Joe Keith Bickett

In 1989, I was indicted in federal court in both Kentucky and Kansas for the cultivation and distribution of marijuana and sentenced to twenty-five years as part of the legendary Cornbread Mafia. During my many years in federal prison, I became what is known as a "jailhouse lawyer," helping federal prisoners, as well as myself, in search of freedom from the imposing walls of the Bureau of Prisons. While in prison, I wrote several memoirs about my life and personal involvement in the Cornbread Mafia. My memoirs are the only first-hand and true accounts of the Cornbread Mafia located in Central Kentucky. After serving over twenty-one years, I was finally released from federal prison in 2011. Since my release, I have been employed as a law clerk and paralegal with the law office of Elmer J. George in Lebanon, Kentucky. I am also a partner in Bickettandboone.com the only CBD and cannabis company endorsed by the founding members of the Cornbread Mafia. I am an avid supporter of prison reform for nonviolent offenders, the legalization of marijuana and an advocate for environmental and social justice. I enjoy the outdoors, kayaking, canoeing with my family and friends and living on a small farm in Central Kentucky.

In 2016, I released my first publication titled, "The Origins of the Cornbread Mafia: A Memoir of Sorts," which is my first-hand account about how the term, "The Cornbread Mafia" was coined many years ago.

In 2018 I released my second publication titled: "Cornbread Mafia, The Outlaws of Central Kentucky" which is a sequel to my first book and focuses on the Cornbread Mafia's rise to fame in the 1980s and many of its members, including myself, ultimate downfall.

In 2022, I released my third book "Cornbread Mafia, The Quest For Freedom, A Prisoner's Memoir." Quest For Freedom details my life and many of the Cornbread Mafia members new lives in an unforgiven federal prison system after many of us were convicted and sentenced to harsh sentences for being cannabis offenders. Quest for Freedom takes the reader "inside" the walls of federal prison where violence, riots and unrest is a way of life while under the thumb of a sometimes corrupt judicial system. Its also a memoir of hope, family, friendship, tragedy, and survival while incarcerated in the "belly of the beast."