A central theme of the memoir I’ve written, The Honey Locust Tree, has to do with mistakes. How do we recover from our mistakes? Do we need help—from a parent, friend, society, a prison—to recover from our mistakes? Who can doubt the pain, and the power, of a major...
We’d just sat down in the medium security chapel when Ralph Maloney, an inmate who never missed a Quaker Meeting, took two envelopes out of his pocket. He looked at the six inmates sitting in the circle of chairs. “Chaplain Medina’s mother died recently. Can you guys...