Writing from prison
When people are confined, especially if they are unjustly imprisoned, communication with the outside world can become particularly precious and important. Imagine what you might want to say to those outside, or what thoughts, memories, prayers and dreams might help sustain you. What could you use to write or communicate?
Writers
Here are some prison writers whose thoughts and words might inspire you and encourage you to make something out of what you have written or thought about during your explorations of the Prison House.
Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, an Iranian who was sent to prison in 1975, composed his novel Missing Soluch entirely in his head, having nothing to write on. Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian human rights activist, wrote Sozaboy in prison before he was hanged in 1995.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, also a Nigerian, wrote a novel on prison toilet paper.
John Bunyan imagined and wrote parts of The Pilgrim's Progress while in prison.
Blogs
There are a number of prison blogs reflecting on life behind bars, including Ben's Prison Blog. Ben pleaded guilty to murder when he was 14 and spent 32 years in prison. He reflects on his life as a prisoner, the ways of the criminal justice system, and the impossibility of ever being able to say sorry for the crime. Was he unjustly kept in prison after his sentence? He asks you to consider what he has to say.
Some thoughts from a group of young people who piloted this project:
' It's terrible to think people can be locked up for doing nothing'
'Some of the pictures break your heart'
'I couldn't have done what that priest did. I would've been too scared'
'How can people hurt others like that, - and like it?'
'I never thought about Jesus like that – a prisoner, caught and punished'
'When Jesus got out of the tomb, that must be what released prisoners feel like'
'When I locked my sister in her room and she was crying and shouting at me, I thought it was funny, but maybe it wasn't'