Selling Slum In Solitary: How To Provoke a Fight
In Michigan we call it selling slum. A symphony of baritones, reverberating air full of testosterone: men in discord. After a certain point, I don’t even hear words anymore.
Lifers & Solitary
Getting Penalized for Not Taking the Plea Bargain
My earliest release date is 2041. According to the World Almanac, my life expectancy as a Black man is 67 years old. I'll be 66 years old in 2041, if I am released. If I make it. I came to prison [...]
Life Without Parole = Death By Incarceration
A life sentence can be death by incarceration. When a person serving life without parole (LWOP/DBI) reforms and rehabilitates his/her life, they should be allowed, “The Right to Redemption”
Why Solitary Confinement Is Torture
After spending over five years studying how prolonged periods of solitary confinement harm the brains, the only conclusion that I could come up with is that solitary confinement is torture. I’m not the only one who knows this.
Ten Years in Solitary In a Supermax Prison
I have a very intimate understanding of the effects of long-term isolation on a person's mental and physical health. I spent a long time in solitary -- a decade -- involuntarily entombed in isolation at the notorious Tamms Supermax Prison in southern Illinois.
Life in Sing Sing: Letter to My Younger Self
Dear Younger Self, If you only knew where you were headed and the degree of suffering you will endure, you'd stop the hands of time. But you don't, you can't. Your young mind cannot create such imagery.
Solitary Sucks
One thing is for sure—once you're locked in—you're at the mercy of those with the squeaky boots, the clanking keys, and the ratcheting handcuffs. Even knowing their mighty shields don't make them more human than me, I still worship them. I leap to my feet and rush to the door at the sound of another human.
Two Weeks in Solitary And You Go Mental
Self-mutilation seems to be a common coping mechanism. Cutting and bleeding. I've seen many hang themselves with a sheet.
Thugs Singing Jingle Bells In Solitary
First one voice joined in, then another and another. I repeated the Jingle Bells chorus, and more of the wing joined in, laughing like crazy, yelling, but not about drugs. “Yo, Mr. Norman, you know any more?”
Here’s What Happens In Solitary
After spending months in isolation, you start to feel as though you have been buried alive. You have people who self-mutilate by cutting themselves. Or they swallow things like fingernail clippers and pens.
15 Years In Solitary Confinement And Look At Me Now
I stabbed a prison guard when I was at the Barrington Unit in 2014, located between Houston and Galveston, and got an additional 99 year sentence for that assault. I spent the next fifteen years in solitary
Prison Writers Staff2020-12-14T15:06:41-05:00Lifers & Solitary, Uncategorized, Violence & Corruption|
The Prison Assassin, Corrupt Judicial Members, No Parole
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. [...]
Here’s What Happens When You Grow Up in Prison
The reality is, prison has in fact made me worse than who I was before I came here. It has made me shallow and cold, like winter. It has made me recognize anger, loneliness, hate, and despair -- as everyday feelings. Feelings like happiness, and love, definitely don’t exist.
I Spent 20 Years In Solitary in a SuperMax
Well, after 20 years in solitary confinement in America's toughest federal Super-max prison, still half-sleep and dazed, my mind and heart raced, baffled and excited. The guards gave me less than an hour to prepare to leave.
Dorothy Maraglino Writes a Letter To Her Abuser
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 [...]
When Lighting Yourself on Fire Is Better Than Prison
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. [...]