Beyond the Razor Wire

Today, I caught myself sitting around, I’ve been thinking about losses versus the gains in the four decades I been in here and I realize I have had a lot of days and I feel grief, sadness, even despair because of my young mistakes and I feel like I threw my life away sometimes. I grieve the mistakes I made, not for myself but for everybody they affected. But I think that’s what drives me to live, making restoration in a daily form. I still threw away being a daughter, sister,

LBGTQ+ and gender non-conforming people in the justice system Justice is supposed to evaluate conduct-not conformity. Yet, LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately represented throughout the American justice system. Their identities do not cause criminal behavior. The disparities reflect something more complicated: family rejection, homelessness, poverty, trauma, school exclusion, substance use, victimization, discriminatory policing and unequal access t

"Highlighting the urgency for second look laws in Kentucky, this depiction underscores the indefinite nature of rehabilitation without a set release date, emphasizing the need for review mechanisms beyond incarceration." Kentucky does not have to choose between accountability and second chances. A meaningful second-look law would not erase a conviction, shorten every sentence, override victims, or guarantee anyone’s release. It would simply create a structured opportunity-a

There is an irony in the work I do today that I am only beginning to fully understand. I work in corrections and with substance use disorders. I sit with people whose worst decisions have followed them for years-sometimes decades. My work asks me to believe in rehabilitation, recovery, accountability, and the possibility that a person can become so much more than the worst thing they have ever done. I advocate for those serving extraordinarily long sentences. I ask questions

There is a place most people will never see. They see the razor wire, the concrete walls, the watchtowers, and the headlines. They see the crime, the sentence, and the years. What they rarely see are the people who continue living behind those fences-learning, grieving, growing, mentoring, serving and hoping. For some, those years have become decades. Beyond the razor wire are mothers and fathers, artists and teachers, mentors and people of faith. There are individuals who ha