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.
A Day in the Life by Cynthia McDonnell
I’m deaf. Nearly 70. Most days are the same: Wake up, take care of hygiene, check JPay, get hot water for a cup of tea. Make my bed, if I haven’t already, wait for medicines. I am in a unique position: I am a mentor in the DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)...
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...
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...
No One Investigates or Cares About Justice by Randy Ray
The story I'm telling is true! Since no one else will tell the truth, then I have to. It started in November 2000, when I was working for a roofing company, and I got hurt about two weeks into the job. I hired a law firm to sue for workers’ compensation and have my...
Senseless Crime (Drinking and Driving) by Russell Dunham
I was born June 6, 1976, with both parents having drug and alcohol problems. I never really got a chance to know both of my parents, being that I got tossed around. My mother lost me to my father, and my father gave me to his parents to either raise or give me to...
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...
The Clandestine Blessing by Robert Lee Bates
My name is Robert Bates. I was born in Detroit, Michigan into a family of seven sisters and two brothers. My father died one month before my birth. Mother was from the deep south with no education. Having been a domestic abuse survivor, she did her very best...
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...
One Day at a Time by Madge Matthews
While sentenced to life after being wrongfully convicted, all I can think of is getting out of prison. This thought consumes me. I have spent 10 years writing letters, asking for legal help with my case, to no avail. It’s hard to prove your innocence! I cried...
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...
Hatred, Confusion, Abandonment and Redemption, and Love That Restored Me by Robert Perry-Bey
Ann was in the hospital, getting ready to give birth to her first child. After she had me, on February 28, 1969, she thought about her future because her husband had been unfaithful. Once she was released from the hospital, she went home to pick up some of her...
The Things That Led You To Prison by Jawan Hayes
There is a saying: "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." I believe God had a big laugh concerning the things I had planned for my life. But, as time went on, all I could say was, Hello, Hello is anyone there? Being exposed to violence,...