P.O.P.S. the club is a high school-based community for students who have endured the Pain of the Prison System.
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Too often loneliness and shame are inherent in a connection to the prison system, and that shame has silenced many prisoners’ family members and friends. P.O.P.S. offers friendship, camaraderie, community and an opportunity to tell our stories. The Good Men Project has been working with P.O.P.S to end the silencing that shame brings.
I Come From
by Kat Secaida
I come from having a police record, charged with battery and assault.
I am scared that I’m just like him.
Sometimes I can’t control my anger.
I am scared that I’m just like him.
My father is in jail, again.
I am scared that I’m just like him.
He event went to court. Dad got community service.
I am scared that I’m just like him.
An inhaler installed in his car.
I’ve never seen him sober before.
Interesting Thanksgiving.
I’ve never seen him sober before.
It felt very different, everyone is clean.
I’ve never seen him sober before.
Flashbacks. I remember him drunk, and yelling.
I’ve never seen him sober before.
I don’t want to be like my dad.
Locked up or dead.
My “friends” said I was uncontrollable, I don’t remember.
Locked up or dead.
Happy I got arrested, it opened my eyes.
Locked up or dead.
Following his footsteps.
Locked up or dead.
I am scared I’m just like him.
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