Hope on the Inside

  One saying commonly used by prisoners is, "Don't mistake my kindness for weakness." Ironically, this is exactly how many pri...

  I recently came across this poignant prose about prison that made me say, "yup, that's right!" I thought I'd share it. E...

  A few years back, I sat in a prison church service feeling bored and slightly frustrated by the disorganized progression and unpreparednes...

  Some of the greatest story tellers I've ever met are in prison. If all the stories I've heard are to be believed, I've met cri...

"What did they just say over the radio?" someone asked during a recent count time. We were locked down, as usual, for one of our s...

"No one deserves to be measured by the worst thing he has ever done."   A prisoner advocate friend of mine made this powerful stat...

"I WANT MY ****** ******* BEDROLL, NOW!!!" Across the cell from mine, the prisoner in administrative segregation (the hole) shoute...

  In my fourteen years, so far, in prison, I have encountered numerous prisoners who appear to have no remorse for what they've done. I ...

  The United States Constitution protects First Amendment rights of free speech. This protection has been applied in various settings in a v...

In some prisons around the country, prisoners can go most days to their commissary and purchase food, hygiene items, and OTC medications, pr...

The month of May is law enforcement month, and as you may have read in past posts, I think many cops get a bad rap. Theirs is a thankless, d...

  Prisons are, by their very nature, dirty and stinky places to live. Whenever you pack hundreds of people together in the same living space...

  Recently, I was researching newly proposed legislation in Michigan that affects prisoners and the criminal justice system in general. Quit...

Recently at work, one of the prisoner students showed up and began studying on the computer for one of the tests he's required to take. ...

  A few days ago, a friend of mine in prison was talking to another prisoner about the frequent mailroom censorship issues we have at this p...

  Throughout the last several years, Michigan legislators have introduced several bills that would reinstate some form of good time for Mich...

Death occurs in prison, just like it does outside of prison. Sometimes prisoners die because another prisoner assaulted them, or because the...

Parnall Correctional Facility, where I am currently housed, is a mishmash of old and newer structures. Little planning went into the logisti...