In 2013, I sat in prison serving a lengthy sentence with no outside support–no visits, no phone calls, and no money for commissary–only monthly letters from my brother, who was also incarcerated. Without love from family and friends, I had started to lose hope and my heart began to turn cold.
In the final hours of January 26, 2020, the lights were dim in a triangular unit at State Correctional Center. The mood was relatively normal despite the abnormalities of confinement. From smacking cards on cold steel to making 20-minute collect calls, incarcerated men were passing time the best way they knew how. As a pair […]
On December 25, 2020, I woke up on my top bunk drenched in sweat. “Chow time!” the corrections officer shouted. He stood outside the opened cell door with two breakfast trays in his hands. Listening to my institutionalized instinct, I rose halfway before I quickly realized that my achy body wasn’t going to comply. I […]
“The messages are quite simple: if you are consistently productive with a positive attitude, you’ll have a healthy mind, body, spirit, and lifestyle. And if you disassociate with negativity and illegal activity, you’ll avoid jail or prison,” Latif explained when asked what “Stay Focused. Stay Free” means. Ex-criminal turned children’s author Latif Torres-Robinson walks what […]