Stories
Prison is designed to disconnect people from the rest of society. As we listen to their stories, we begin to heal those connections.
Here you will encounter challenging and sometimes difficult language and ideas: Please take care as you explore. We share it all in the spirit of broadening our collective understanding and envisioning a different future.
So Long by Edward T. Walton
I’ve been incarcerated for so long. I spent three years in the juvenile system and was sentenced to two natural life sentences, eight months after my release from juvenile. At 36 years of age, I’ve spent about 21 years of my life incarcerated. However, that’s not...
People Deserve Another Chance by Ashley Smith
My name is Ashley Smith—13 and a half years, July of 2026. Well, I've done every group that's been available to me, but because I'm LD, not a lot's been available until the very end of my sentence. But right now I'm in Jackson College full time for a double...
The Heart of Forgiveness is Hard by Daniel Teribery
I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had made just one small decision to alter my path away from the destruction and pain that I was going to cause. These words played over and over like a worn-out tape in my mind. For so many years it felt...
Before Prison by Derek Bishop
My mother raised me. As a young boy, life was music, noise, joy, anger, pain, and fighting. My passions were sports, video games, and winning spelling b’s. I was fun, nosy, and the eldest of 12 children. I watched movies with my mother and grandmother. This...
From the Land of the Free to the Land of the Detainee by Antonie L. Scott
Peace, my bunky, is an older guy who is really sick with cancer and has a life sentence. I just told him I will need the light tonight because I need to do some writing. I explained this project to him and asked if he wanted to share anything. To my surprise, he...
Listen Up, I’m Coming Home by Frank Duenaz, III
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Frank Duenaz, III. I have been incarcerated since September of 1995. I have received my parole from my life with the possibility of parole. I will leave prison on August 24, 2021—really soon. I will have served almost 26...
Before Prison by August M. Williams
My name is August M. Williams, and I’m giving you, the reader, brief insight on me as a young person. I was born in a middle class homestead, and was blessed enough to experience more joyful moments than sad ones. Both of my parents were in the house until I was...
You Live and You Learn by Joei Alexander Jordan
Greetings, My name is Joei Alexander Jordan, but many people know me by my stage name, "Joei Average." I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 16, 1993. My mother struggled with drug abuse until I was 11, and my biological father was incarcerated for the majority...
Things You Can Learn In Prison (But Don’t Have To) by Gene Anderson
The title can mean at least two things. One is that even if you go to prison it doesn’t mean that you will learn anything. The other is that you can (and should) learn many things that prison can teach you without having to go to prison. It’s this last point that...
A Child Who Was Taught By Crooks Instead Of Books; Forced To Graduate From The University Of Penitentiary Confinement by Charles Anthony Jackson Bey
First, before I take you, the reader, on this journey of the untold truth regarding this incarcerated voice, I would like to say: “Each one, teach one,” and everybody needs somebody in this lifetime to extend their helping hand to those in need… I am an...
Was I Sent to Prison to be Punished, or for Punishment? by Charles Sibert
My name is Charles Sibert Bey. In 1997, I was 18 years old when I took part in a plan to rob and murder the occupants of a drug house in the city of Detroit. My role was to be the gunman. I was a senior in high school and captain of the football team, with an above...