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.
More Than a Number by Terrance Taylor
Countless times I have sat back and listened to the testimonials told by my fellow prisoners. Stories of how drugs, alcohol, and in general living a street life led to their imprisonment. In the midst of many of these stories the individual would say how they were...
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...
Transformation and Reconciliation by Leo Paul Carmona
I am about to turn 39, and I just marked my 17th year of incarceration. Entering the system at only a month shy of my 22nd birthday, I had no idea what I was in for. There was no way that I could have been prepared for the horrors, anguish and traumas of...
Harsh Reality by Keith Rappuhn
My name is Keith Rappuhn, and I have spent the last 48 years in a Michigan prison on a sentence of Life Without Parole for beating and stabbing a friend to death after a night of drinking and an argument. That was in 1973, when I was 22 years old. Shortly after...
Juvenile Freedom by Dre’Maris Jackson
I want to introduce the public and the uninformed to the man known today as Dre’maris Jackson. As a young kid growing up on the eastside of Detroit, Michigan, I fancied after the older/negative guys around my neighborhood, wanting the flashy things in life. So who...
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...
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...
Beyond the Destructive Mistake by Henry Harper
My name is Henry N. Harper Jr. I am a prisoner serving a parolable second-degree life sentence in the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). I’m a 71-year-old man who has been incarcerated in excess of 43 years. I’m writing this letter to shine some light on...
Painting A Picture of Regret by Darrell Sharpe
First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the picture I am about to share with you because of what it has done to me, and what it will likely do to you. I searched through my stack of pictures carefully to find one that would vividly illustrate to you the...
Redemption: A Quest For A Second Chance by Jason Hicks
I was roughly one of 70,000 fortunate children adopted throughout the United States in 1969 (A notable booming year according to Historical International adoption data). Adding to my good fortune was landing with a set of parents who were both exceptional and...
Three Poems by Paul Carter
Thoughts From A Man Sentenced As A Boy To Die In Prison 26 Years Later Covid in prison is a death sentence religion makes no difference nor does repentance they simply don’t care The masks we wear are cloth and made by prison factory workers which have been proved...
Inside Prison by A’more D. Bass Bey
Hello, Can I tell you about my prison experience while serving a life sentence? There is a lot that people do not understand about those doing time. I have done a lot of time while fighting hard for well deserved freedom. I have changed so much while doing time. I...