All Posts

In October 2013, my father was sent to prison. An Eritrean refugee and veteran of the country’s war for independence, I grew up watching him grapple with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anger management. But one month into my freshman year of college across the country, these dire concerns became the least of my worries. Prison ruined him. I returned to Seattle for winter break and visited him before the sentencing. For the first time, we sat separated by a gl

More Than a Sentence: What Time Feels Like in Prison In just a few short months, I will be 30 years old. It still astounds me how time can move so slowly when you are a kid, especially when awaiting a holiday or a birthday, but as an adult, a year feels so short. It is still the same amount of time, it just feels entirely different. Time in prison operates the same way that time does when you are a kid, except it isn’t because you are anticipating an exciting event or want to