Beyond the Razor Wire

Second-look sentencing, the science of redemption and the voices Kentucky has yet to hear. Who speaks for the people who have spent decades behind prison walls, long after the public stopped paying attention to their sentences? A 2025 study published in Criminology, Public Support for Universal Second Look Sentencing: A Research Note, examines an important question: Are Americans willing to reconsider lengthy prison sentences when individuals have demonstrated meaningful ch

What happens when a sentence that allowed the possibility of parole becomes a sentence to die in prison? My last article Trauma-Informed Care or the Death Chamber? delves into the irony of ‘trauma-informed’ steps while simultaneously preparing to walk with them the ‘last mile’….to the execution chamber. But that question does not end at the death chamber door. What about those never sentenced to execution, yet now face death by incarceration despite a sentence that allowed fo

Before Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike, I wanted to write about a cognitive dissonance I was just unable to shake or let go. Just the irony of the situation. As I continued to hear the news day in and day out, to see if this was going to happen given all the controversies surrounding not just the execution itself but the manner in which it would finally be carried out. After the botched execution…stunned, I needed to pause, process, then proceed… A system can lear

What Prison Leaves with Us Recently, prison felt especially heavy. A guy who had spent more than three decades incarcerated had recently learned that he might finally be going home. After all those years of watching the world change beyond the razor's wire, freedom was no longer just a dream. It was close enough to imagine. He didn't live to reach it. There are details not mine to share. His name and the circumstances belong to those of his family there remained. What I wit

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