Is Amerika preparing its children for a life in prison? According to the modality used by Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and his staff at the Pinellas County Jail to deal with violent inmates who prey on society, and then are housed with the general population inmates -- the...
While certainly not as grossly unjust as it was prior to the 1980s, incarceration is still an incredibly dehumanizing experience, and given that people are incarcerated for years at a time, imprisonment in the United States often permanently scars a person to the...
In the movie Shawshank Redemption, one of the incarcerated characters, Red they called him, went before the parole board. He had been in prison for over 30 years at that point, and one of the members of the parole board asked him, "Do you think you have been...
Any woman in a relationship with a man in prison can attest to the fact that there will, unfortunately, be many in their families and inner-circle of friends who don't approve of their relationships. Many who are critical of these relationships, however, are not...
"I is adopted!!!" Not proper grammar, to be sure, but this was the response I sent Melissa when I got the news. The feeling I had was one of pure elation. It was as close to having a religious experience as I have had in a decade - so much so, that my total outlook...
It deeply saddens me that what has become institutionalized hypocrisy is rapidly leading to the erosion of civility and free speech in this country. Opposing views are rarely debated with substance and intellectual force. They are attacked with ritual humiliation and...
With over 2 million citizens of this country locked in cages, one can't help but feel as though our lives are dispensable. One can't help but feel as though our society deems us not worthy of correction that would send us back to our communities as assets rather than...
For too many years of my life I assumed my actions affected me and only me. So what if I chose to drink away my pain? So what if I messed up, got arrested, and got sentenced to many years in prison: I'm the one doing the time, or so I thought. I couldn't see beyond...
The following speech was delivered at the Weusi Umoja Social at OSCI — August 22, 2018 Good evening. I hope everyone is enjoying their time tonight with their friends and family. As it was just mentioned, this year we chose to honor Rosa Parks. She is obviously a...
I cannot tell you how many times I have witnessed or have heard about men in this situation either meeting a woman via a pen pal website — or otherwise — and developing a strong relationship or even getting married, only to have it go awry. The euphoria of knowing...