Leaves the Page
One of the most important developments in Brandon's journey has been seeing ideas move from books into actual programming.
That includes the creation of RESET™ — Rebuilding Emotional Skills Through Effective Thinking, a peer-led program developed inside the Earned Living Unit.
RESET focuses on areas such as emotional regulation, communication, conflict resolution, accountability, relationships, identity, decision-making and breaking unhealthy behavioral patterns.
That distinction matters.
Writing about change is one thing.
Creating an environment where people can sit together, have difficult conversations, examine their behavior, practice new skills and hold one another accountable is something else entirely.
It demonstrates what can happen when lived experience is not treated merely as someone's past, but as knowledge that can be transformed into something useful for others.
The same person who has experienced poor decisions, conflict, loss or incarceration can eventually help another person avoid repeating those patterns.
That is one of the most important ideas behind the work:
Growth becomes even more powerful when it becomes something you can give away.
Building Bridges Beyond Prison Walls
Crookd Crown Publishing has also become a bridge.
On one side are incarcerated men with experiences, ideas, accomplishments and perspectives that rarely reach the general public.
On the other are families, educators, community organizations, journalists, policymakers, corrections professionals, advocates and young people who can learn from those experiences.
Books help connect the two.
So do conversations.
So do community events, media opportunities, partnerships and programs.
Through It Just Works and Crookd Crown Publishing, experiences from inside MCF-Stillwater's Earned Living Unit are beginning to reach audiences outside the prison system.
That reach is important because rehabilitation should not exist in isolation.
The lessons learned inside prison can contribute to conversations about violence prevention, youth development, emotional intelligence, fatherhood, mentorship, accountability, community safety and successful reentry.
The walls may separate communities physically.
They do not have to prevent those communities from learning from one another.
Showing Young People That Circumstances Are Not Destiny
There is another audience we believe this work matters deeply for: young people.
Youth do not only need to hear stories about success after everything goes right.
Sometimes they need examples of what is possible after things have gone terribly wrong.
They need to see that a bad decision does not have to become an excuse for another bad decision.
That accountability does not require giving up on yourself.
That education can begin again.
That creativity can survive difficult environments.
That leadership can develop in unexpected places.
And that circumstances do not have to become identity.
This does not mean minimizing consequences or romanticizing incarceration.
It means demonstrating what people can choose to do with the circumstances they are facing today.
Brandon cannot change the decisions that brought him to prison.
He can decide what he does with the years that followed.
Books can be written.
Programs can be created.
People can be mentored.
Relationships can be repaired.
Communities can be served.
Ideas can travel beyond walls.
And perhaps a young person who encounters that story will understand something earlier in life that someone else had to learn much later:
Where you are today does not have to be where your story ends.
Creating a Different Kind of Legacy
This is where Crookd Crown Publishing's definition of success continues to evolve.
Success is not simply how many books are sold.
It is what those books allow us to build.
Can a book create a conversation?
Can someone's story challenge a stereotype?
Can something learned through incarceration help prevent another young person from experiencing it?
Can an idea written inside prison influence a program outside of it?
Can people who may never meet one another still learn from each other?
Can publishing create opportunities for people whose voices are often absent from important conversations?
We believe those questions are worth pursuing.
That is also why giving back has become part of the publishing model.
Net proceeds from Hustle Reimagined and The 8 Laws of Hustle are pledged to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, while net proceeds from It Just Works are divided between supporting Boys & Girls Clubs and initiatives within the Earned Living Unit.
The goal is to create a cycle:
Experience becomes knowledge.
Knowledge becomes a book.
A book creates opportunity.
Opportunity creates impact.
Impact is reinvested into others.
More Than the Circumstances Around You
There will always be circumstances we cannot immediately change.
A prison sentence is an extreme example, but the larger lesson applies far beyond incarceration.
People encounter poverty, failure, rejection, trauma, limited opportunities, broken relationships and consequences from past decisions.
Those realities matter.
But growth begins with another question:
What can I still build from here?
Crookd Crown Publishing exists partly because that question continued to be asked.
The answer became books.
Then programs.
Then mentorship.
Then partnerships.
Then community involvement.
Then opportunities for incarcerated voices to participate in conversations outside prison.
And the work continues.
We want young people to see it.
We want communities to see it.
We want people inside prison to see it.
And we want decision-makers to see it.
Because rehabilitation is not simply something people talk about.
Sometimes you can watch it happening.
Sometimes you can measure its impact.
Sometimes you can read its stories.
And sometimes, when people are willing to build a bridge across circumstances that normally keep us separated, those stories can travel farther than the people who wrote them ever could.
Real People. Real Stories. Real Change.
Crookd Crown Publishing — Books With Purpose.