Miles and I first met in the jail. I noticed he had a Washington Post, a tough commodity to get in there and my preferred source of news. He was a friendly-enough looking “church guy,” so I approached to ask if he’d put me in line to read it (there’s always a line, in jail). Miles smiled broadly, called me “Brother,” and with just a word breathed a friendship into being.
by Daniel A. Rosen | December 26, 2021 The setting: Washington, D.C., Christmas Day, 2021. The Omicron wave of Covid infections has new cases climbing sharply across the city. The scene: A well-dressed middle-aged white man sits on the expansive front steps of a tony hotel in an upscale part of town, taking in the … Continue reading A D.C. Christmas Carol: Race and Class in a Divided City
by Daniel A. Rosen | Other inmates have poked fun at me for my reading choices, but I don't pay them much mind; Larry McMurtry helped keep me sane during these years behind bars. Thankfully, I've found almost everything he's written on the shelves of the libraries where I've been locked up.I've read a lot … Continue reading When the Light Goes: An Elegy for Larry McMurtry
by Daniel A. Rosen | One day last summer, I was walking down the deserted school hallway late on a Friday afternoon. Near the gate at the end sat two fifty-something-year-old Black inmates who worked maintenance in the building; both lived in my cellblock, and we were friendly. They were just shooting the breeze, taking … Continue reading Birds of a Feather: That One Time I Was a Racist in Prison
by Daniel A. Rosen | I know it sounds like an off-kilter "Jeopardy" category, but it's been my life for the past five-plus years. A lot of things seem to go 'down' in prison - lockdowns, shakedowns, even beatdowns - but never up. Handcuffs, violence, or the threat of violence are always lurking, either among … Continue reading Things That Go ‘Down’ in Prison
by Daniel A. Rosen | As a white guy in prison, it's tricky to talk about racial issues, but I'm going to proceed anyway. There was a Friday afternoon a couple years ago, a little wave of excitement and anticipation rippled through my prison dorm. Word had come from the rec workers, who were always … Continue reading Uncaging the Panthers: A Tribute to Chadwick Boseman
by Daniel A. Rosen | Rumor had it that Knuckles was born in jail. I took that as metaphorical, apocryphal maybe, but then again sometimes I wasn't sure. He was the head barber for the jail, and he lived in my cellblock. He was about sixty, rotund, and his fade and mustache were always perfect. … Continue reading Knuckles the Barber
by Daniel A. Rosen | It's the one thing that even well-intentioned, non-homophobic people will advise you, when they know you're headed to prison. It's the joke they'll all predictably make, perhaps to ease the tension of the moment, or because they don't know what else to say: Whatever you do, do not, under any … Continue reading Dropping the Soap
Three Hots One Cot 