By Boston Woodard It was great to meet my friend of 12 years for the first time. Mike Rhodes, former editor of the Community Alliance and author of Dispatches From The War Zone, spoke to members of [...] Continue Reading
The Prison Press
Putting Mice Before Men
The following poems were written by individuals incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, CA and Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, CA. Some of the authors are poetry and drama students [...] Continue Reading
Dispatches from the War Zone: A Book Review
By Boston Woodard “Mike Rhodes is the best reporter in America when it comes to covering homelessness,” said Jeremy Alderson, director of the nationally broadcast Homelessness Marathon Road [...] Continue Reading
Poetry Behind Bars
The following poems are written by individuals incarcerated in Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California. Some of the authors are poetry and drama students from the Alliance for California [...] Continue Reading
High School Club Cofounders Visit State Prison
By Boston Woodard On Sept. 18, a first of its kind symposium was held inside the California Medical Facility (CMF) state prison in Vacaville. POPS (Pain of the Prison System) the Club is for students [...] Continue Reading
POETRY CORNER
Poetry Behind Bars The following poems were written by individuals incarcerated in Valley State Prison in Chowchilla. Some of the authors are poetry and drama students from the Alliance for [...] Continue Reading
Ghetto by the Sea: A POPS the Club Anthology
By Boston Woodard Ghetto by the Sea is the second anthology by some extraordinarily talented teenagers and young adults at Venice High School in Los Angeles County. These writers, poets, artists and [...] Continue Reading
In This Space
By Steve Umfrid They whys of it all escape me As I lay here on my side, Arms raised in front of my face A shield to block the constant light. Cold seeps through the concrete Chilling my forearms, [...] Continue Reading
To Pass with Dignity
By Boston Woodard When I think of death as a prisoner, I sometimes wonder if I will make it back out into the free world for my demise or if I will take my last breath while still incarcerated. A [...] Continue Reading
Rainmaker
By Stephen Barile from Tulare Lake To stave off a drought in 1924, Wheat farmers in the Tulare Lake bottom Hired Hatfield the Rainmaker man And paid him a hefty fee, For he was in demand throughout [...] Continue Reading
My 10 Years with the Community Alliance
By Boston Woodard Ten years ago, I was given the opportunity by Mike Rhodes, former editor of the Community Alliance, to correspond as a journalist from behind state prison walls. Because of Ernesto [...] Continue Reading
Who Came First, the Chicken or the Prisoner?
By Daniel Tregila The hunger strikes launched here in the Pelican Bay Special Housing Unit (SHU/solitary confinement) in 2011 was based on decades of the use and abuse of solitary confinement against [...] Continue Reading