A website called The American Reader recently posted a fascinating article titled “In Conversation: Excerpted Letters From Incarcerated Writers.” Journalist Andrea Jones interviews, via letters, several people who are currently in prison and spend their time writing.
Jones introduces the compilation of letters by explaining that media coverage about the prison system remains disproportionately low compared to the number of people the system affects. She attributes this to journalists’ lack of access to investigate the system. Many times public officials deny journalists interviews with prisoners “because they fear the anticipated content of a story.” And when the topic of imprisonment is covered in the mainstream media, it’s not usually about the daily struggles of prisoners but rather about crises and extreme situations.
By bringing the words of incarcerated writers directly to the general public through her article, Jones hopes to provide people with a better understanding of what goes on behind bars from raw, firsthand accounts. The excerpted letters cover a range of issues and perspectives and give readers an inside look at what everyday life is like for prisoners.
A female prisoner in Virginia, Christi Buchanan, writes to dispel exaggerations portrayed in movies. She says, “Occasionally, there will be a violent fight, but for the most part women just argue loudly … For every ugly word spoken in anger or hurt, I hear about the encouraging stuff more often. From her perspective, society sees prisoners as “cold, uncaring, violent, uneducated animal[s]” instead of “people.”
Reginald S. Lewis from Pennsylvania writes about some prisoners who raise funds for college scholarships for underprivileged kids and help connect children with their absent fathers. He says that these kinds of stories often go untold.
One prisoner writes about what it’s like to be on death row. Michael Lambrix from Florida says “society has declared that we have virtually no redeeming value.” He began writing because he wanted to show the public that its perception of prisoners as “stereotypical monsters” is not an accurate assumption.
Jeff Conner, a prisoner in Washington, writes that although he wants children when he is released, he is glad he does not have any now. Throughout Jeff’s teenage and young-adult years, his father was in prison. His dad rarely wrote to him and that really hurt. This is one of the reasons that Jeff writes so many letters to his family members now. He feels he overcompensates for being absent by “having paper relationships.” He wants society to understand the pain that family and friends of incarcerated people experience.
Another prisoner, Christopher Zoukis from Virginia, writes bluntly about solitary confinement: “Even mentally sound prisoners experience bouts of aggression and severe depression in these conditions.” He remembers feeling disoriented and incoherent. He writes that “locking a human in a tiny isolated cell, subjecting him to severe sensory deprivation, and cutting off contact with the outside world is harmful. Add in sadistic treatment by some guards that can reinforce prisoners’ feelings of worthlessness, and you have the recipe for a badly wounded person.”
Christopher gives his suggestions for reform. He is very clear that people who break the law should be held accountable for their actions, but wants to see the system support “the reformation of their character” more. He believes reentry preparation should begin as soon as a person is incarcerated and that each prisoner should be given an “individualized reformation pathway: a map that shows what help prisoners should receive during their term of incarceration.” In addition, he writes that a reentry specialist should help to reintegrate prisoners during the critical first few weeks after release.
It’s not often that the public gets to hear directly from prisoners, so these letters are a particularly powerful reminder of how much prisoners need the hope and love of Jesus. These letters reveal the truth that many prisoners feel worthless, forgotten, unloved, and devalued. Through reentry programs, Angel Tree, justice reform, and so much more, Prison Fellowship Ministries works to show prisoners that God has the power to redeem anyone, no matter what they’ve done in the past.
As one prisoners wrote on this matter, “The operating principle is that prisons should constrain people, thoughts, and ideas so that they are not visible, or offensive to, the outside community. But if we want these lives to be restored, prisoners need to see that people believe they are valuable.”
