Doing time: 25 years of prison writing

Foreword / Sister Helen Prejean

Introduction / Bell Gale Chevigny

Initiations

Prison letter / M. A. Jones

Siempre / William Aberg

Dog star desperado / William Orlando

How I became a convict / Victor Hassine

Arrival / Judee Norton

Time and its terms

Reductions / William Aberg

Where or when / Jackie Ruzas

Overture / M. A. Jones

Vivaldi on the far side of the bars / M. A. Jones

Killing time / Roger Jaco

After almost twenty years / Chuck Culhane

There isn't enough bread / Chuck Culhane

Manipulation game : doing life in Pennsylvania / Diane Hamill Metzger

Giving me a second chance / Larry Bratt

Myths of darkness : the Toledo Madman and the ultimate freedom / J. R. Grindlay

Routines and ruptures

Spring / Michael Hogan

Autumn yard / Chuck Culhane

Letters come to prison / Jimmy Santiago Baca

Trina Marie / Lori Lynn McLuckie

After lights out / Barbara Saunders

Poem for the conguero in D Yard / Raymond Ringo Fernandez

In the big yard / Reginald Lewis

Old man Motown / Patrick Nolan

Tower pig / Scott A. Antworth

Night the owl interrupted / Daniel Roseboom

Work

Chronicling Sing Sing Prison / Easy Waters

Cut partner / Michael E. Saucier

Gun guard / Michael E. Saucier

Skyline turkey / Richard Stratton

Suicide! / Robert Kelsey

Reading and writing

Coming into language / Jimmy Santiago Baca

Pell grants for prisoners / Jon Marc Taylor

Tetrina / Bedford Hills Writing Workshop

Sestina : Reflections on Writing / Bedford Hills Writing Workshop

Behind the mirror's face / Paul St. John

Black Flag to the rescue / Michael E. Saucier

Players, games

I see your work / Joseph E. Sissler

Solidarity with cataracts / Vera Montgomery

Clandestine kisses / Marilyn Buck

Ryan's ruse / Jackie Ruzas

Feathers on the solar wind / David Wood

Death of a duke / Dax Xenos

Race, chance, change

First day on the job / Henry Johnson

Eleven days under siege / Paul Mulryan

Pearl got stabbed! / Charles P. Norman

Sam / Michael Wayne Hunter

Lee's time / Susan Rosenberg

Family

Ancestor / Jimmy Santiago Baca

Uncle Adam / Diane Hamill Metzger

Red dress / Barbara Saunders

Ignorance is no excuse for the law / Alejo Dao'ud Rodriguez

Our skirt / Kathy Boudin

Ball park / Henry Johnson

Norton #59900 / Judee Norton

Stranger / Anthony La Barca Falcone

After my arrest / Judith Clark

To Vladimir Mayakovsky / Judith Clark

Trilogy of journeys / Kathy Boudin

World

Prisons of our world / Allison Blake

Pilots in the war on drugs / Robert J. Moriarty

No brownstones, just alleyways and corner pockets full / J.L. Wise, Jr.

Americans / Jon Schillaci

For Sam Manzie / Jon Schillaci

Diner at midnight / David Taber

Film / David Taber

5-Spot Cafe / Henry Johnson

Melody / J.C. Amberchele

Mel / J.C. Amberchele

Getting out

Dream of escape / Henry Johnson

After all those years / Ajamu C.B. Haki

Stepping away from my father / William Aberg

To those still waiting / M.A. Jones

Break / Robert M. Rutan

Death row

For Mumia : I wonder / Kathy Boudin

Easy to kill / Jackie Ruzas

Recipe for prison pruno / Jarvis Masters

Conversations with the dead / Stephen W. Anderson

Walker's requiem / Anthony Ross

"Write a poem that makes no sense" / Judith Clark.