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Russell Maroon Shoatz. You don't know the name, nor did I until I read his story and the story of many others in the Bruderhof publication, Plough. I said many. Actually, according to the Shoatz story there are two million US citizens in prison, and many, especially men of color, often get beaten and tortured by prison guards and police. It was a new story for me.

Shoatz (b. 8-23-43) has been in prison for forty-nine years, including almost twenty-two in solitary confinement in the ‘hole’ where the lights were always on.  After one stretch of  solitary confinement, Shoatz could not stand up straight. The cells are usually small in width and height, 64 by 80 square feet, and when he came out, for his one hour a day break, Shoatz  had trouble walking and could not climb the stairs to the cafeteria.

Think for a moment about what it would be like to go through some of his solitary confinement experience.  Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in your living room. First, the windows are covered up. Then the walls are insulated so you don’t hear anything from the outside. Then the carpet goes. Then the sofa is replaced by an iron cot covered by a cotton mat.  Then all books and magazines are removed. Then the walls and ceiling begin to converge. The lights are on 24/7.

You wear a prison uniform. No shoes. Three times a week you can go out to sit, shackled, in a cage, to take a ten-minute shower. Join a prison gang. Keep this up for twenty-two years.  Now you are living the life of Russell Maroon Shoatz.

Not surprisingly, Shoatz went through long periods of depression. Sometimes he could not get out of bed and lay contemplating ways to commit suicide. He did not because he could not think of any way to do it.

Shoatz and some friends once escaped from prison by throwing a blanket over the coils of barbed wire fencing. He was free in the wilderness for twenty-seven days. One time, when he could not find berries or roots, he ate a raw turtle.

There is no question that Shoatz did bad things. He murdered two people, abused his family members, terrorized more.

Now he has changed. In the last few years he has converted to Islam, publicly repented and apologized to as many as he is able to.  He is now dying of cancer.

I tell this story to open up for you a world that has just opened up for me, the world of law enforcement brutality, prisons, confinement and despair—and hope. It’s not the whole of the prison world, just a part of it, but it doesn’t have to be a big part to be a terrible part.  Make of it what you will.