Because of me, Alex will never realize his potential, never discover the man he might’ve been. I’m deeply sorry for that. And that’s the sort of existential shame I grapple with: Here I am, years later, sober and learning and writing and finding out who I can be, and yet Alex can never do any of those things. Because of me.
The first time I heard about Heather Ann Thompson’s Blood in the Water, I was in the Attica Correctional Facility’s auditorium-chapel, attending a twelve-step meeting.
True crime is not quite about watching people die, but it does require an interest in the subject.
John J. Lennon, incarcerated journalist, talks about education, censorship, mental health, and rehabilitation.
When did we stop believing in rehabilitation? The case of Lima-Marin should make us stop and ask why we punish, and what happens to those we punish.
We have no way of knowing whether Tsarnaev was given the opportunity to avoid a trial and plead to a life sentence, or if he would have taken that offer had it been made. It seems clear that there are inconsistencies when government determines when to seek death sentences.
We Americans have a soft spot for the outlaw. But what distinguishes an outlaw from a criminal?
My last day of freedom was January 24, 2002.
Ignorance is ugly, particularly in prison. It’s loud and obnoxious and violent. It tumbles into my cell right now as I write this. But for some, education can quell that.
Raw, edgy, polemical—and you can only get it at Attica. Meet the inventor of jailhouse comedy.
What should the compensation be for overserving a prison sentence?
Media executives have honed the craft of attracting national interest to flair-ups and clashes over school board proceedings, controversial small business practices, or more recently, police misconduct.