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.
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...
Good Chance I’ll Die Inside by Roger Ruthruff
My name is Roger. I have been a prisoner in MDOC for more than 35 years. I was convicted of felony murder as an aider and abetter when I was 18 years old. I am just as responsible for taking human life as the person who landed the fatal blows. I planned a robbery...
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...
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...
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 Shameka Layton
The household I grew up in consisted of myself, and six siblings. Since we lived in a two bedroom house, all the children shared one room, with the boys in one bed and the girls in another. Religion was optional so I chose to attend Catholic Services with my...
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...
Imagine Dying Waiting To Be Free by Larry R. Carter
Prison is a kicking. They kick you, and they kick you, and they kick you. If you die behind these walls, they kick you again to make sure you are dead. It is a figurative kicking, but it is a kicking all the same. In 1997, at the age of 44, I was convicted of...
An Honest Conversation by Torrance Graham
It has been 6,417 days since I have looked into a refrigerator. Allow me to save you the trouble of having to figure out how many years 6,417 days is. It’s 17 years and seven months. I know looking into a refrigerator is something most people do not think about,...
Only In America by Mark Anthony McCloud El
I grew up on the northwest side of Detroit, where, although I lived with my mom, dad, two sisters, and niece, I came from a pretty large family of 12. Six boys and six girls. I believe that my upbringing was typical. My parents preached education first and...
Living or Just Alive by James Liptrot
My name is James B. Liptrot, Prison number 144170 Dreams are real...