Justice Notes: The Letter

A White-Collar Journal forum for criminal justice, lived experience, and the personal search for redemption

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The Letter They Tried to Stop

Notes from an anonymous incarcerated writer

For this week’s Justice Notes, I want to share excerpts and reflections from a handwritten letter I recently received from an incarcerated writer participating in a prison writing mentorship program. To protect his safety and privacy, identifying details have been removed or altered.

The envelope arrived after weeks of silence.

Eight handwritten pages. Dense cursive. Blue prison stationery. A letter written slowly, carefully, under conditions most of us would find psychologically unbearable.

The writer apologized repeatedly for the delay. He had been transferred between institutions, caught in what he described as a prison “gang roundup,” subjected to mail interference, and blocked from educational programs.

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Dear Mr. DiMenna,

How are you? I pray you’re in good health. I’m glad that someone of your background and expertise could enjoy my story and offer genuine advice based upon a sincere wish to help.

I’m concerned that maybe you did not receive the entire piece. The ending to the story came when Munchie reached for the phone near the officer and it rang — prompting the officer, who was only pretending to be asleep, to awaken and answer it. Fortunately for Munchie, the call was to inform the officer that bail had been posted.

“Munchie” is part of a series involving a drug-addicted nut-case whom I use as a satirical example of the deeper macho mindset driven by substance abuse, faulty reasoning, and mental illness. I wanted to address these issues in a way that wouldn’t alienate the people it was intended to enlighten.

Yes, I have been through the arrest process on virtually every level, from juvenile to adult, so the detail comes from personal experience. I am from a family that hails from the epicenter of Tallahassee’s crack epidemic. I have met countless “Munchies,” as well as archetypes of each character I described.

I became an avid reader while in a youth facility where fiction salvaged what was left of my sanity. I attended community college and always had a knack for storytelling. Had incarceration not interrupted my rap aspirations, I probably never would have considered writing as a serious outlet.

I’m serving a long sentence for violent charges. I began writing fiction after reading novels in prison. Ever since my first project, I’ve been honing my skills, developing my literary palate, and studying the craft and niche of Black fiction writing.

I read widely. I have a GED and am trying to enroll in college correspondence programs in hopes of earning a degree in some literary field. I intend to market my fiction creatively using digital avenues and social media.

But I also need to explain the difficulties I’ve faced simply by corresponding with organizations that encourage inmates to pursue constructive outlets. Mail between prisoners and outside organizations tends to be monitored, harassed, and where possible, discouraged.

I apologize for the late response, but it has been hectic for me being transferred from one institution to another. I was caught up in a “gang roundup” initiated by a new warden. I’m only now beginning to settle into another institution.

I’ve repeatedly tried to enroll in educational and correspondence programs, but I feel my efforts are neither encouraged nor assisted. Due to allegations and classifications, I’ve been labeled in ways that prohibit me from jobs, programs, and opportunities.

This is enough to discourage the most tenacious inmate.

The thing is, all of the programs I’m excluded from were supposedly intended to help people like me.

I apply for every program and outside course I can, yet I still feel stonewalled and thwarted. If that’s not the case, then I feel mocked and ridiculed by authorities who are supposed to make these resources available.

Pen America and this mentorship is the only bright spot in my prison existence.

I sincerely hope and pray that we are not robbed of this gift provided by humane organizations whose presence in my life has made a huge difference in terms of my future prospects.

I need you to understand the oppressive policies and hostile viewpoints perpetuated against prisoners who threaten the secrecy of many unsavory practices routinely conducted inside prison systems.

These institutions seek to ensure people like me can never blow the whistle through writing.

They intercept and divert our stories, tamper with them, and otherwise aggravate us until we give up entirely.

I’m sorry for elaborating to this extent, but these correspondences have become my only source of expression and joy.

Let us make the most of it.

— Anonymous incarcerated writer

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Published with identifying details removed to protect the writer from possible retaliation.

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Justice Notes is an ongoing series examining incarceration, rehabilitation, storytelling, institutional power, and the lives that exist behind prison walls.

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