On prison, freedom, and redemption.
The first thing one notices is the chair. Comprised entirely of straight lines with minimal upholstery, it’s a chair designed for utility rather than comfort. On the seat is a device like a small heating pad on which I’m asked to sit and, in the polygrapher’s words, "take it easy," though neither of us believes…
In 2011 the author was sentenced to twelve years in federal prison for downloading child pornography. He was released in 2021 and now resides in Texas. For more than a decade he has written extensively about his experiences as a defendant, prisoner, and as an ex-felon and registered sex offender reentering society.
Clark smiled broadly, which was unusual for Clark. Prone to anxiety and depression, he often sat through our weekly sex offender treatment sessions wearing an exhausted, dour expression, as though his life were coming to an end and he’d sooner sleep through the last dreadful bits. But today he smiled—it was a rather handsome smile—and…
A flicker in the bottom corner of my eye, too quick to identify but slow enough to determine speed and direction. It’s source: the dried goods shelf where oyster and hoisin sauce cans are stacked in rows; it’s destination: the small, irregular hole at the baseboard behind the stove. Unperturbed, I continued sliding blocks of…
My neighbor died the day I moved into my apartment. This I learned from another neighbor, Dillan, who lives three doors down. She’d went by Charlie, he said, and added that she’d been very old, nearly ninety, and in poor health. She’d had a cat. This I learned not from Dillan but surmised myself from…
I noticed him at the Christian table, a young black man with a linebacker’s body and the face of a cherub. He wore a kippah atop his smooth head. He said "What’s up?" and I said "How are you?" and then we each went back to our lunches, me to my cheeseburger and he to…
I’ve been avoiding South for the past few weeks, and today he slipped me a note torn from a memo pad. I miss you. Can we make time tomorrow? I notice you been keepin your distance. How long u plan to be disappointed at me since you say you’re not mad? The last time South…
There was a rash of fights this Thanksgiving. The first occurred on Wednesday between two whites, a Floridian and a Texas. The Floridian refused to pay a thirty-dollar debt, so, as is the customary procedure in prison, the Texas went to the shot caller for the Floridians and was granted permission to settle the dispute…