Six years ago, I started this blog.
If I could experience the outside world, where through my pen I break free from the bondage of prison, it would all be worth it, I had thought.
For decades, I have trekked through the desert known as American corrections, where justice is mirage and corruption the only oasis.
It is here where in New York’s Marcy Correctional prison guards can beat a handcuffed man to death all captured on video, be fired by the governor, charged by prosecutors, and the Correctional Officers Union defend their actions as justified.
It is here where the sanctity of human life is reduced to profit margins by companies preying upon the incarcerated and their families.
It is here where a father can pass away in the morning, his bunk unceremoniously stripped of bedding, and by afternoon be filled with the warm body of another father.
I seek truth, justice, and peace. In doing so, truth, justice, and peace find me, and they are not what you may think.
Truth — is a beast whose maw drips with the blood of the voiceless who have neither strength nor fortitude. The Beast of Truth has many names, American Corrections, Prison Industrial Complex, Prison, but like the chameleon, it is a master of deception. Its true name is Capitalism.
Justice — is an entity capable of moving in and out of reality. Some believe justice is wrought by gavel thud, while others believe justice exists within. In actuality, justice is a man who taught himself the craft of journalism and now wields a pen to shed light upon the dark acts committed in its name.
Peace — is faint inner glow flickering within the darkness. It is found by having the courage to stand up for what is right, all the while shouting from mountaintops that you alone built.
These are the three Horsemen. They are harbingers in a world lost worshipping digital gods and where life is sustained by clicks and 15-second videos of unattainable realities.
Truth opened my eyes.
Justice empowered me.
Peace sustains me.
Through these, I live my life.
*Christopher is a writer and journalist and 2024 Stillwater award recipient. He is incarcerated in Ohio.