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Taylor on ending the “meat show” in Texas prisons Taylor: I have to say now I’m going to talk about a unit called Allred Unit at TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice). But I’ve heard recently about that unit, that it has changed. When I was there, it was tough. It was very tough if you were gay or transgender. The name is the Allred Unit...
I have 45 minutes to write this. If I don’t do it by then, I’ll chicken out and go back outside for another smoke. There’s this memory that keeps playing in my head that I’ve tried to suppress many times, but the more I try to block it out, the slower it gets. My dad is sitting next to me in the car. He’s yelling, not quite at me...
One mild evening this past May, my partner and I ventured to a quaint bookstore in Atlanta’s Virginia-Highland neighborhood for a Motherhood Beyond Bars children’s book release party. The organization provides support for infants born to women incarcerated and works to reunify families. I was eager to attend the event and catch up with community comrades...
Tears were running down my girl’s porcelain cheeks as she walked away. My heart was pounding so hard I feared it would betray my panic—and that I would do anything to keep her. I was losing my edge. I looked up from a rusty nail in the picnic table just in time to meet her hazel eyes. “You’re an ass,” she said quietly. Just a few weeks...
Blue lights flashed in my rearview mirror. I was driving west on 95th Street in a dark blue Chevy Impala with expired license plates, and I had been speeding. It was late at night. The rain was light, and I was nervous. Any time is a bad time to go to jail, but tonight would be the worst. As the officer approached, I rolled the window down. Shining his flashlight in...
Illustrations by Nader Asmar. Imprisoning Palestine Zionist colonialism through an abolitionist lens. “But they are not human beings,they are not people, they are Arabs.” — David Hacohen, Israeli politician The mechanisms of dehumanization have long been debated in the fields of psychology, sociology, and genocide studies. It is a phenomenon we inevitably...
The hidden cost of ‘free’ tablets in prison So-called ‘free’ tech in prison comes with hefty price tags—and profit margins. by EZZIAL WILLIAMS June 21, 2023 ABOLITION WEEK Being connected in this digital age of social media and ChatGPT can sometimes be overly complicated for those of us on the inside, especially if you’ve been...
This is my first night in prison. It’s past midnight, and I’m in solitary confinement. The lights are permanently on, and I’m sitting on my bed—a thin beige cot on top of a grey slab of concrete—with my back against the wall. I’m looking straight ahead, but my mind is elsewhere. My life has just been shattered into a million pieces, now...
Palestinians hold photographs of prisoners jailed in Israel during a celebration for the liberation of Palestinian Khader Adnan in the West Bank village of Arrabeh, near Jenin, Wednesday, April 18, 2012. The same week, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel launched a hunger strike the protesting their conditions and demanding an end to detentions without...