Just because your body is in prison doesn’t mean your mind isn’t free, and even though this thought might be trite, there is some truth in it, because we are our minds. In the deepest sense we are our spirits. When you think of a person, or of your own body–is not this a prison in some sense? Are we not in a prison of time? We age, we lose our faculties, but that doesn’t mean we cannot overcome, and we do that by the power of mind and spirit. We reach beyond.
from “Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience,” by Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, activist, death row prisoner
Writing Beyond Prison is a living digital archive that gives voice to those often voiceless and bound to mass incarceration and the carceral state. As part of the Sustaining Public Engagement grant from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), a unique coalition of academics, incarcerated activists, and archivists has gathered stories from around the carceral system–be it incarcerated writers, people on parole, or children of incarcerated parents–to give a platform to these important stories.
