Disability rights groups and legal organizations have filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and the New York State Office of Mental Health for illegally subjecting disabled people to solitary confinement. Disability Rights Advocates, The Legal Aid Society, and the
Dear Reader, If imprisonment were a legal thriller, one of the most dramatic scenes would be the courtroom as the guilty verdict is read. Mothers would burst into tears, lovers would plead their undying love, and the person found guilty would take their walk of shame amid cries of, “You’
Johnny Lee Olds was born at his family’s home in Selma, Alabama. He was the youngest of 11 children, and he was and forever would be his mother’s baby. Being part of a large family had its upsides. Olds had a built-in group of friends, which was especially
Dear Reader, When I came to prison nearly two decades ago, I believed my life to be completely over. Everywhere I looked behind the fences, there were broken people living broken lives. It was a cycle of brokenness. Prison isn’t a fix to anyone’s problems. But the further
Yolanda Johnson was detained in 2020 on a $20,000 bond, an extraordinary amount of money that left her with no sense of how or when she would be able to secure her freedom. She spent four months in Jefferson County Jail awaiting news on her court date until she
The city of Philadelphia has released a 100-day Public Safety Plan with a section focused on cleaning up the “open-air drug market” in the city’s Kensington neighborhood. The release follows recent reports that the city’s jails are violent and understaffed, leading criminal legal advocates to call for a
The violence against oppressed people in both Gaza and U.S. prisons is a direct result of imperialism and the brutal policing
It started with a tweet. “I won the @PENamerica Prison Writing Contest in 2022 and never received the $250 prize, even after much back and forth via email, which continues to this day. I know of at least one other first place winner who never received their prize money, either,
Dear Reader, “To be or not to be?” Hamlet famously asked this question in the play by the same name written by William Shakespeare. I first encountered the life-changing power of Hamlet when I signed up for a prison playwright’s circle called Voices Inside, created by Curt Tofteland and
When far from home, what food reminds you of love or comfort? For me, it’s chicken and dumplings—something that’s hard to come by here in the Northpoint Training Center, where I have been incarcerated for nearly two decades. Like most civilized folks, we adhere to traditions on
The Ohio State Reformatory (OSR) operated as a prison for 80 years until its closure in 1990 following a class action lawsuit by incarcerated people for inhumane conditions and overcrowding. Now, OSR is better known as the backdrop for movies and historic tours, conferences, Halloween events, and even eclipse viewings.
Dear Reader, This week’s subject is release. When I first stepped foot in prison, it felt like my life ended. What would release feel like? Would leaving prison be like a new beginning? Prison has a way of distorting time. Days become weeks that feel like years. Waiting on
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