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.
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...
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...
I Am Ready, So I Fight by Joseph Wright
I came to prison with the mindset that I was never going home. And so, I lost myself in the prison system. If you ask me if I was ready to go home after 2 or 3 years, I would have said yeah. But deep down, I was not! It took me 8 years to change and become a man....
God Forgives by James Legrone
I have been incarcerated for thirty plus years now. However, I sincerely hope, and pray that those who may develop an electrifying curiosity to read my story know that I seriously contemplated not summarizing these tragic events for fear the reader would totally...
What is Forty-Five Years of Your Life Worth? by Michael Edgerton
Every day I wake up with a sore and aching back. Bones that feel every bit of eighty years old, and I wonder, how in the world did the Michigan Department of Corrections figure out how to make a mattress made of lava rocks? After 25 years of sleeping on these beds...
Understanding Incarceration by Romallis Colvin
Greetings! By the time this letter reaches you, I truly pray that you and your family are in the best of health, mentally as well as physically. I am writing to you on this day because I just read in a Michigan paper an article that touched on a subject that has...
Paintings by Theodora Moss
The Bible states “Your gift will place you in front of great Kings and Queens” Pov. 18:16 First, let me start with a brief history of myself. I've been incarcerated for 32 years and I’m an artist who can work with...
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...
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...
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,...
Living or Just Alive by James Liptrot
My name is James B. Liptrot, Prison number 144170 Dreams are real...