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INSIDE THE WALLS | Remember the Dakotas
Despite being a humanist for over fifteen years, my views can be misanthropic from time to time. For example, earlier this year I took part in an organized debate in my prison humanist group, the topic... Read More
Inside the Walls: Humanist Pen Pal Program Helps Isolated Inmates
These days all we see is chaos due to the coronavirus pandemic. As each week passes, the world we see is so much different than the week before. This situation affects not only everyone on the... Read More
INSIDE THE WALLS | Escaping the Gang Delusion: No Priests Required
When I was a baby my parents had me baptized by a Catholic priest. In my teens I decided to get baptized again, but this time it was done by gang members. The baptismal ceremony into... Read More
Inside the Walls: My Old Haunt
When I was a child, I loved going to haunted houses each October. In my town there was one in particular created in the basement of an old supermarket. No matter how many times I went... Read More
INSIDE THE WALLS | Reform 2.0: Love and Money
Officially the penitentiary has existed since the eighteenth century, although human beings have imprisoned one another since the beginning of recorded time. The concept of the penitentiary was invented by Pennsylvania Quakers who chose the word... Read More
INSIDE THE WALLS | These Words Unspoken
Dear Mom, I’ve known you forever. When I bring up some story about when I was born you like to joke, saying, “I know, I was there.” I was such an ugly baby. You loved me... Read More
INSIDE THE WALLS | If Only More Atheists Robbed Banks
The Cell-Bunk Perspective on Forming a Humanist Study Group I’m sitting on my cell bunk poring over a small stack of stats in fact-checking a book I’m writing when a random, unrelated headline catches my eye.... Read More
INSIDE THE WALLS | By Any Other Name
"Of all the practices that dehumanize prisoners, calling them “one who offends” is by far the worst. It sets the tone and is a self-fulfilling prophecy." I used to think simply knowing a lot of statics... Read More
INSIDE THE WALLS | Prisoners Are Stores of Human Potential
In 2011, two months before my fortieth birthday, my world was obliterated when I became incarcerated and began serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison term. Nothing in my life had prepared me for what I would experience in... Read More
Travis W.
Travis W. is serving a life sentence in the Iowa Department of Corrections. He is a regular contributor to the Inside the Walls column.