I awaken with my stomach feeling like I am being stabbed with hot pokers and I stumble to the toilet as I spew a hot greenish liquid that burns my throat and nose. It splashes a trail to the toilet as it rushes out my body and I don’t even have the strength to flush before I collapse onto the floor, shaking and cold. The pain is unbearable and I feel like I am dying so I crawl to the cell door and try to bang on it and shout for help, but all I can manage is reaching my arm o

Is there hope for a prison writer? To the prison writer, hope says, “Generate as much work as you can possibly keep in your property, develop your craft, complete diverse projects of literary substance, and above all, don’t stop because one day, they’ll ask, 'What have you written?’” The prison writer ought to drop a load of work before the inquirer, like dumping duffle bags of money onto a table. One day. That’s all they might ever have. If that. Why ask, “Is there hope for

I stand suffocating in this 6’x10’ cell, holding on to the bars as I feel the walls closing in on me. It’s Friday afternoon and I’m watching the wing officer sort our mail, 15 feet in front of me. I watch and analyze the size of the mailbag and squint, trying to make out the writing on the envelopes as he pulls them out a few at a time, stacking them by rows. I am on row one, so my stack is either the first or the third one. The bag empties all too quickly and he sorts each r

“Forward... March!” My detail steps off in unison and we march to our designated positions, performing sharp turns and obliques perfectly in sync. I carry my Marine Corps Colors with pride and even feel my eyes water just a bit as I present to the National Anthem playing in the background. Marines do not cry, but our eyes do get shiny at certain moments. For me, this is one of those moments. My heart is filled with patriotism for my country, Esprit De Corps for my Marine Corp

Life is full of choices. All choices, even not making one, have a positive or negative effect, intended or unintended. Prison is no different. What determines the effect prison has on a person is choice, primarily the choice of response. The prison environment is inclined to take a person in a negative direction. After all, it is filled with law-breakers and limit-transgressors. The bad choices with negative consequences made in the free world offers prison as the effect and

In all my observations on belief, fraudulence in people of faith seems to be the ultimate cause of widespread unbelief. When you figure that with the reputation of ‘jailhouse religion’ (see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in “Pain and Gain”), our typical response is *in first-grade teacher enthusiasm* “Who’s ready to vomit?!” The entire class eagerly raises their waving hands. I’ve been to the place where everything ‘faith’ feels ‘fake’. Something along the prison corridor, a man

One of the most troubling problems in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) id rehabilitation and education are sporadic at best, and completely lacking at worst. Unfortunately, for over 140,000 individuals residing in our state penal institutions, the worst is far more likely to occur. In other worlds, “mass incarceration” does not mean “mass rehabilitation” or “mass education.” Instead, it means human warehousing; a place where people are stored until “the powers

I am a police officer for a local law enforcement agency and I was asked to provide my thoughts and opinions regarding this issue. As a law enforcement officer, I personally support certain reforms within the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Law Enforcement is just one of three cogs making up the Criminal Justice System; the other two being our Court Systems and Corrections. All three components work together to prevent and punish criminal behavior. Being on “the streets” for y