My friends at Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy Program have published a new anthology of student writing and art. They do terrific work with the youth who are incarcerated at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. If you have a few extra dollars, I would like to encourage you to write a check so that they can continue this life-changing work. These young people who are locked behind bars are so talented and they are so worthy of our care. Jail/prison is no place for kids. Below are a couple of poems from the new anthology:

Behind Brick Walls
by Alexandra R.

Sitting down behind brick walls.
Once a week I make a call.
No one to pick up the phone.
Figure no one’s home.
I try and try to figure what’s wrong.
Counting the bricks while I sing a song
not realizing what I have done.
Accepting responsibility had just begun.
Now I’m sitting in a cell
while girls are raising hell.
Try me and you will see
that living in a cell is not the way to be.

This Morning I Woke Up
by Chaseton W.

This morning I woke up
thinking I was in my own bed
“Time to wash up!”
is what they guard said

I opened my eyes
and realized I was stuck
between two brick walls

and that this was not home at all.

This morning I woke up
I decided that I wasn’t going
to sleep no more
I’m tired of waking up in jail
so now I’m restless and starving
for a taste of freedom

This morning I woke up and
asked myself
“who put me here?”
I answered
“me”
then I asked
“where do I want to be?”
I answered
“wherever God needs me.”

This morning I woke up
and read the Holy Koran

It said
“One finds himself where
it is easiest for him
to solve his Problem.”