What happened to that sacred American idea, No taxation without representation? It seems to have missed the mark for millions of incarcerated citizens who pay taxes on the items they purchase while incarcerated, sometimes for decades, without a designated path for dialogue with their representatives. Though not all can vote, all people in prison are […]
This consolidation of music is an invitation to find fuel with me. In 2017, my most refueling hobby while living in the Pacific Northwest was writing music, during that time I picked up my guitar and wrote the prelude to an neo-soul album I didn’t even know existed, a project destined for release March 2023. […]
For the past year I’ve read selections from subscriber mailings as a part of an Instagram Livestream series opening submissions from my incarcerated readers for Mailroom Mondays and you can still find those here. While those livestreams gave whomever happened to be on instagram at the time a taste of prisoner realities, this new series […]
A slew of states have made progress towards ending felony disenfranchisement implementing universal suffrage for all adult citizens residing in their state. The following have bills proposed with exciting congressional updates. In some states an amendment to the constitution is required in order to reverse the injustice of felony disenfranchisment. For example, in New York, […]
Fall 2019 the movement to repeal TIS laws was reinvigorated by congressional failure to get another criminal justice reform across the finish line. In 2018, I received a prison phone call out of Gus Harrison that a bipartisian HB 5666 was introduced in the House of Representatives in order to revive an earned time system […]
In Illinois, there are just under 30,000 people incarcerated in state prisons who are restricted from voting, but yet are still impacted by the decisions of those elected officials that they cannot vote for. Advocates at Chicago Votes have identified this as a critical error in state government after observing an off-putting intersection in those […]
This was the first time I’ve ever felt unhinged excitement entering a county jail, here’s why: October 24th 2022 at 10:00am, six candidates running on the ballot in Michigan this November, accepted the invitation to speak directly to jailed voters in-person. After a round of introductions participants, including media and outside community members like myself, […]
“Money bond is ransom!” That’s what community members plastered on posters in protest as they advocated for a world where people’s freedom didn’t depend on their bank account balance. The assumption that those who can afford an arbitrarily assigned bond amount are less likely to be guilty is absurd. The assumption that pretrial incarceration determined […]
Over the past few months I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with a small group of college students studying at Yale university during this Summer of 2022. Several Yale students responded to my request for support with developing a Digitized Archive of Incarcerated Reader Submissions that’ve mailed to SawariMedia over the past five years. I […]
As a Revolutionary american AbolitionistI have too many friends who at electionAre just trying diss andIts hard to believeNo 20-somthings other than meCan see anything worth to redeemIn this broken democracyThis hopeless democracyThis choking democracyHow many of usHave to sigh “I can’t breathe”Before we choose to take the lead? The ballot boxIs just another WEAPONTo […]