Paranoia is an illness I contracted in institutions. It is not the reason for my sentences to reform school and prison. It is the effect, not the cause.

To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.

To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.

When mental [illness] increases until it reaches the danger point, do not exhaust yourself by efforts to trace back to original causes. Better accept them as inevitable and save your strength to fight against the effects.

I've wanted somehow to convey to you the sensations - the atmospheric pressure, you might say - of what it is to be seriously a long-term prisoner in an American prison.

That is how prison is tearing me up inside. It hurts every day. Every day takes me further from my life.