Prison Writing
Black Tears: Lament For a Murdered Son
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A San Quentin inmate recalls the son he lost to violence in the community he left behind.
Prison Writing
Why I Write From Prison: ‘So the Heart Can Keep Beating’
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A California inmate serving a life term was recently asked to explain why he writes. Here’s his answer.
Prison Writing
Wounds of the Past: The Pain That Never Leaves Us
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Years after entering prison, Leo Cardez is still grappling with the childhood traumas and resentments that destroyed his life.
Prison Writing
An Inmate’s Story: How I Turned Into the Person I Feared Most
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As an 11-year-old he was bullied by classmates. Thirty years later he looked back with regret on the choices that turned him into a violent gang member serving life in prison, in this essay produced for “The Beat Within” justice writing workshop in San Francisco.
Prison Writing
‘The Only Answer They Have is Jail’: A 13-Year-Old’s Story
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In an essay published by the San Francisco-based writing workshop The Beat Within, an incarceree writes about the first time he was sent to juvenile hall, at the age of 13, and why he wishes there was an alternative to police intervention for young people who need “love and guidance.”
Prison Writing
The Trauma of Solitary: A Voice From the ‘Madhouse’
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Solitary confinement, at least in Texas, is a place where prison administrators send inmates to “complete their mental decline―to rot, separated and alone from the rest of humanity,” writes a Texas prisoner.
TCR Special Reports
The Everglades Experiment: Florida’s First ‘Incentivized’ Prison Redefines Punishment
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Can U.S. prisons be more than violent warehouses? A pilot program launched in 2019 in Miami proves it’s possible, writes a resident who says being treated “humanely” has given him the confidence and skills he needs to rejoin civilian society.
Prison Writing
America’s Public Defense Scandal
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Although former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted in the death of George Floyd, he had access to superb legal counsel thanks to financial support from his police union. That privilege isn’t shared by most poor defendants, for whom Supreme Court guarantees of indigent defense are a mockery, writes a Texas inmate from his own experience.
Prison Writing
‘Without Your Prison Number, You Don’t Exist’
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The movement to end the death penalty should not deflect attention from the dehumanizing treatment of incarcerated individuals who experience “death by a thousand cuts” whether they are on Death Row or not, writes a former inmate.
Prison Writing
How Not to Manage a COVID-19 Outbreak in Prison
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After months of warning that authorities at his Washington State prison were unprepared for the pandemic, lifer Tomas Keen contracted the disease―and discovered that he had underestimated the potential for disaster.