Discover Stories Here

Life always reminded me how precious it was as I sat in the dayroom at a stainless-steel table, surrounded by so many broken souls. The reality of my thinking came as I pondered why Jermaine, my cousin, lost his fight with cancer...and now Janelle, his twin sister, battled with it also. My mother headed to Baltimore to spend time with Janelle. She always did that: showed up for our family. I called her, jovial, not understanding the weight she bared. Prison took my thoughts f

It's pretty interesting that the day I decided to write about mental health, two men asked me if I would join them in doing the same for an upcoming event. They, like me, recognized that there was a big problem brewing in prison. This hit home all the more when I sat in the chow hall, looking at the men around me. You would assume that criminals were everywhere, yes, but that's not the case. The men around me meow like cats when you talk to them. Others carry on a conversatio

My day always began in prayer as I crawled off my top bunk. The cramped quarters were my shared domain alongside Red, my celly. We rarely talked in the morning, maybe because we're mentally preparing ourselves for the daily grind of mass incarceration--or my breath stinks and he hadn't informed me yet. Yeah, humor, that was a necessary tool when you're watching an elder who spent 40 years in a cell. Do not misinterpret that I'm laughing at him; more like I'm making him laugh.