Family for a Day
The last time I attended family day in prison was in 2004. I was at a different stage of my incarceration back then; I was at a different stage in my life. I was housed inside of the annex in Jessup, Maryland. Family day was offered as an incentive to help curb the routine violence of prison life. Besides the threat of losing what little restricted liberties we held, there really was no other deterrents to keep the peace. Confined people behaved for the opportunity to spend extended time with their loved ones. Prisoners took a lot on the chin to once again be in the presence of people who still counted them as human. I was so hopeless back then. I moved under the conditioning of my environment. I carried with me the customary chip Baltimore boys like me pick up on our journey. I was just an inmate serving a life sentence looking for any reason to not give up, and for me, family day was that reason.
It feels like a lifetime ago since I was housed inside of the annex. Although I am still incarcerated, serving time for me has a new meaning— a deeper purpose is not attached to my prison sentence. My want to live in pursuit of knowledge is stronger than my will to survive in functioning ignorance.
In January of 2022, I was accepted as one of the first 25 students into Georgetown University’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts program at the Patuxent Institution. Ideally, the opportunity presented me with a chance to rewrite my story or at the very least take control of my own narrative. Being convicted can feel as if your crime has become a foul added layer of skin, an unconcealable smudge on the face of your humanity that dictates the terms of your every interaction until the stilling of your heart. Being accepted into Georgetown and making it infraction free to attend a family day both represented a reprieve from the hopelessness of prison. One by way of the subtle nature of love, the other, by way of intrusive force of education.