I began reporting with people who are or have been incarcerated in 2016. When I began this work, I wanted to learn about their obstacles, hopes, and histories. I wanted to learn about the realities of the system. But they have also taught me much more.
As I learned about their healing journeys, I began to take my own. What the community has shared with me has deepened my compassion, changed my relationship to my past, and revolutionized my understanding of accountability and forgiveness.
I try to use my work to bring what they have given me to others. No narrative is all challenges. People are not only their obstacles. They are their dreams, their families, their insights, their impacts and - yes - their flaws. They are imperfect and wonderful. They are their stories, each unique and sacred.
With this in mind, I become more certain every day that another world of journalism is possible - one that shares power, one that embraces people’s complexity, one that both exposes systemic failures and highlights the remarkable ways people fight back. If that sounds like the journalism you want, please say hello.
In 2016, I received my Master’s Degree from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. I’m currently the Online Engagement Manager for the Solutions Journalism Network, an organization dedicated to training journalists in rigorous reporting on responses to social problems.