Ten Ways To Fix Texas Prisons
1. Start looking at results. When prisoners are released and are successful and do not come back, see what is the same amongst them. Do not just write it as a statistic and stare at it. Act on it. Utilize the [...]
Tracy Lee Kendall
Borrow a Cup of Coffee and You Could Become Someone’s Sex Slave
Everyone in prison is ready to help in some way or another, but the word “help” has a very fluid definition. It can mean to do something to assist, but also to extort or rape or kill. I learned it’s better to be as independent as possible in here.
My Life of Crime Started at Age Four
I started stealing when I was 4, from yards and shoplifting. I don’t know where I learned it, but I knew it was wrong. I stole mostly toys and mail. I was a kid. When we moved to Oklahoma, drugs and alcohol became a part of my life at age 11.
A Coronavirus Update from Inside a Texas Prison
January 20, 2020: Listening to NPR, I hear something about a mysterious disease that alarmed China into building 2 hospitals in 5 days to handle patients. After also hearing the Chinese government will let citizens fly all over for the Chinese [...]
Texas Prisoners Take a Poll on Life in Prison
I polled 30 fellow prisoners with these 2 questions: a. “What’s the best thing that’s happened in prison?” b. “What’s the worst thing that’s happened in prison?”
I Help The Terminally Ill in Prison
Death stands in the path of all prisoners here with a chronic or terminal illness. It may step out of their way for a time, only to reappear a little later on.
The Aliens Within Us
Here, "normal," i.e. civil, is as alien to prisoners as criminal activity is to decent people. Therefore, it is difficult to embrace change when it could result in being attacked or harmed in other ways.
Dying Inside, Living Outside
Each time I look outside, I die further. Through the steel of my cage, I see into the distance--the cars flowing on the daylight highway, and the flames above it at night. I look up at the sky, the only physical [...]
Kaleb: Your Father Tracy Lee Kendall Is Looking For You
By: Tracy Lee Kendall, Contributing Writer Editor's Note: Tracy Lee Kendall gave us permission to print this personal letter to his long-lost son, Kaleb, in hopes he will someday read it. 8-23-15 Dear Kaleb, I hope this finds everyone there doing well. [...]