From Death Row to Writing
I committed a crime that I’m still paying for and for that I was given the ultimate penalty: a trip to death row. I eventually made it off after 20 years and I felt that that alone was something worth sharing. [...]
Hope & Change
A Hitman’s Hopes for Redemption
I don't think I will ever be able to understand what could make me do all the shit I did when I was younger. I'm mentally fucked up over my actions. The lady I killed in Wisconsin was a good hard working mother. Her name was Kim Smith and she worked for the county in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Poetry on Death Row Saved Me
In 2000, I was 23 and struggling to find myself in a sea of death row madness. The madness wasn't just from the inmates there, and their stories, but from the situation itself. Basically, you grew or you stagnated. To grow [...]
Her Name Was Mo And She Brought People Together
Some people knew her as Arlene Mohammed, but her name was Mo and she brought people together. Mo was a strong black woman from another era, the one that followed Jim Crow but preceded Civil Rights, the one when black men [...]
Attica Prisoners Debate Harvard Law Students
The last great book I read made me cry and grind my teeth and pace my cell. It was written by a Harvard Law School graduate. It was Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. With the best education in America, Mr. Stevenson [...]
Thanks Prison, You Worked.
Dear Prison, I’m writing this letter to thank you, to let you know how much I've come to appreciate you in my life. This might sound bizarre coming from a prisoner like me, but during our twelve-year relationship, I've learned [...]
Why I Let The Guy Go, Instead of Terminating on Sight
In 1992, summer in Brooklyn, New York came early. We had “permanent beef” with a West Indian crew, which meant trying to terminate each other on sight. Gunshots sparked so often that Flatbush residents didn’t have to wait for the [...]
Prison Writers Staff2020-11-22T09:25:46-05:00Fellow Inmates, Going to Prison, Hope & Change, Juveniles in Prison|
The Miracle Man Who Gave My Worthless Life New Meaning
I kind of figured I was destined for prison. I'm dead serious. I was born a realist and knew that the life I was born into meant there was little to no hope for a prosperous future. When I was [...]
Writers Say Thanks to Prison Writers! (and Loen)
They made a journalist out of me. And that, my friends, is something of extreme significance. I came to prison with an eight grade education. I have a thriving writing career now. I owe it all to Prison Writers and Loen for believing in me.
After 20 Years of Solitary in A Supermax Prison — They Send Me To THIS Place?
For the past two decades, up until April 27, 2015, I was living in solitary confinement at the only federal Supermax prison in America, ADX Florence in Colorado. I was housed and handled under the high-max custody level. No less than three [...]
God and Gratitude in Prison
It took twenty-two years of hard time in prison for me to get how deep gratitude is. I've found it to be a force in the universe spawned in the interior forests, rivers, and seas of a person's soul. It pours [...]
A Cell Search Reveals Diamonds In The Rough
We were handcuffed in our boxers and shower slippers, barely awake. They, however, were ready, looking for a reason to hit the button. And to be dead honest, they would've dish-ragged us in that unit that night had we'd done or said anything.
Latinx Prisoners Take Self-Help to a New Level
I've watched countless faces pass through what seems to be a revolving door, leading out, and—all too often—right back into my home. It's rarely difficult to pinpoint who I'll see again by their behaviors while incarcerated. Some choose to believe the narrative that they're little more than animals—as evident by the cages they're locked in—while others cling to a sense of humanity with a vigor that's impossible to overlook, because it makes them a glaring minority in an environment where only ignorance and violence are praised.
My Crime: Jonathan Benson
On April 4th, 2011 I was pulled over for a taillight being burnt out. No big deal, right? Usually no, however I was “methin’ around” (high on meth) at the time and my kids were with me in the vehicle. I [...]
Asst. Editor2020-07-19T10:18:46-04:00Hope & Change, Lifers & Solitary, My Crime, Violence & Corruption|
My Life on Death Row in San Quentin
From December 17,2003 to February 9, 2004, the prison guards and administration at this modem day plantation changed me, rearranged me, oppressed me, regressed me, repressed me, depressed me and undressed me in order to murder me. They had me bend [...]
Why I Help Out the Elderly In Prison
I came up around people that lived the street life. And in that setting, you learn a set of skills that helps you survive. If you go to a jungle, you learn a set of skills. Likewise with a desert, the [...]