Take some time to reflect on these pieces. Did anything surprise you about “daily” prison life?
“Ripping-off Kafka” was inspired by Jackson State Prison. Writer J.S. Copeman describes his experience in the prison: “…suddenly I remembered all the cockroaches I’d lived with during my stay behind the Wall at Jackson. A wretched place on so many levels. From the orange water, the predatory homosexuals, the sociopaths, the deranged and drug addicted prisoners overdoing it every other week in there. Stabbings and suicides (1995 being a banner-year for that) were literally daily events at SMI (a.k.a. “Central Complex”). Furthermore, with the poor air quality, there’s an incinerator described in the piece that fits as a great metaphor, don’t you think?”What do you make of Ellis. Jr’s “Diary of a Dead Man (Excerpts)?” What about “Orwell’s Nightmare?” In what ways does the carceral state [*probs should include definition*] reflect the Big Brother government in Orwell’s 1984?