Behind the bars roundup: What I'm watching and reading
An award-winning documentary about running a marathon in prison, my current favorite memoir and website... here are my top recommendations that will captivate you.
Hi Friends,
In getting more involved with prison advocacy work—I can’t get enough of the stories. Stories about the men and women who once served time or are still behind bars.
I want to know more about what happened, how they got there, and what they did to overcome their challenges. It’s why I started Stories About My Bro—I wanted to convey that life is not black and white. The way I see it, it’s mostly grey and sometimes black or white.
We’re humans, with complicated lives and minds and hearts. There are so many reasons we do the things we do. Sometimes, we aren’t even sure why we do the things we do.
But our mistakes shouldn’t define us. We have the capacity to change, grow, and even thrive.
This is a little roundup of the three things that got me totally giddy in recent months.
If you like it, please like and comment below, share it, restack it in Notes, forward it to a friend, and get the word out! Thank you for reading and subscribing to my work.
26.2 to Life
This documentary film is about running a marathon inside San Quentin State Prison in Northern California.
When I lived in Oakland, I drove by San Quentin each time I went to Mount Tam or Stinson Beach for my favorite hikes. These were the days before my brother was locked up and the only thing I knew about San Quentin was from the reality show from the early 2000s called “Lockup.”
Each time I sped by it on the highway, I remembered the feeling of doom. Little did I know that in a handful of years, I would come to learn so much about this minimum security level prison with its plethora of programs, educational opportunities, and even yearly marathons.
I became more knowledgeable about life inside San Quentin from my favorite podcast about life on the inside, Ear Hustle. They had an episode about marathons.
In 26.2 to Life, they followed many of the same people who regularly appeared in Ear Hustle, so for me, the documentary put faces to the voices.
It felt familiar, like when I was a kid and watched “Laverne and Shirley” and saw Fonzie and Richie Cunningham from “Happy Days“ make a special guest appearance. (If you’re of a certain age, you’ll get this reference. I don’t know why, but when I was in grade school, these sitcom crossovers blew my mind.)
Also, watching 26.2 to Life felt really satisfying because I could finally see the yard and what the laps looked like. Runners had to complete 105 laps to equal 26.2 miles.
The director, Christine Yoo, did a phenomenal job of telling so many stories through running.
While watching, I was shocked at how tiny the cells at San Quentin were. They were like long closets with a bunk bed shoved inside. But I was also glad to see the amount of freedom allowed in the prison.
The runners locked up at San Quentin were a level two security, which felt so different than my brother’s level, which is a four. Level two means the men could walk in and out of their cells, locking the doors behind them with their own combination padlock—they didn’t need to be put in handcuffs or eat every meal in their cells.
Running to feel better
As a former runner, I also felt the shared misery of pounding the pavement with the guys in the film. I ran because I was unhappy with myself. Running made me feel less unhappy.
I ran my first (and only) marathon in 2009. I still remember my time—5 hours and 14 minutes.
In training for the marathon, I ran 10 miles, 15 miles, and then 20 miles at a time. During the hours and hours of running and sweating and pain, I tried to work out problems that had no solutions or replayed scenarios in which the outcomes would never change.
Other times, I could only focus on making it to the next block.
You love it. You hate it. You want to feel better.
Whether you’re a runner or intrigued by unique stories, you don’t want to miss this documentary. I watched it online during their virtual premiere.
Here’s where you can catch future screening events.
‘Corrections in Ink,’ by Keri Blakinger
When I told my colleagues about this book, I realized I was late to read it because they were like, “Oh, I loved that one!”
How did I miss this?!
I learned about this memoir through a prison program I will soon be volunteering for in my city. The woman who runs the program was nice enough to drop off a few books at my house, and this was one of them.
The memoir is about Keri, a rising ice-skating star-turned-drug-addict. How did a person practically on the road to the Olympics end up doing heroin, getting tangled up with prostitution, and serving time?
The author’s story fascinated and horrified me. It was a reminder that anyone can fall from grace. It made me think about my brother—he had two parents who loved and supported him from the day he was born, yet his choices set him on a path that landed him behind bars.
Keri’s story gave me hope. She’s a fighter and one helluva writer. She vowed to get clean and do better, and quite frankly, this book is the stuff that makes Netflix movies. (Shortly before she wrote it, she was on NPR’s Fresh Air, getting interviewed by Terry Gross!)
Keri now writes for The Marshall Project and The New Yorker. Her prison advocacy and investigative journalism work are impressive—I am such a fan. She reports about the inhumane conditions of our prisons, including the treatment of people on death row.
I recently heard her on a podcast from the New Yorker and instantly recognized her distinct voice from the audiobook version of “Corrections in Ink.”
Get the book or listen to it.
Prison Chronicles
The Prison Chronicles is a platform for Samuel, who writes about everything from his childhood and family life to the intricacies of what security levels mean in prison.
I was intrigued when Magida reached out to me in an email to let me know about her friend, a lifer named Samuel. This is what Magida wrote:
The ultimate goal of Prison Chronicles is not only to share Samuel’s story but also to raise awareness of the series of events that a child could go through that can ultimately set them up for failure. It’s also to allow those outside to glimpse how life runs on the inside.
I met Samuel through WriteaPrisoner.com almost 11 years ago. I was finishing art school, and when I saw that Samuel was into art and poetry, I thought it’d be cool to collaborate with him.
Samuel got into writing when given an indeterminate SHU term (SHU = Segregated housing unit, AKA solitary confinement). He spent 7 years in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison. He wrote poetry to explore the emotions he was dealing with. Thankfully, the SHU was overturned, but the writing continued to be a part of his daily routine.
Over time, Samuel and I collaborated on making postcards and creating a poetry book with his poems and my paintings. Eventually, it led to “Prison Chronicles.”
First of all, WTF, seven years in the SHU?! How does that happen?! It’s utterly heartbreaking and speaks to the unfair, inhumane, and atrocious treatment of incarcerated people.
In learning more about Samuel, I realized the similarities between him and my bro, who were caught up in an L.A. lifestyle doomed to fail them both. Samuel is also serving his time at Kern Valley State Prison, where my brother once was.
In Prison Chronicles, Samuel focuses on everything I want my brother to write about—to self-reflect and gain a deeper understanding of himself and why he went down the path he did. Maybe one day my brother will write and follow in Samuel’s footsteps. In the meantime, I plan on printing out Samuel’s writing and sending it to him.
I hope you too will read Samuel’s stories and share them.
Thank you for reading this. I am so grateful for your support. If you enjoyed my Behind the Bars Roundup, remember to comment, like, or share this.