We begin with a report from Guy Smith and Herman Hunt, inmates at Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk, on living conditions in their facility.
Timothy Muise writes about a fellow inmate’s untimely death in prison and how the prison conditions contributed to his death.
In “Degrading Black Men,” George Charles Williams is outraged at regular verbal assaults that black prisoners experience from prison employees.
Luis Perez gives us a very gloomy look at the problem of aging in prison. With mandatory sentencing, we now witness a growing number of inmates who are getting old and require complex care that most prisons are not prepared to provide.
This year, we also received over two dozens of poems written by Massachusetts prisoners. We are presenting four which are very emotional and reflective. The authors write about their lost lives, hopes and dreams, about their loneliness and suffering.
As every year, we received an overwhelming number of articles and poems from Massachusetts prisoners, and because of space limits we were able to print only a handful of very interesting pieces. The selection process is very difficult, but we try to present a variety of issues and perspectives. We regret not being able to include all publishable pieces.
Please check our new column on page 4: Members in Action & Student Corner. This new section is dedicated to our Guild members and their political and legal work. We welcome reports from all Guild members.
