prison

What We’ve Been Reading—March 2021

Our editors reflect on their latest reads. Continue Reading »

23 Mar 2021

My Time in Prison

There is a lot of goodness in prisons. At times, I am sure, prisons may be hell on earth. I was fortunate to be kept safe and treated well. I was impressed by the professionalism of the warders, the faith of the prisoners, and the existence of a moral sense even in the darkest places. I was in . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Aug 2020

Briefly Noted

by Various

In September 1944, Helmuth von Moltke sat in Berlin’s Tegel prison, awaiting execution. The Nazis had arrested him for organizing the Kreisau Circle, a resistance group formed to plan a more democratic future Germany. Helmuth’s death drew near, yet, as his wife Freya wrote to him, “The best . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Apr 2020

Kilmainham Gaol

by Clinton Collister

We stand in crooked lines outside the gate,Where my new bride and I map out our day,As gap-year Germans try to understandWhat their French friend in denim means by “hangry”.The jailers call the Germans to file pastA wall where Irish rebels hung and flailed.We spot a pub across the street and . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jan 2020

Prisoners Are Not Animals

by Alexi Sargeant

It’s popular to pretend condemned criminals like Larry Nassar are animals or monsters, not human beings; but Christians do not have that luxury. Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2018

Missing the Fight on Christmas Day

by Roy Peachey

An Oxford student receives a second education when he spends Christmas at a night shelter for homeless men. Continue Reading »

18 Dec 2017

Saving Punishment

by Stephen H. Webb

Jim was holding his one-year-old son while smoking meth freebase when the oily liquid spilled on the little boy, badly burning him. Technically, it was an accident; the proximate cause was the breakdown in the electrical signals between his besotted brain and his fumbling fingers. Even in that . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Apr 2015

I Wanted That Kid Dead

by Russell E. Saltzman

My home state of Missouri is one of the most aggressive in carrying out the death penalty. So far this year, Missouri has executed two men, Walter Storey, forty-seven, on February 11 and, most recently, Cecil Clayton, seventy-four, on March 17. Since 1989, Missouri has executed eighty-two people. Continue Reading »

26 Mar 2015

The Pope and the Problem of Punishment

by Aaron Taylor

Pope Francis recently gave a speech to the International Association of Penal Law advocating for the improvement of prison conditions and reiterating pleas made by his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI for an end to the death penalty. Continue Reading »

5 Nov 2014

Prisoners Are Calling. Who’s Answering?

by Leah Libresco Sargeant

Prisons, at the very minimum are intended as quarantine; keeping cities and towns safer by removing criminals from their midst. But, in the opinion of one prisoner in Brazil, he’s more at liberty behind bars than out on the streets. Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho told one reporter, “It is you who are afraid of dying, not me. As a matter of fact, here in jail you cannot come in and kill me . . . but I can order to kill you out there.” Continue Reading »

24 Apr 2014