Editor’s note: Below is a transcript of our audio story, “Incarcerated Americans on the 250th Birthday of the United States.” We recommend reading as you listen, and hope you enjoy.
Next week, the United States of America will mark its 250th birthday.
No matter what you think about the state of the country, 250 years is a long time for the “land of the free” to exist.
But that term, “land of the free,” underscores one of our nation’s most enduring and painful paradoxes: The U.S. is also the land of mass incarceration.
Across America, nearly 2 million people are detained in jails and prisons.
Two million. That’s roughly equivalent to the population of Idaho or Nebraska or New Mexico. And it’s a figure that has earned the United States the singular distinction of incarcerating more of its citizens than any other advanced democracy on earth.
People in prison won’t be able to celebrate the nation’s milestone with family, cookouts and fireworks. But their voices — and their perspectives — might have something to offer the rest of us. So, 250 years after the founding of the United States, Prison Journalism Project asked incarcerated Americans what this big birthday means to them.
Here’s what they had to say.
Richard “Corey” Fox: For me, as a boy in the ’70s, the bicentennial seemed huge. It was a really big deal seen through innocent eyes.
Gary K. Farlow: As America turned 200 in 1976 I reached a milestone in life, graduating high school. I was then filled with a patriotic fervor and belief in the promise of liberty, justice and freedom.
Jeffrey McKee: Well, growing up in the ’70s and ’80s in rural Pacific Northwest as a white male, I looked at things differently. Once I got incarcerated and started seeing the effects on the indigents, the black and brown, the queer and other communities, just how disenfranchised they are — it’s definitely changed my view of things.
Fox: Fifty years later, with over 36 of those years spent in prison, you see things differently.
Alex Friedmann: As an adult, I can say that USA 250 demonstrates how far we have fallen from the representative democracy that was originally intended.
Fox: So, for many, the bells of freedom don’t ring. They clang shut with the sound of prison doors.
Vaughn Wright: “What does America’s 250th birthday mean to you?” It means America can do better because it’s old enough to know better.
Daniel X. Cohen: A country that pretends to stand for equality when it enforces a caste system. A Congress and Senate of cowards who are afraid to stand up to a tyrant for fear of losing their careers with no regard for their constituents. A war machine that’s used to bully other nations instead of creating diplomatic policy.
Rebekah Cooper: We’re still a country in our infancy. We have our stumbles, and we learn to grow from them, and we get back up.
Kelsey Dodson: The experiment is still going. We’re still a very young nation just trying to figure it out. And right now it may seem like we’re in a very dark time, but we’ve had darker times.
Phillip Luna: I feel conflicting emotions on America’s 250th birthday. As a descendant of immigrants, I feel tremendous pride in my family’s history and the sacrifices they made over multiple generations so that I could be here. I also feel regret and shame and guilt that I’m incarcerated and essentially wasting those sacrifices. And at the same time, I look at the way that immigrants are treated in our country recently, and I find it deeply hurtful.
Mason Bryan: Just tell me, what does America’s 250th birthday mean to you?
Jeffery Shockley: It means to me we hold this truth to be self-evident — that God created all men equal — as one of the most prominent features in the Declaration of Independence.
Crystal Avila: I just can’t help thinking about our forefathers and how they stood up against something — they had to be terrified standing up against somebody more powerful than they were. And they did it all in the name of freedom.
Shakeil Price: A people so fed up with the treatment of the ruling class that they rose up against it, rioting and looting, determined to take their freedom and become independent of British rule. Blacks in America share those same exact aspirations, but we are labeled unpatriotic or anti-American when we attempt to pursue them. It’s crazy.
Sharee Asberry: I think about how my ancestors as an African American helped build this country through atrocities. But through the years, you know, we moved from slavery to Jim Crow to what some would call freedom. However, history seems to repeat itself.
Nathan Gray: The 250th this year doesn’t really mean a lot to me. I’d always spent the holidays celebrating with my family and friends and without them, there just doesn’t seem much to celebrate.
Patrick Irving: Yeah, so I’ve actually never really cared for the idea of having the calendar decide when we celebrate certain people and constructs. I’d much rather celebrate all of the things I hold sacred on a daily basis, and that definitely includes the freedom of speech, for which I am really effing grateful.
Christopher Dankovich: I’ve never known freedom. I lost what little freedom a juvenile has over 21 years ago. I do know firsthand what anarchy, chaos, slavery and tyranny are like. But I also dream of more. America is the nation I dream of, and I believe in America and that we can keep growing greater.
Geneva Phillips: It hopefully means that we have reached a place where we can leave behind our toddler-hood and maybe strive toward true equality and maybe this great experiment can unfold into something beautiful.
Lexie Handlang: You know, there didn’t used to be a Pride month. There didn’t used to be Pride celebrations. And the fact that now we have an entire month dedicated to Pride — and I think that that’s pretty amazing.
Jax: I know the promise that this country has and everything that it could be when she is great, she is amazing, and I just hope that we return to that someday.
Kory McClary: My ancestors were once labeled three-fifths of a human being. Yet they still help build this country. I still see injustices that need to be addressed such as the impact of mass incarceration. But I was born in this country and my future is tied to it.
Danielle Preiss: Those are the voices of Americans incarcerated in prisons all over the country. You heard from Corey Fox in Alabama, Alex Friedmann in Tennessee, Gary Farlow in North Carolina, Jeffrey McKee in Washington state, Patrick Irving in Idaho,
Chris Dankovich in Michigan, Nathan Gray in Wisconsin, Lexie Handlang in Missouri,
Daniel Cohen in California, Phillip Luna in Oregon, Shakeil Price in New Jersey,
Kory McClary in New York, Vaughn Wright and Jeffery Shockley in Pennsylvania,
and Jax, Rebekah Cooper, Kelsey Dodson, Crystal Avila, Sharee Asberry and Geneva Phillips in Oklahoma.
This story was brought to you by Prison Journalism Project and produced by me, Danielle Preiss. Contributions were recorded by Mason Bryan, Carla Canning, Wyatt Stayner and Ellen Stackable. Art for this story was provided by Sarah Rogers. Writer relations support came from Gem Jones and Erica Graham. Melissa Slager copy edited this story, and music was provided by Alex Grohl, MrCrepper, onesevenbeatxs and Alana Jordan. A special thanks to Hannah Covington, Sha Bandz, and Sandra H. for their coordination help.
To read more stories from writers in prison, subscribe to our newsletter, The Inside Story, at prisonjournalismproject.org. From all of us at PJP, happy 250th.
