Ivan Calaff // “Shut. The. Fuck. Up! Don’t you dare move!” That was how my first interaction with the police went down. I was only 8 years old. Every word, a promise of violence to come; the kind of violence that packs- a-16-shot 9-millimeter Glock, wears steeled-toed boots, violence that kicks out teeth, smashes testicles,…

Eileen Maher // Dear America, Greetings and Salutations to my fellow world citizens. I am Eileen, your local, or not-so-local, Individual-Who-Is-Formerly-Incarcerated and a Criminalized-Survivor-of-Domestic-Violence. I have always enjoyed writing, and while I was incarcerated I, like most others, spent a great deal of time writing letters, essays, and journals. I was in jail and prison…

Levar Henry // Ten things you get out of looking at these photos: While waiting for the elevators it’s human nature to check out the City’s advertising for adults and children in the Polo Grounds of NYCHA, the New York City Housing Authority. Nonetheless, a disturbing advertisement. You are made to wait. You are made…

Egypt R. Dior // For my project I requested to take a different approach. Due to limited time, I did not have the time needed to master my track for autoethnography. My approach entailed questions I asked myself, brief questions geared toward my life during my incarceration, during the current pandemic, about how my “existence”…

Luke Ross Lyons // Let me help you focus on the impact of COVID-19 on our “invisible population,” the incarcerated, locked behind barbed-wire fences, steel doors, and concrete walls, only hoping not to become infected. Let me share my own personal experiences inside prison and in the world of COVID-19 and the effects that my…

Tone Shewprashad // 1. On March 20, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo placed New York on an unprecedented lockdown. Journalist David Marcus soon expressed his anger and anxiety in a New York Post article titled “End New York City’s lockdown Now!” when he wrote “…the Big Apple is dying. Its streets are empty. The bars and…

Helen “Skip” Skipper // I roll through this beautiful journey called life consistently in an amused state, chuckling at myself and everything else in my surroundings. In no way possible does this mean I don’t take this thing called life seriously. I find that for me, as I navigate these treacherous turns, steep mountains, pitfalls,…

Nascimento Blair // I am writing an auto-ethnographic piece where I, the author, a formerly-incarcerated man, present my own testimonies alongside material that has been shared with me by “Carey,” who is currently incarcerated. It is based on anecdotal experiences and juxtaposes the premise of rehabilitation against the practice of incapacitation of prisoners. 1. There…

Tanya Pierce // In this auto-ethnographic piece on the current COVID-19 health crisis, I present my reflections on my own imprisonment through the lens of a returning citizen. In addition to exploring my own incarceration, I will tell the story of my friend Vanee Sykes, a returning citizen who survived prison but passed away from…

Shawn Elijah Williams // My name is Shawn Elijah Williams, but someday soon I wish to change it to Abdul-Qahir Al Queens, inshallah (God Willing). I was asked to write about my experience in solitary confinement, how I dealt with it, and how it affected me. But before I start on that, I think it’s…