Hope on the Inside

In the sixteen plus years I've been incarcerated, holidays in prison have either been notably boring and uneventful, or they have been t...

  "I've been down for 18 years," the nurse told me as she took several vials of my blood. It was a comment she made during sma...

I have long been critical of the quality of the Michigan Department of Corrections' (MDOC) food service. In the sixteen-plus years I...

  It's summer in prison, and contrary to some popular myths, Michigan prisons do not have air conditioning. Yes, there are a few classro...

  A few weeks ago, a buddy of mine (JT) was in the prison chow hall about to sit down when an officer told him he couldn't do something ...

  One of the major misconceptions the public often has about prisoners is that we are all weight pit junkies, spending a bunch of our free t...

  This past week, another prisoner pulled me aside. "I saw the parole board this morning," he told me quietly. A lot of prisoners ...

  This morning after breakfast, I returned to the housing unit and checked my email as I often do. An email from my girlfriend wishing me a ...

Last week I came back to my cell after being outside for a while, and some unknown papers were sitting on my bed. I live in a very small 6...

I've noticed a somewhat strange trend since I've been in prison, over sixteen years at this point. The energy among the prison popul...

  The other day in the prison chow hall, I got my tray and drink and turned around to make sure my buddy who'd walked to chow with me wa...

Earlier this week, Erik and Lyle Menendez were resentenced in California for murdering their parents 36 years ago. The brothers were origina...

  I had an interesting discussion recently with a prison staff member about the views of the general public on prisoners and on how prisons ...

  The counselors in my prison housing unit just finished passing out and then collecting ballots for our block rep elections. This election ...

  I've been reading Chuck Colson's "How Now Shall We Live" as part of a Bible study over the last year or so. The late Col...

  Michigan's prisons use three classes of misconduct tickets. Class three tickets are considered "minor" tickets and usually c...

  I had to put myself in time out earlier this week. I know, a grown man shouldn't need time outs, but I still do from time to time.   T...

  Today, while I waited in the phone line, the guy behind me struck up a conversation with me. He told me he'd been to prison three time...

One of the most important lessons I've learned in prison is the importance of community. I've written about this before, but we don...