Condemned to a Life

As a child, Amy Kraft spent hours watching cartoons like Bobby’s World, the 90s children’s comedy that follows the life of a 4-year-old boy with an overactive imagination.

In her new one-woman play — Condemned to a Life — Kraft takes us back to her childhood to explore her life with her own youthful whimsy. The memories are often dark and serious, but the cast of puppets standing in for her family and friends give the audience a breath of humor during the arduous times.

“A lot of this is childhood memory so I wanted to show this childlike imagination,” she said. “Puppets have this way of allowing people to talk about these heavy topics without overwhelming people.”

The heavy topics show up almost immediately in the play when we find ourselves in a courtroom, where we slowly learn something horrible has occurred. Though never fully discussed, it hangs over the 45-minute play as Kraft cycles through her memories to find out how her brother ended up there, on trial. 

And how she — an award-winning health and science journalist — didn’t meet a similar fate.

To read more about the play and Kraft’s life, click here.

Chicago’s 1st Street Psychiatrist

To the young Sam Jackson, who now works in street medicine, his Uncle Mike was the All-American Man: quarterback and captain of the football team. And handsome with a curly-q cowlick like Elvis.

But, when Mike got sick — paranoid and hearing voices, symptoms of his schizophrenia — that all changed. There was no more school and no more football. Then, one day, police burst into his uncle’s apartment and shot him.

“He was in the hospital for months, and in a sort of twisted sense of justice, the police department sued him for assault because he had a knife,” Jackson told MindSite News. “He ended up in prison for several years for essentially the crime of having a serious mental illness and being in his home with a knife.”

That incident, which occurred when he was just 10 years old, would propel his journey to become Dr. Sam Jackson, Chicago’s first street psychiatrist, he said at the official launch of Chicago’s street psychiatry team.

Those five-person teams include a psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse, social worker, peer responder and an addiction specialist.

Click here to learn more about Jackson’s journey to becoming Chicago’s first street psychiatrist.

The Return of Prison Journalism

Last week, The American Penal Press Contest — a reboot of an older prison journalism award — returned for its second year. 

This year, San Quentin News — which took home Best Newspaper again — learned of their win side-by-side with outside supporters at a brand new auditorium at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Twelve other prison newsrooms from across the country were also present virtually.

The original American Annual Penal Press Contest, organized by the journalism department at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale,  was a celebration of the growing importance and high activity level of prison journalism.  It ran from 1965 to 1990 and during its strongest years received more than 1,000 submissions per year, according to the contest website.

Over the years, the number of prison publications would dwindle before a recent comeback led in part by San Quentin News. At least 37 prison publications are operating in 16 states, according to the website.

Other winners include:
•Mountain Review in Tennessee (Best Newsletter)
•Inside the Walls in North Carolina (Best Debut Publication)
•John L. Orr of Mule Creek Post (Newsroom Leader of the Year, who the contest notes “leads by example with exceptional writing, but is also deeply valued for his calm demeanor, confidence, and the ability to multitask”) 

•Berit Thorson of the Echo (Advisor of the Year)
•Nora Igova of Central California Women’s Facility (Woman Prison Journalist of the Year). “Nora’s stuff just stuck with me…She found something happening inside that most people outside would never even know existed,” according to one judge, “and the story actually got people inside talking about their own behavior.”  

Find the full list of winners here.

Until next month,

Josh McGhee