A prisoner serving life writes: ‘Why not help us instead of punishing us?’
One of the wings in Mountjoy Prison where an inmate writes: 'A boy, a teen, a man spends most of his life being punished, but the solution as it stands is more punishment, based on policies constructed by people who have never stayed one night in my community or even walked around it without an escort.' Photo: Moya Nolan
I am 38 years of age and serving life imprisonment, but imprisonment is something I have experienced in one form or another since the age of seven. I have been witnessing, experiencing and involved in violence throughout my whole life, yet nobody has ever meaningfully engaged with me in relation to addressing the causes.
The Theatre of the Oppressed (TOTO) project was one of the first therapeutic opportunities I have ever been given. It provided me with a safe space to share some of the reasons I believe my life has evolved around violence.
