Greetings to our Beat Within community! We’re proud to present to you our latest publication 29.45/46, which is, as always, packed with great reflections and insights from our incarcerated youth and adults near and far. We’re happy to have you with us!
This issue’s editorial note is brought to you by two of our interns from Urban High School of San Francisco, who have been working diligently to transcribe parts of our magazine this fall. Our first intern Charlotte writes about the intricacies of identifying with young people her age in the system, as well as the intimacy of getting to engage with the physical handwriting of our authors. Our second intern, who wishes to remain anonymous, details the realizations they had while transcribing and the relatability of our authors’ work.
Please join us in welcoming our interns’ voices to The Beat!
Creative Expression Is a Right
Before beginning my work with The Beat Within, I never thought about the fact that most inmates across the country don’t have access to this kind of creative outlet while incarcerated. The justice system wasn’t a topic that crossed my mind often, though I’d heard of the injustice that often occurs in imprisonment.
Transcribing the work of the inmates helped me to realize that creative expression is not only a way of molding the reader’s perception of one’s creation, whether that be through vivid imagery or a declaration of emotion, but a right that every person — regardless of whether they’re incarcerated or not — should have the ability to explore.
One piece that really struck me was a poem that used hats as a metaphor for the different roles that person takes on in life. The role of a brother, father, son, nephew, survivor, provider, and their transformation through different types of rebirth, such as hardship. Another piece that stood out to me, in a sadder context, recounted how an inmate was arrested two months before their high school graduation and sent to prison for eight years.
What drew me to this writing was the sorrow I felt at the fact that this writer was incarcerated before getting the chance to graduate, crossing a major milestone. And they were incredibly close. While the piece didn’t express any obvious expression of emotion towards these events, I’d imagine that being pulled from your normal life so soon before graduating was a difficult thing for the author to go through.
Other youth wrote about memories of spending time with family and friends before incarceration. Many inmates wrote about the hopes and aspirations they had for their future before going to prison, several of them tied to their parents’ hopes as well. I recognized parts of myself and my own life in the innocence of these memories, something that all people share.
Freedom was another frequent theme, with many expressing their wish for freedom, whether that be in another timeline or our current one. I came across many pieces of writing that dealt with either pain towards the broken justice system or the importance of resilience during incarceration.
It was sometimes difficult to read these works and think about how these writers aren’t just scanned papers that appear on my computer screen, but human beings who actually took the time to sit down and write, and that there was purpose behind their words (and maybe sometimes there wasn’t, and they were just writing to get their thoughts down on paper).
The fact that these writers are youth was difficult to grasp at times, too, because it’s both easier and harder to imagine what someone my age might be feeling as they write as opposed to someone completely out of my age range. The similarities in age certainly put me closer to them in terms of how I felt for them and how I valued their voice.
While there was hardship involved in transcribing these letters, it also brought me a lot of joy. It almost felt as if I had a pen pal, and I enjoyed imagining how these individuals might appear if I were to meet them in real life.
The variation in handwriting was unexpectedly something I found joy in as well, with some writers having beautiful cursive or a neat, font-like handwriting while others had a scrawl that was sometimes impossible to read. The visual appearance of the letters truly helped me to envision a more personal or genuine image of the writers as opposed to a neutral one.
-Charlotte, Urban High School
Wanting to Learn More
Before joining The Beat Within, I felt alienated from the justice system and as though I had no way of learning about what was happening inside the system. Further, I did not have any connections to the system, which made it so I did not have a strong catalyst to want to understand or learn about the system.
Now having done The Beat Within, I realize how many voices and resources there are that I could have been using to my advantage to learn, such as transcribing letters. Now, these letters have not only taught me a lot, but made me want to learn more about the system. I have learned about people’s families, experiences and so much more that have all helped to build my idea not only of the juvenile system itself but the people within it.
There was one prompt that asked how one’s environment reflects on themself which particularly moved me. Each letter that was written in response to this prompt was individual with the surrounding theme that agreed that someone’s environment shapes who they are. This prompt in particular especially moved me because of its universal application — it applied to me, applied to the people responding and everyone else in the world.
What stood out to me was not how we both agreed with the statement, but rather how the statement applied to us so differently. Some letters discussed the prompt in relation to their parents and some about friends, but almost all brought it back to gangs and drugs.
My favorite thing to read about was people writing about what they were going to do when they got out; some wrote about mending relations, some raising a child, and some just spending time with their family. Their hope and excitement for the future made me excited for what they were looking forward to as well as giving me a glimpse of their perspective.
I most saw a reflection of myself in the letters that were talking about family and how they were missing their family. Some talked about their grandparents driving from far away to visit and how much that meant to them, which really touched me. These letters were most personable and relatable because family means a lot to me, and it is something that I would definitely have been writing about if I were in their position.
-A New View, Urban High School
We have so much gratitude and appreciation for our high school interns, and love to publish their thoughts alongside our regular contributors. It takes a lot of time and work to produce a bi-weekly publication, and we couldn’t do it without the dedication of our interns!
We wish our Beat community warmth and tranquility as we settle into winter and gear up for the new year ahead. Reach out anytime to connect, to let us know how you’re doing, and to tell us what you’re up to! Our door (and inboxes) are always open. The Beat goes on!