As with juveniles, young adults (18-24) experience a diminished capacity for cognitive processing because the PFC and EFs continue to develop into the mid-20’s. This diminished capacity of young adults must be taken into consideration when sentencing people in this age
We need access to equality and a fair justice system, regardless of who is facing it. We need to learn how to forgive and be kind to one another for a better future.
Freedom visits me Once or twice a day In the gentlest of ways, She comes with a friend, Maybe a lover, Maybe a sibling Her gender doesn’t matter here, Nor anywhere, Freedom moves without such bounds, Man has caged freedom Since he first laid jealous eyes On its capacity to roam.
a fluorescent heaven, nothing that would even almost dwell in a venue deemed a hell.
I remember the next morning when, because of the punishment, my anger to abandon education reached its peak.
It’s been almost five years since I found my true potential – a writer. And every time I hit a writer’s block, I meditate.
As for me, while I'm lost in prison ocean, I want to hold tight to the buoy which I have discovered and has kept me floating until the rescue ship arrives (my release date).
The process of writing an observational and personal experience type of story around current news seemed fairly simple; yet in the middle of creating this imaginative world, I began to re-engage with my emotions of loss, regret, and acceptance.
The notion of meeting my father’s father lingered over me like a ripe fruit in my sight, but unreachable.
Isolation is killing me faster than the virus.
Children have their own logical reasoning. Once they focus on an objective to achieve something, they don’t get distracted by obstacles. That is how I felt in my childhood.
I anticipated attending school and exploring the world beyond the main smoky-gray wooden door of my home.
Image ID: a man standing in a jail cell, holding the steel bars in front of him.
It is the opinion of this writer that no inmate confined in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections will ever receive a fundamentally fair and impartial clemency hearing from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, so long as both of the
I believe that ex-offender public online registries are ineffective security theater and amount to nothing more than modern day pillory—one of those medieval devices where an offender’s hands and head are fastened to a wooden instrument to be mocked.
I had a newfound respect for Frederick Douglass’ quote: “once you learn to read, you are forever free.” I would respectfully add an addendum: “once you learn to write, you can fight for your right.”
During a time where "social distancing" is a matter of life or death, the overcrowding of our prison systems takes on a whole new light.
Tabitha Maynard presents a Bill of Rights demanding justice from the prison system and the government. Her demands shed light on the multitude of ways people in prison are dehumanized and offer a vision of a more just and equal
We want somebody to help us and hear our voices. To make ourselves understandable. We don’t want to just be left behind. We’re just praying every day that there’s somebody trying to help us out there, trying to hear our