Today I had an aha moment.
No, not the type of aha moment free world people experience when encountering something truly eye opening, but the type only incarcerated people know and experience after decades of living in a cage.
Every one of Ohio’s 50,000 prison incarcerated people are issued a Samsung 10″ tablet — it’s not that glamorous, these are refurbished 5th and 6th generation monstrosities in a world of 20th generation magic — and we have access to numerous free, but mostly pay-to-use services. Prison is big business. There’s money to be made from the backs of America’s most vulnerable population, their friends, and families.
I was swiping through he GTL Library app of offerings. Think of the app like an online library of sorts where there’s magazines, books, and ebooks. It’s nothing like the limitless content of the internet, everything is censored and specially curated. Anyhow, I stumbled upon the audio book, “Who Moved My Cheese?”.
I tapped the Who Moved My Cheese? icon and an audio book reader launched.
I suppose out there something as mundane as an audio book reader wouldn’t warrant mention let alone a blog post — but in my world this is discovery on scale similar to teenagers stumbling upon online porn.
I glanced around casual so not to draw attention. Content my discovery went unnoticed by the men around me, I focused on the reader’s unknown icons before settling upon the safe familiarity of the play button.
I hurriedly plugged in my ear buds and tapped play. For the next 5 minutes a man’s voice droned on and on about how he had come up with the idea for Who Ate My Cheese?. My excitement quickly drained away. This guy was kinda boring.
I decided to venture deeper. The way I saw it I could do no harm, besides I had already made up my mind I couldn’t possibly sit through two hours of this man’s mind numbing voice. That is until I discovered Valhalla.
In the corner of the app I spotted a discreet double “§” looking icon. I tapped it. A new screen appeared. Bulleted percentages of 100%, 125%, 150%, 175%, and 200% trailed from top to bottom. Highlighted by default was 100%.
I tapped 125%.
The mans voice returned except this time he seemed somehow cheerier. I tapped 150%. Now he babbled on like a gaggle of teenage girls. 175% and he spoke as if hopped up on lines of crystal meth.
I eyed 200%. My heart pounded and my palms grew moist. I cast a furtive glance around me and thumbed 200%.
The man’s voice raced back like a used car auctioneer. Holy shit, I thought. I CAN listen to this book!
*Christopher Monihan is a journalist, writer, and 2024 Stillwater Award recipient. His newest book “Reflections From Behind the Wall” is now available on Amazon.
December 03, 2025
Here we are December 2025 and my 31st year of incarceration. Had you asked me when I began my sentence how I’d feel come the year 2025, I might have passed out. Just the thought I could still be incarcerated 31 years later might have sent me seeking a high ledge.
Yet, here I am. You want to know something? I feel optimism and gratitude in this moment. I am grateful because time sanded away all the rough edges of my ignorance and immaturity, leaving a man with direction, understanding, and purpose. My time on the inside has opened my eyes.
I know many of you know this about me having followed my journey for years. I am grateful to all of you, knowing that my life is worthy of interest and inquiry. Because of you I thrive and find meaning and purpose.
To the many new readers who have discovered me, thank you for taking time out of your lives to follow mine and those of other writers here.
2025 has been an amazing year. The universe reflects back upon us that which we send out into it, and I want to share a little with you that has come back to me.
In May and for the third time in as many years, I spoke in front of hundreds of people at Harmony’s annual Sunflower Arts and Music Festival held at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. The festival brings together three prisons — two men’s, one women’s — for a day long event celebrating our shared humanity and common bond. On YouTube visit the channel: HarmonyProjectOnline. There you will find the incarcerated men and women of Harmony, along with the amazing people of Harmony and supporters (free world and within Ohio Corrections). You will also see me in several videos!
The Harmony Project visits my prison once a week and for an hour we sing and share in community. For that hour I literally forget that I am in prison. Harmony’s volunteers are heaven sent and although Harmony is nondenominational I can’t help but think of these words from the Bible:
“Be sure to welcome strangers, for in so doing you may have welcomed Angels unaware.”
If there are Angels among us, I know who some of them are.
This summer I was accepted into Kindway Embark’s highly coveted and respected faith based reentry program (Google: Kindway Embark of Columbus, Ohio). We meet twice a week for fellowship and discipleship. Kindway Embark’s volunteers are amazing, caring human beings that I am grateful are a key part of my life. I look forward to coming back into Ohio’s prisons with Kindway Embark someday as a volunteer. I want to spread the same hope to Ohio’s incarcerated men and women that I receive when these volunteers are here. If you are with Kindway Embark thank you from the bottom of my heart.
My voice continues to thrive and as a writer 2025 was a good year. I saw my work in numerous publications most notable Prison Journalism Project; Inside; Exchange; and publications at Columbia and Cornell universities.
My personal mission to draw awareness to incarceration borne PTSD (ibPTSD) continues to gain traction with new contacts in academia and nonprofits; and I discovered and joined an amazing writers group consisting of some of the most accomplished incarcerated writers in the country. It’s no secret I live to write and write to live.
I have only begun. Upon release I shall go from incarcerated writer to founder and editor of my own organization dedicated to magnifying the journalism, writings, and lives of America’s marginalized incarcerated people. Nobody knows the hidden truths of incarceration — and can shed light on them, for we have lived it first hand — better than current and formerly incarcerated people.
Most importantly an organization founded and staffed by formerly incarcerated people know the Unknowables that free world editors can only dream of knowing. Everyone else is on the outside of the birdcage looking in.
When I read the works of history’s most notable incarcerated people, such as Oscar Wilde or Nelson Mandela to name a couple, I feel a shared bond and understanding for our experience transcends distance and time. I truly know and that is why every incarcerated writer has ever put pen to paper.
I am happy to announce the publication of my newest book, “Reflections From Behind the Wall” (ISBN 979-8262373062). It is now available on Amazon. It contains hundreds of selected essays and posts from May 01, 2021 thru September 2025 written by myself and men and women incarcerated across the country. My first book, “Behind the Wall: A Prisoner’s Journal” (ISBN 9798514441983) is also available on Amazon, first published in 2021. Both books are priced very low so readers may be able to afford more than one copy. Please share them with others and thank you in advance for your support. I am grateful.
I guess you can say I’m feeling empowered. My time on the inside has challenged me to be the best version of self I can be. I begin each day with my head held high and each night I rest knowing that I have lived.
There’s meaning and purpose in all that we do, but only if we choose to allow it to be. No one can take that from us.
Christopher
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Christopher Monihan is a writer, journalist, and Stillwater award recipient. He is incarcerated in Ohio.
Don’t Call Us Inmates
*A version of this essay first appeared in Prisoner Express, a Cornell University Durland Alternatives Library publication
In my quest to draw awareness to the plight of the oppressed and enslaved within America’s Prison Industrial Complex, my writings bring me into contact with other like minds. I am empowered when these are fellow incarcerated people like myself.
We are part of an exclusive cadre for better or for worse — today, tomorrow, and forever — that we didn’t choose but I long ago embraced. We share a collective bond borne from adversity forged through time, that transcends race, creed and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are incarcerated people and formerly incarcerated people.
We are unbreakable.
Incarcerated people return to society shunned and labeled “convict” “ex convict” “inmate” words meant to subjugate a class of people to societal margins. We have thrived despite purgatory existence, endured corruption and bore witness to their crimes and survived it all. Words will never hurt us.
Like others in my cadre my days are regimented, by choice, of course, and not due to any edict or arbitrary rule. No act of verbal or physical assault has conquest over me for I am forged from 31 years on the inside.
Take heed for I am on a mission to lift us, humanize us and empower us. I didn’t ask for this but I will rise to it.
All around me oppression abounds. How is it that a father or a mother should be forced to slave daily earning pennies an hour working a prison job? I stand witness to the mental distress etched across faces young and old. It is cruel and unusual punishment.
What you may not know is that this is by design for the 13th Amendment permits it:
“Neither punishment nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
And we lecture other nations on equality and basic human rights?
Nationally incarcerated people average 14 cents hourly earnings working a prison job. Here on Ohio a tube of toothpaste costs $3.17 in prison commissary. This is the equivalent of 22.6 hours of prison earned wages for Ohio’s incarcerated people average $20.00 a month working 36 hour work weeks. A pair of socks from one of Ohio’s sole source vendors costs $1.95 which is the equivalent of 14 hours of monthly wages; basic bra $9.95 or 71 hours of earnings; and a box of tampons runs $7.95 or nearly 57 hours of monthly wages.
Put another way, this would be the equivalent of a free world citizen working 165 hours to afford four basic items. Would you tolerate this? Yet, somehow it is acceptable that incarcerated people nationwide endure this burden.
How is it okay that the poorest families are disproportionately burdened with financially supporting an incarcerated mother or father, daughter or son?
Families of incarcerated people are systemically preyed upon by monopolistic companies such as JPay, Securus, GTL, and CorrLinks to name a few. It is here in America’s jails and prisons where an email can cost 50 cents, a local phone call $18.00, and a 15 minute Skype style video “visit” $15.00.
Every incarcerated person and their loved ones know these truths for we live beneath this yoke everyday.
I empower incarcerated men and women and draw awareness to life on the inside. This blog is one place where our voices are heard. My journalism is another place, and I engage with local, state and national organizations where restored citizens are helping one another while fostering awareness in the public discourse.
I educate and never pontificate. I fight for those who don’t have the strengths that I do or who have surrendered behind these walls and can no longer live.
I am Christopher Monihan or Mr. Monihan to the thousands of incarcerated people and restores citizens that know me. I hail from the state of Ohio but not by choice.
Those who follow my writings already know these truths. For those who are new, I am grateful to meet you.
Christopher
Prison Bound? 4 Musings to Help You Along the Way
Prison can seem like the end of the world. One moment you are free the next thrown into twilight purgatory where insanity is the norm and the norm drives men insane.
In my decades on the inside, I have learned some truths.
Continue reading “Prison Bound? 4 Musings to Help You Along the Way”
Paradise by Christopher
Hi everyone, I just feel like talking today. A lot has been on my mind, and it has weighed me down to the point where I have felt out of my zone. Sometimes in prison, there is nothing but your own thoughts to ponder, and this isn’t a good thing — not ever.
My days are strictly regimented. Oh, not because of ‘The Man’, but by choice. I have a day to day routine as most imprisoned souls do, and when it gets disrupted, everything goes to hell. Focusing on my mental chatter is surefire way to find myself there.