My first cellmate in one of Michigan's adult prisons was an axe murderer. More specifically, he was a serial killer who killed multiple people with an axe on one Halloween night. I didn't know his background when they moved me into [...]
The situation, simply put: for families of the incarcerated, life is brutal. Sad. Devastating to family structure and closeness. Difficult financially. Painful. Wrenching, forcing families to drive six hours on Sundays to visit with no gas money. Getting rejected for a [...]
"Hey, did you see that kid in the wheelchair today?" "No." I say. "When did he get here?" "I think he just rode in yesterday or today," said Greg. "He break his leg or something?" "No, he's, like, seriously in a [...]
The dark days we're stuck inside. The light is broken, and it's sweltering from the radiator-heater and no ventilation. Day- in and day-out, nights are the same. They don't have -never have had- a beginning. They'll never end on their own. [...]
There is a distinctive "ting" when metal snaps: a sharp, high-pitched note reverberates through the air long after the metal stops vibrating. “Shit,” I grumbled under my breath. The small piece of metal had broken in my hand, not cutting [...]
Sometimes, after my roommate has gone to sleep (or has left the room, or when no one is looking), I grab my pillow and hold it tightly, pressing my face against it. I fall asleep with my arm wrapped around it, [...]
First days are sitting in an inflatable life-raft in the ocean while the winds whip around you in a hurricane. Giant waves crash violently around you, and the winds and currents own you. Paddle if it calms the current in your [...]
My first visitor in prison was my dad. Looking back at the picture I have from that day, I realize that I must have smelled just awful. It was my second day in at Thumb Correctional Facility's Youthful Side, Michigan's prison [...]
We might have been crazy, and they certainly said that about us, though they said that about all the youth. Every child who came to prison was at least regularly seen by the psychiatrists, which really is a good thing. If [...]
Let me first off start out by saying that I'm not one of these prisoners who thinks that prisoners are awesome or that most are really just misunderstood. I've grown up in prison, lived around other prisoners for half my [...]
When the prison I've grown up in partnered with a local animal shelter and a service-canine organization to start a dog rehabilitation and training program, it had been nearly 4,000 days since I had last seen a dog in person, last [...]