F*** Solitary Confinement
The hole, the new term for solitary confinement. It’s the place they take you when you break one of their “rules,” or at least they say you did. It’s supposed to be a deterrent from future acts of whatever they deem [...]
Pennsylvania
My Crime: How One Huge Mistake Sent Me To Prison For Life
On October 31, 1984, Halloween Night at 7:00 pm, gunshots rained on the streets of the middle-class neighborhood of Mount Airy in Philadelphia, PA. I was just 17 years old at the time. My mom worked as an Executive Secretary and [...]
A Real-life Andy Dufresne
Back in the 70s and 80s at Western Penitentiary, one of the oldest prisons in the world, the Shawshank Redemption was real; the prisons literally looked the same. I am a real life Andy Dufresne, only I never even tried to [...]
My DIY Rehabilitation in Prison
One day I finally said to myself – “you killed someone” – a young man’s life is gone. And I wondered how my mother would feel if it had been me who had been killed. I began thinking about my victim’s mother.
Bring Back Pell Grants For Prisoners: Inmates’ Kids Were Inspired To Stay In School
BY LARRY STEPHENSON Courtesy of Larry Stephenson There aren't many positive prison programs available in the criminal justice system these days. But forty-years ago, college courses were offered with the possibility of achieving two and four year degrees. During the [...]
How Can Prisoners Break The Chains of Economic Slavery?
America was built off of profits made from the stolen bodies and labor of African hostages—slaves. History teaches us that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was about economics. As was the civil war and Jim Crow.