The banner headline across the top of one Chicago Tribune read, "Guilty Plea Sets Inmate Free." The picture showed the freed man embracing his sister, and the article told how a man imprisoned for eight years cut a deal with the state's attorney's office in which the time served satisfied his sentence.

What struck me was that headline. My first reaction was, "Another criminal gets off with a plea bargain." Then I realized that was what happened to me: "Guilty plea sets inmate free." Freedom is not in a plea of innocence but in the admission of guilt. My story is different, but the headline fits perfectly.