Tip #6: Surviving Coed Gangs in Juvie Prison
Heather D'Aoust has written 30 tips for Surviving Prison. Here is Tip #6: Surviving Coed Gangs in Juvie Prison. I got arrested at 14, facing the threat of a life sentence
My Ethics and My Terrible Crime
I am guilty of a terrible crime and a gross violation of my own ethical code. The fact that I was delusional and out of my mind with irrational fear is not - to me - a satisfactory excuse. Being that [...]
My 40th Birthday on Death Row
I turned forty recently. (Please hold the applause.) Never in a billion years would I have ever envisioned that I would hit the big 4-0 birthday on death row. Courtesy of Charles Mamou When I was free, I was [...]
Do Incarcerated Lives Matter?
With light being shed on police abuse against suspected lawbreakers this summer, I wonder if the public has taken that newfound knowledge a step further. Black lives matter, but do incarcerated lives matter? Have they thought: “If that level of abuse [...]
How Convicts Got Joyce Mitchell To Smuggle Contraband Into Prison
“Man, this shit is loose up there. One of these bitches is gonna go, but I think it might have to be a white guy.” I can still remember my friend Drew’s face when he said those words to me, an [...]
Summer In Texas Prisons Are Inhumane
Summer in Texas prisons are deadly. We don’t use our mattresses to sleep on. We can’t. We have to use them as a barricade. It is pushed up against the wall that has been absorbing the sun's heat from 1 [...]
#1 Ingredient in Prison Food? Water.
Aside from the obvious fact that water is needed throughout the day to hydrate the body, it has absolutely no dietary value. So why is our prison food constantly being watered down? The answer is … Money.
I’m 31 and I’ve Spent Half My Life In Prison
A number of months ago, I reached a milestone in my own life, one that isn't in any way positive but one that's definitely made me stop and think. I am 31 years old and I have spent half my life in prison as Prisoner #595904 in Michigan’s Department of Corrections, Inmate Dankovich.
Rahsaan Thomas from Ear Hustle On Accepting His Crime
I came clean. "I struggle with feeling remorse for Frank because, if he didn't try to pull that move, he'd be alive and I wouldn’t be here."
How Corrupt Guards Add Time To A Prisoner’s Sentence
YOU OVERSLEPT. So you are rushing. Maybe to a call-out or program. You throw on your greens. Lace up your boots. A buzzer screams, long and grating. You glance warily around your cell; you may have forgotten something. You are rushing. [...]
The Catch-22 of Prison Education
Getting a prison education in California is a joke. Allow me to explain why. When a prisoner gets assigned to school, that is basically his job. The incentives for him to go to school every day are unlimited access to the [...]
Living With A Prison Con Artist
He's a prison con artist and, for awhile, my cellmate. The day he moved in, all seemed normal—for about five seconds—until he launched into an obsessive allegation that a female guard forced him to perform oral sex on her. This was followed by lies that a former cellie drugged and raped him.
Elderly Prisoners Deserve Dignity
Over the past 18 months, twenty-three incarcerated men died at the Jessup Regional Hospital (JRH), according to an unnamed staffer at JRH. Many were elderly prisoners. The youngest was in his mid-fifties. The oldest was 69. Official causes of death ranged [...]