Under Pressure

Rashawn Hughes is the father of two beautiful daughters. He was raised in both Lefrak City Queens and Uniondale Long Island. At the age of twenty-two, he was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison for a shooting in a street altercation where a man lost his life. While in prison Mr. Hughes has dedicated himself to being responsible, to showing that life once set on its course can change. He began honing his writing skills in 2000 after taking a brutally honest look at his life and situation. He wanted to create a way to keep the memory of his victim alive and do something that would make his family proud of him. So he decided to pen his first novel. Today Mr. Hughes lives with his regrets but now wants to give back to the situation from which he took so much. While in prison, Mr. Hughes graduated from both Dutchess Community College and Bard College. He's a certified HIV/AIDS counselor and works with the Youth Assistance Program (YAP), where he lectures youth about the consequences of wrong choices, drug usage, gangs, peer pressure, promiscuity and the importance of education. He has given numerous motivational speeches throughout his twenty years of incarceration. He was interviewed on 60 Minutes in April 2007 concerning the importance of higher education in prisons, and also quoted in Bill Clinton's best-selling book titled, Giving, about his ideas on freedom. Mr. Hughes has completed his minimum sentence of twenty years and now awaits his release. Until then, he plans on living responsibly and putting out work, which will help the young awaken the potential that exists inside of them.