A young man spoke with me today about the two months that he served in the SHU (also known as the Special Housing Unit). Prisoners locked in the SHU—a prison within the prison—are confined in closet-sized rooms for between 23 and 24 hours every day. The young man spoke tough, as if to impress me [...]
I began my work today at 2:21 a.m. I gathered my writing gear and left my cubicle to walk toward the room where I write. When I passed one of the cubicles on my left, I noticed that it was empty. An acquaintance with whom I’d been friendly was assigned to the cubicle, so seeing it [...]
This morning I spoke with my friend Ron, a new prisoner from Chicago who built a career as an accountant in Southern California, and who began his term at Taft Camp with an extended stay in the Special Housing Unit (SHU). After speaking with him I had more understanding of what happened, and he suggested that [...]
I’m very grateful for the privilege of being able to run every morning. This morning I ran 10 miles, boosting my consecutive running to 283 days and accumulating a tally of 2,513 miles during that time. I haven’t taken a day off from running since December 12, 2008, and as I ran my loops around [...]
Two years ago today I was locked in the SHU at Lompoc. SHU stands for Special Housing Unit, though those in prison refer to the SHU as the hole. Administrators had locked me in the SHU because they suspected that I was using a word processor to type manuscripts. I had indeed used the word [...]
At 2:38 this morning I woke and hopped down from my rack in the Taft prison camp. A few minutes later I was in the quiet room where I write early each morning. I have come to really depend on the quiet time alone. If I am not awake before 3:00 in the moning, I [...]
