Greetings, readers and writers of The Beat Within! We continue to embrace and amplify your truths and your stories, even in the most chaotic and challenging of times. For this issue, we welcome back the voices of two of our editorial interns from Urban High School, who have transcribed pieces for The Beat Without over the course of their semester. Their reflections here are especially timely. One of our interns writes about how their work for us has changed their stereotypical view of incarcerated people and meditates on the impact that COVID-19 has had on the incarcerated population. Elizabeth writes on how one particular writer has inspired her to center herself and her own healing, even when the rest of the world is in upheaval. We’re so proud of the work our Urban students have done, and the work they will continue to do in the community and the world. We wish them the best in their journey post-high school!Â
Continue To Be Impacted
My first connection with The Beat Within made me think about how our country and society can help those who are incarcerated. I am happy to be working for The Beat Within, and was inspired by the letters I transcribed. When I first thought of incarcerated people, I began to think of the stereotypes that arise in television shows and movies: not very smart, bad people and morals, and don’t have a life outside of prison. I was proved wrong through the letters and essays I transcribed. I was moved by the bright, inspirational pieces of work I was fortunate to read and opened my eyes to the little things in life that I should appreciate more often. While transcribing the letters, I was able to take lessons away with me because they shared what they could have done differently and how their lives may have been different if some other aspect of their life had changed as well. I sympathize with their letters and essays because it makes me appreciate what I have so much more. I was so surprised by the abundance of hope and support in these letters because my stereotypical view of inmates are rude, grumpy, mean people. I know I shouldn’t think of them that way, but it has just evolved from watching TV shows and movies.
During COVID-19, I thought about the people who have been greatly impacted by the virus, and a letter from The Beat Within showed up about this man’s thoughts on how his life has changed due to this virus. I have been thinking a lot about how people who are inmates are affected by COVID-19 and how prisons deal/handle situations where there are outbreaks in their prisons. Finding ways to physically distance from others in “regular†society has been very difficult and I cannot imagine the little effort being put into taking care of those who are incarcerated during this time.
Although I am leaving for college, The Beat Within has made a huge impact on my perspective on the world and I would like to stay involved or make some connections with organizations that have similar mission statements and values. Through The Beat Within I saw the passion and creativity people had and they inspired me to always be thankful for what I have and take advantage of the opportunities that I have. Transcribing the work of those who want to support The Beat Within was such a unique opportunity that I am grateful to have, and changed the way I view those who are incarcerated.
The essays and stories I transcribed granted me a new perspective of realizing that not everyone who is incarcerated has bad morals and is deemed bad, in fact they have creative and amazing minds and stories to share with the world! I am looking forward to how I will reach out and do service to others in the near future and hope I can continue to be impacted by those I come into contact with.
-Hopeful, Urban High School, San Francisco, CA
Even When
The first piece that I transcribed for The Beat Within, “Searching for Happiness?†by Thomas Sheen, moved me deeply. In his piece, he talks about the process of change — long and slow, he describes it as a process without easy answers or shortcuts. Like chiseling away at a block of granite, or like the waves lapping against a cliff, change is a matter of both dedication and patience. He talks of avoiding self-pity, not allowing himself to foist the blame for the unhappiness he holds onto his circumstance of incarceration, under the logic that “one point in my life before making some terrible decisions I did have a job, I could see my family whenever I wanted, and I was not yet physically incarcerated,†and that “none of those things ever produced genuine, long-lasting happiness.â€
I suspect that he’s a stronger person than I am, because I know that in his place I would be perfectly willing to blame my lack of a job, my lack of familial contact, and my lack of autonomy for my unhappiness. I wouldn’t hesitate to construe them as what was holding me back. And furthermore, I don’t think I would be wrong to do so. I do not support carceral “justice.†I think that it ruptures communities, exacerbates inequality, and is a barbaric way to treat a human being. To take the resources and tools that make a person human away from them for a period of years, to place them in environments rife with institutional abuse, has no redemptive function. The fact that our country — and the rest of the world, in fairness — has decided that we care more about punishment than we do about making amends says nothing good about us.
Has Thomas Sheen written that essay instead, the essay in which he is the victim of a cruel and dispassionate system that throws lives away without a care, I imagine that I also would have been moved. However, there’s something striking in the fact that, despite any and all disadvantages that he’s faced, he centers himself in the search for happiness. It need not be true that everything that has happened to him is right or just for his own decisions to be the most important thing in his healing process. He talks of forgiving himself and forgiving those who hurt him, which may be the key to the philosophy presented in his piece: “the evils and the pains of the world may not go away, but you can forgive and begin to heal even in spite of the fact that those wrongs have not been and may not be undone.â€
As a teenager, as a queer woman, and as a political agitator, I will always demand a better world than the one we’ve been given. However, the relative righteousness of that pursuit aside, it is hollowing to be angry with the world for an extended period of time. So I’ll keep Thomas Sheen in mind, and his realization that we can begin to heal and find ourselves again even when the problems in our lives have not been fixed, even when the circumstances are not ideal, even when everything seems to be against us.
-Elizabeth, Urban High School, San Francisco, CA
Thank you, readers and writers of The Beat Within. We wish you all the best during these challenging times. Please do your part! Wear your mask when amongst others, as you do your best to social distance, wash your hands, and of course work on practicing patience as you/we prepare for the next chapter in our lives.
We truly appreciate all the love and support. Keep us updates on your lives and we’ll do our best to keep the world updates with your truths on how you see the world.
On another note, big props to our wonderful colleagues and friend, Probation Officer, Jamie Davis, and all the writers inside the Sacramento County Juvenile Detention Facility. Thanks to her leadership and support, we have received pages and pages of submissions – which we love. Unfortunately, we had to hold some of the pieces, but no worries, if you don’t see your work in this issue, you will definitely see it in the next issue. Thank you, writers and thank you all for your patience. Take care all and enjoy this fabulous issue!