Portfolio
Writing
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Last year, my oldest daughter went to juvenile detention, thus completing the three-generation cycle of incarcerated women in my family. I want to forge us a new path. Prism, 2024.
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Rampant, unaddressed drug use in prison kills what little hope there is to restore already vulnerable populations. Prism, October 2023.
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My mother left me with my father, a calloused construction worker named Dave when she went to prison. To this day I have no idea what crimes she committed to land herself there, let alone why she committed them. I do know, however, that my dad had no idea what to do with a little girl. Spectre, September 2023.
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Five million children have experienced the incarceration of a parent at some point during childhood. This harms already vulnerable children. Prism, August 2023.
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Item The festival showcased the talents of incarcerated individuals and aimed to help instill hope inside while building bridges to the outside. Prison Journalism Project, July 2023.
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When free bleeding ain’t free. Scalawag Magazine, June 2023.
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I’m ready for freedom, but there’s so much I don’t know, like what underwear to buy. Prison Journalism Project, May 2023.
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Once I leave prison, I’ll have to fight my addiction every day. Prison Journalism Project, April 2023.
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The system tried to degrade me from the moment I arrived. Prison Journalism Project, October 2022.
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(Read all the way to the bottom.) Prison Journalism Project, September 2022.
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In prison I am forced to be brave. Can the rest of America — and the politicians and the judges — be brave, too? Prison Journalism Project, July 2022.
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The fall of Roe means the fall of a woman’s right to choose. Prison Journalism Project, June 2022.
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I have spent the years since Adessa was born proving everyone’s worst predictions correct. The Crime Report, March 2020.
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A million different emotions flooded through me like a hurricane of despair and euphoria. It was Family Day at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. The day was drawing to an end. Pen America, September 2019.
Radio
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Women’s incarceration has grown at twice the pace of men incarceration in recent decades, 80% of women in jail are mothers. Prison Radio, June 2021.
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I sat on my bunk anticipating the morning supply drop along with the rest of the women in my dorm. It was that time of the month for me, my menstrual, which meant a lot of women who have been housed together for months came on cycle at the same time. Prison Radio, June 2021.
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According to the National Reentry Resource Center and the Vera Institute of Justice, at least 95 percent of incarcerated people will be released from prison at some point. By the time some of them are, two-thirds of job postings will require some level of college education. What does that mean for me as an inmate? Prison Radio, March 2021.
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That is what incarcerated individuals are seen as in my country: pests that buzz around the system. I’m not a pest, I’m a person. Prison Radio, February 2021.
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