Malcolm X's stay at different prisons help caused his transformation from hustler to minister. It was not only the prisons that helped him transform but also people that were surrounding him that made it possible for him to become a minister. Different people played different roles in getting Malcolm to change his old ways and become a better person after his time in prison. Malcolm's stay in Norfolk Prison was by far the best thing that could of ever happened to him.
Malcolm's transformation did not start until he entered prison where he had a lot of time to think and talk to other cell mates about their experiences. Being sentenced to jail time made it easy for Malcolm's family to get a hold of him and send letters to keep in touch. Malcolm's brother Reginald wrote him letters influencing Malcolm to take up the Islamic Religion and to follow Allah. Reginald said, ""God is a man." "His real name is Allah"" [Satan (183)]. With Reginald writing to Malcolm about The Honorable Elijah Muhammad it wouldn't be long until Malcolm took an interest in the Islamic Religion. The letters following Reginald's first letter talked a great deal about how Malcolm doesn't know who he is. ""You don't even know who you are." "You don't even know, the white devil has hidden it from you, that you are a race of people of ancient civilization, and riches in gold and kings"" [Satan (186)]. Malcolm decided that he would like to take up some sort of English class so that he could read and write better. He had more trouble writing then reading because he always felt frustrated that when he wrote Elijah Muhammad he was unable to express his feeling in his letters. Malcolm said, "I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad" [Saved (197)]. Malcolm was so fascinated in getting to be better at reading and writing that he took a dictionary from the Prison (Norfolk Prison Colony) library and started writing down every word in the whole book.