Between 2016 and 2025, Michelle Shoemaker spent more than $1,000 on songs and games for her tablet — a rudimentary, prison-approved device she purchased from JPay, a subsidiary of the massive prison communications company Aventiv. Her tablet also held hundreds of emails and photographs, including treasured photos and messages from her deceased father, daughter, and mother. One email contained the…
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It came in a red envelope, postmarked December 27, 2010. It was addressed to me at Menard Correctional Center, cell 546 in the south uppers. The return address stunned me when I read it. It came from Sacramento Street in Vallejo, California, 94590. The sender’s name was Gramma, Aimee Bell. I examined the handwriting for a long while, trying to remember if I’d ever seen it before. It did not spark…
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Kenneth Butler, an inside-outside prison education training coach who grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, spent 15 years incarcerated prior to his release from prison in June 2021. He’s since implemented reentry programs and conducted recidivism research in Uganda while on a Fulbright Fellowship, and he has served as a mentor to formerly incarcerated youth and young adults in…
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