Injustices, large and small, abound in prison. California prison inmate Spoon Jackson, a teacher and poet, is wrongly identified as a gang member and placed on lockdown.
Go On: Support The Other Death Penalty Project
You can help raise awareness among policymakers of the cruelty of life without parole.
To Watch TV or Not
Spoon Jackson remembers the days before free TV pacified prison culture.
Too Cruel, Not Unusual Enough
Kenneth E. Hartman’s anthology sheds light on the other death penalty: life without parole.
A Prisoner’s Message to Youth on Gang Membership
After Rosanne Cash’s visit, Spoon Jackson receives an opportunity to speak to troubled youth from within prison.
The Poet in Prison Dreams
A lover of birds dreams he can fly and talk to animals … and that his human brothers and sisters might learn to forgive him.
Unrelenting: Mental Illness in Prison
After 35 years of incarceration, Spoon Jackson says, “I have never adjusted to being caged.”
Rosanne Cash Performs at Folsom State Prison
Forty years after the late musician Johnny Cash performed “Folsom Blues” in the Folsom Prison Library, his daughter returns and meets GMP poet Spoon Jackson.
Bird Lovers, Bird Haters
Birds are a symbol of freedom and hope. To Spoon Jackson and other inmates, they are sacred guests.
Spring Dew
Spoon Jackson welcomes Spring with the declaration that “There is still beauty in cell bars.”
About My Sentence
Spoon Jackson, who has served 34 years of a life sentence in prison, faces the reality of his fate.
Arts in Correction Documentary ‘At Night I Fly’ Premieres at MOMA
GMP Poet Spoon Jackson is one of the subjects of Michel Wenzler’s complex portrait of prison life, in its US premiere at MOMA on February 20.
Months of Lockdown
While in lockdown, poet and prisoner Spoon Jackson flies in his mind’s eye, witness to freedom and injustice.
At Night I Fly: The Good Life Introduces Spoon Jackson, a Poet Behind Bars
Spoon Jackson writes from prison of the freedom he enjoys as he flies: ‘My heart pounds behind no chest.’