About a week after Thanksgiving of 2004, I stabbed a prison guard when I was at the Barrington Unit, located between Houston and Galveston, and got an additional 99 year sentence for that assault. I spent the next fifteen [...]
No doubt patterned after its judicial system, Texas also has one of the most brutal prison systems in the world. The federal court eventually got involved, literally taking control of the whole shebang in a civil rights lawsuit called Ruiz v. [...]
Dear _______, You don't know me. Not really. We each had a major part to play in each other's lives. In fact, you took mine. Don't worry, this letter is not one of anger or guilt, but neither is it a [...]
Flames surged out of cell A-250, well-fueled by rolled-up newspapers, cardboard, and clothing collected by the cell’s lone occupant, Ryan Nieves. He wanted the fire to be hot and quickly intense, and it was. An accelerant had been poured. [...]
They call fields. You wake up. Comfort yourself. Cuddle your sheet and pretend it's a cat. Your cellie rushes to smoke a K2 stick (spice joint), to less feel the pain. Shit if you can. Sit. Get ready. You go outside, [...]
Gabriele was an upbeat cat for a prisoner with a life sentence. I remember the day that I met him. I was having a difficult day trying to navigate all of the negativity that prison has to offer when suddenly this [...]
Before 1977, ALL California prisoners were sentenced to Indeterminate sentences, a term that included “imprisonment for life” (i.e. five years to life for armed robbery). After serving a certain amount of time, a prisoner had to appear in front of a [...]