135 writings from imprisoned activists, newest first.
After entering a German prison on June 4, 2024, I will be released on January 17, 2025 – more than 7 months of incarceration for convictions resulting from nonviolent actions at…
October 11, 2024 While I’m in the prison, I feel wrapped in the kindness, generosity and community of the women in prison with me, and the kindness of guards. And while I’m out in…
September 12, 2024 Dear friends, I continue to be held, along with fellow nuclear resister Susan van der Hijden, in a German prison for demonstrating against the U.S. nuclear…
Vigil behind Bars July 30, 2024 Dear friends, Greetings from the open prison of Koblenz. Since July 30th, we have exchanged the Rohrbach prison desert, where most women are locked…
Leonard Peltier June 26th Statement 2024 © Greetings my Friends, Family, Loved Ones, and Supporters, Hope is a hard thing here. But I always hold hope in you, My People. Pay…
Vigil behind Bars – For a Disarmed World JVA Rohrbach June 2024 Here in Rohrbach prison we are awakened by the sounds of doves and other birds, giving the illusion that all is well…
February 6, 2024© My life was taken 48 years ago, at 11:00 a.m. The sweater that my adoptive mother Ethel and her daughter Donna placed on my shoulders as I was taken in the bitter…
April 9, 2023 Easter Sunday To the Nuclear Resister, I’m a US citizen serving a 60-day sentence in Bautzen Prison, Germany, for protesting to stop preparations for nuclear war at…
March 8, 2023 Dear Nukewatch friends, colleagues, comrades, Please forgive me if you’ve already gotten this wordy report of my recent experience in struggling against the U.S…
January 15, 2023 This month has three important political anniversaries, anti-war and anti-nuclear holidays if you will, events I’ll celebrate privately for a change, since I’m…
Greetings Relatives, Each year as November nears, I try to think back on all that has happened in my world in the past 12 months. And I know that in my world, I can only see a very…
Here are some final thoughts from Patrick O’Neill as he prepares to leave Elkton federal prison in Ohio and head to a federal half-way house in Raleigh, North Carolina on August…
Out of Egypt I Call My Son Patrick O’Neill’s Prison Reflections (Transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) July 30, 2021 My Time in Elkton is Drawing to a Close July 15: It is 9…
My past month was filled with a great spiritual struggle. Thank God for the cell phone that has connected me to my little Lectio group, interviews, and the Catholic Worker Zoom…
The Discernment Of Spirits, In MDC Brooklyn by Mark Colville July 8, 2021 Friends, loved ones all – It is impossible to adequately express my gratitude for the hundreds of…
I am now three weeks into my stay here at the Manchester, New Hampshire halfway house. My home confinement is blocked because I’m labeled a violent recidivist by the federal Bureau…
Reflections on Release by Carmen Trotta June 22, 2021 My Dear Friends & Family, As many of you have probably heard, I am OUT of prison and overjoyed for it! That said, I am not…
Wars for Freedom and Other Lies Patrick O’Neill’s Prison Reflections (transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) June 17, 2021 Fully Vaccinated I just received my second and final…
The Spirit of the Law of Love by Martha Hennessy June 1st, 2021 I am now part of a community, a house where I have neither met nor been introduced to anyone other than the intake…
Religious Freedom to Oppose Nuclear Weapons May 20, 2021 by Martha Hennessy [last prison reflection before being released on May 26] Danbury FCI At trial in October, 2019, in front…
May 9th, 2021 I write of my last days here at Danbury FCI Women’s Camp with contradictions in my heart. I will be so happy to be gone from here, but I also will miss the community…
Personalism Prison Reflections from Patrick O’Neill (transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) May 3, 2021 Birthday Pizza A couple of nights ago, two of my friends, Sean and…
88 Years Old Today by Martha Hennessy May 1, 2021 It is May Day, the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker, and a celebration of the dignity of work for International Workers of the…
The other evening there were eight deer in the meadow below Camp, playing in the puddles of rainwater collected on the worn spots of the softball diamond. They reminded me of the…
Triduum 2021 Prison Reflections from Patrick O’Neill (transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) April 19, 2021 Holy Thursday Excerpts from letters: “The testament of your…
Reflection for Easter Sunday, April 4th, 2021 3rd Anniversary of the Kings Bay Plowshares Action by Martha Hennessy – July 7th, 2017 – Treaty on the Prohibition of nuclear Weapons…
(Martha sent this from prison to her friend John Dear, who typed it up and shared it with us. It is a series of reflections about each of the other participants of the Kings’ Bay…
Leg Irons and Handcuffs Prison Reflections from Patrick O’Neill (transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) March 30, 2021 A Health Concern On Tuesday, March 15, I was standing in…
Matthew 5: 17 – 19. “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” The new law is the completion of the old, not its destruction. The spirit of the law should adhere to moral duty…
Humility Prison Reflections from Patrick O’Neill (transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) Winter into Spring “March has been an indicator of spring. The winter snow and ice has…
from National Catholic Reporter My prison cell view of the COVID-19 pandemic March 16 by Patrick O’Neill Lisbon, Ohio — While the difficulties associated with COVID-19 are…
March 4, 2021 Albert Woodfox, in his book, Solitary, published in 2019, documents how the state of Louisiana was especially brutal in the treatment of prisoners at the infamous…
February 17, 2021 Ash Wednesday Women’s Federal Prison Camp Father Iwaji came to the camp this morning for Mass. The crucifix, chalice, and candlesticks were a sight for sore eyes…
January 30, 2021 Today is Gandhi’s death day and I dipped into Robert Ellsberg’s All Saints, of which there are two copies in the Chapel library here. Gandhi brought nonviolence as…
Martha Hennessy – Prison Reflection February 11, 2021 Robert Ellsberg inspired me today with his writing of A. J. Muste in All Saints and “Blessed Among Us” in Give Us This Day…
February 5th, 2021 Is it true that the wind Streaming especially in fall Through the pines Is saying nothing, nothing at all, Or is it just that I don’t yet know the language? Mary…
The Citadel of Calamity by Martha Hennessy January 13, 2021 I write to you, my dear readers, from Danbury FCI, sitting atop the most lovely hill on the western border of…
January 27, 2021 Today’s parable in Mark 4:1-20 is “a sower went out to sow.” The mystery of the Kingdom of God is granted to us. I’m still trying to understand any and all of the…
January 2021 I am in the “Satellite Camp” of the Otisville prison. I never asked for the camp and I was very surprised that I was assigned there. The camp is a very low security…
Danbury Federal Prison Camp January 21, 2021 Tomorrow, January 22, 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons becomes a legally binding document. President Biden, in…
December 31, 2020 The last day of the year is relatively quiet behind razor wire and chain link fencing surrounding these metal buildings on top of a lovely hill. Three oranges sit…
The Wind Blows Where It Wills by Mark Colville June, 2019 Glynn County Detention Center Settling into a semi-quiet space to put pen to paper, I’m preoccupied with news of a trial…
March, 2019 Dear Friends, Greetings and hugs all around! With a grateful heart I commend all who continue to make the sacrifices necessary to keep our doors at the Amistad Catholic…
Postcards To Bodhi #4 COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT So we’ve been locked down in our cells yet again, with no indication of how long it will last this time. Collective punishment– which…
6/17/18 by Mark Colville Written from jail based on the Gospel reading for that day. Mark 4:26-34 There’s a consolation that flows from this parable, “the seed grows of itself,”…
[MOTIONS HEARING STATEMENT: First Draft] Rattling My Cage (Some thoughts on our upcoming trial) by Mark Colville June 5, 2018 One of the blessings that has flowed in abundance…
by Clare Grady 5/29/18 I am especially grateful for today’s Gospel reading. I feel that I have been living it and I want to share my experience, strength, and hope…MK 10:28-31…
A reflection written by Martha Hennessy at the Glynn County Detention Center during the week before her release to home confinement: In southern Georgia it is nearing the end of…
[This arrived in the mail a month late from the jail.] Earth Day Reflection by Martha Hennessy In April 1968, as a 13-year-old student in rural Vermont, the news of Dr. Martin…
A BRIEF REACTION TO BEING CHARGED WITH 3 FELONIES AND A MISDEMEANOR BY THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT, BRUNSWICK COUNTY, GEORGIA May 3, 2018 Once again, a federal court has plainly…
“Do you swear/affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you [God]?”, Dennis Apel was asked as he took the stand in Federal court for his witness…
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25…
Note from Jessica Stewart: Please read the words of Liz McAlister below. Yesterday when I spoke with Clare [Grady], she related a beautiful story about Liz. The women in the jail…
April 16, 2018 We say, “the ultimate logic of Trident is omnicide”, and yet, the explosive power of this weapon is only part of what we want to make visible. We see that nuclear…
The International Leonard Peltier Defense Campaign has completed its move to Tampa, Florida, closer to the current home of the Native American political prisoner. Details for…
from The National 19th July, 2017 Jailed Trident protester Brian Quail writes letter from prison to The National by Brian Quail BANGED up again! It’s been many years since I last…
To those who have kept me alive for the past six years: minutes after President Obama announced the commutation of my sentence, the prison quickly moved me out of general…
Day of Mourning November 24, 2016 Greetings my relatives, Here we are again. This time the year is 2016. It has been more than 41 years since I last walked free and was able to see…
FREEDOM by Norman Lowry Our world cannot survive without a sense of meaning, in particular one that will lead us to the depths of love. —Unknown Freedom is the highest of my basic…
[Dennis also wrote a Diary From Prison which was published online by the Santa Barbara Independent. You can read his entries here.] August 29, 2016 Dear Family and Friends, Today…
Dear Community, “Dietrich, I’m gonna visit you some night.” Gabriel sits at the Latino table most evenings watching the Spanish-language TV. With a menacing look and numerous…
Monday, August 1, 2016 Dear Friends and Family, It’s been a little while since I have sent something out, so it’s time for a little update. On this past Friday I celebrated, here…
Sunday, June 26, 2016 Sisters, brothers, friends and supporters: June 26th marks 41 years since the long summer day when three young men were killed at the home of the Jumping Bull…
May 14, 2016 Dear Friends, Love and Gratitude to all of you who continue to hold us in your hearts as we once again experience the unique blessing of incarceration. It is an honor…
May 16, 2016 Dear Friends, Today marks one week (is that all?!!) since I arrived at MDC. It’s been quite a transition. Every time someone asks how long I’m in for and I respond…
I spent about nine months in an isolated cell behind a one-way mirror. It was cruel, degrading and inhumane Shortly after arriving at a makeshift military jail, at Camp Arifjan…
On January 19, 2016 I was remanded after a county court decision upheld a lower court verdict that I was guilty of violating the terms of an order of protection while photographing…
February 11, 2016 Greetings, Dear Friends — Joy swept through our cell block, Jamesville County Jail, Pod 4, Thursday, January 28. That evening some of the fifty-nine women in our…
February 6, 2016 Greetings friends, supporters and all Native Peoples. What can I say that I have not said before? I guess I can start by saying see you later to all of those who…
Hammer of Justice statement from the Sarpy County Jail, Papillion, Nebraska, January 11, 2016 Hello, everyone! Thank you to all who are carrying me with them in heart and mind…
The years since I was jailed for releasing the ‘war diaries’ have been a rollercoaster from The Guardian by Chelsea Manning May 27, 2015 Today marks five years since I was ordered…
On his last day alive, April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sent the title of his upcoming Sunday sermon to his church in Atlanta: “Why America May Go to Hell.” He had…
Jamesville Correction Facility is just a few miles from Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse has its own jail, known as the Justice Center. After serving two months at the Jamesville Correction…
Lightning flashed across Kentucky skies a few nights ago. “I love storms,” said my roommate, Gypsi, her eyes bright with excitement. Thunder boomed over the Kentucky hills and…
Megan Rice 88101-020 MDC Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center P.O. Box 329002 Brooklyn, NY 11232 April, 2015 Dear friends, promoters of ways to make real the energies of the…
Here in Lexington federal prison’s Atwood Hall, squinting through the front doorway, I spotted a rust-red horse swiftly cantering across a nearby field. The setting sun cast a glow…
By the time I leave Kentucky’s federal prison center, where I’m an inmate with a 3 month sentence, the world’s 12th-largest city may be without water. Estimates put the water…
by Chelsea E Manning “The CIA’s torturers and the leaders who approved their actions must face the law.” Even the most junior level intelligence officers know that torture is both…
“The old yellow pus of American cowardice is once again throbbing in the veins of this sorry country. How does it appear? In chauvinism that struts safely in its own land, away…
That is also us, the possibility of us, if the wonderful accident of our birth had taken place elsewhere: you could be the refugee, I could be the torturer. To face that truth is…
Megan Rice 88101-020 MDC Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center P.O. Box 329002 Brooklyn, NY 11232 February, 2015 Dear Sisters and Brothers in solidarity with our shared movement…
After a week here in FMC Lexington Satellite camp, a federal prison in Kentucky, I started catching up on national and international news via back issues of USA Today available in…
February 2015 Update/Statement From Leonard Peltier Greetings My Friends, Relatives and Supporters: I know that many of you have concerns about the status of my situation and have…
The Shift reprint of a letter from Kathy Kelly “We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person oriented society: when machines and computers, profit…
The Bureau of Prisons contacted me today, assigning me a prison number and a new address: for the next 90 days, beginning tomorrow, I’ll live at FMC Lexington, in the satellite…
December 10, 2014 Dear Sisters and Brothers, Following Thanksgiving time, and preparing to celebrate the gifting time, I again find a shared response to all our faithful…
Fighting the Dragon A poem by Michael Walli Part One – George 1. George fighteth the dragon 2. Whilst astride a high horse 3. From dizzying heights 4. With a 10’ pole 5.George hath 50 to take precedence over 6. He fiddleth with the monarchy 7. He stumbleth to an empty page
Megan Rice 88101-020 MDC Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center P.O. Box 329002 Brooklyn, NY 11232 November 2, 2014 5th anniversary of the Disarm Now Plowshares action at…
September 7, 2014 Megan Rice 88101-020 MDC Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center P.O. Box 329002 Brooklyn, NY 11232 Dear Sisters and Brothers, friends in solidarity to transform…
To my dearest friends and comrades, I want to thank you all for your never ending love and support for the three of us as we continue to resist this system of state oppression. The…
From Via Pacis, newsletter of the Des Moines Catholic Worker Greg Boertje-Obed and Michele Naar-Obed are not new to the Plowshares scene. They met and married while living at Jonah…
Megan Rice 88101-020 MDC Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center P.O. Box 329002 Brooklyn, NY 11232 May 7, 2014 Dear Friends of the Transform Now Plowshares (TNP), I open this…
April 6, 2014 Dear sisters and brothers, at-one-with us all in this Beloved Community of participants in support of disarming now, and transforming now, the nuclear-industrial…
[Sr. Megan Rice has been transferred from the Irwin County Detention Center. You can write to her at: Megan Rice 88101-020, Metropolitan Detention Center, P.O. Box 329002…
Greetings my friends, relatives, supporters, and all those who support the cause of freedom, not only for Native Americans, but for all people. I know it’s sometimes not easy being…
On the wall at the foot of my bed hangs a picture of a gateway through which lies the residue of life never fully realized. At this site, eight years prior to my birth, the United…
August 1, 2013 Hello, My name is Kim Young-Jae, and I am currently incarcerated for trying to stop the construction of a U.S. Naval base in Jeju, Korea. I am very grateful to get…
ELEVATING THE HOST Four times our corners of ninety The circle of charity embracing all Is unbroken with 360 In leap year take a mind leap Make your election sure To the House of…
OPEN COMMUNIQUÉ BY MIGS (MARK NEIWEEM), NATO 5 PRISONER July 1, 2013 Greetings of solidarity, comrades and friends. I sincerely hope this communiqué finds all of you in the very…
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi In her autobiography FALLING LEAVES, author Adeline Yen Mah gifts us with…
Kim Young-Jae was arrested on April 12 while standing in front of a truck, on the road leading into the site of a naval base under construction on Jeju Island, South Korea. Two…
In the final weeks of a six month prison sentence for protesting remote control murder by drones, specifically from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, I can only reflect on my…
UPDATE ON YANG YOON-MO ON HIS 68TH DAY IN PRISON Yang Yoon-Mo hit his 68th prison day on Monday, April 8. On April 10, he will hit his 70th prison day. On a sunny Monday, the way…
Read to Judge Denise Lind, Fort Meade courtroom, February 28, 2013 Transcript by the Bradley Manning Support Network. (Scroll down for acknowledgements.) I wrote this statement in…
Dear Friends, Greetings from the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota! As of this writing, I am two months into a six month sentence imposed due to my protest of war crimes committed by remote control from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri against the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Greeting my relatives, friends, and supporters, It is with great honor that I get a chance to speak with you even though it’s a written message that someone has to read. I’m…
(published in issue #167 of the Nuclear Resister newsletter) ~from Blount County The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done; it is…
After the Disarm Now Plowshares action, trial and sentencing, I was in prison with a fifteen month sentence: an eye-blink in comparison to the sentences of most of the women I was…
We Must Raise The Level Of Our Resistance Excerpted from Lynne Stewart’s letter to the United National Anti-war Coalition (UNAC) conference that took place March 23-25, 2012 in…
Unrecognized political prisoner: A Year’s Reflection Or as Steve Baggarly of the Norfolk Catholic Worker wrote in a letter from jail: “If the SHU fits…” Many folks, mostly…
Easter Greetings from Susan Crane from the Disarm Now Plowshares blog Dear Friends, Thanks for your prayers, letters, books and encouragement. Your support means so much to me. And…
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Dear Jack and Felice, Thanks for the great card from the Tucson Peace Fair. These cards are always filled with grand encouragement, to be sure! After…
A Lenten Call: Give Up Our Violence! Note from Leonard Eiger, Disarm Now Plowshares: This is a reflection written over the course of two days by William “Bix” Bichsel, SJ during…
The one thing which every jail and prison does more than anything else is counting people. We’re counted five times a day here. Three times we’re returned to our housing units to…
Reprinted from the Catholic Agitator, newsletter of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker. Steve Baggarly will be sentenced September 20 in federal court in Knoxville, Tennessee, for…
Silo Pruning Hook activist Helen Woodson is due to be released September 9 after serving nearly 27 years in prison for that and subsequent actions against war and other assaults on…
TRIBUTE TO JACKIE HUDSON, OP from her sisters in prison Sister Jackie Hudson, OP – Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan, missioned to Ground Zero near Bangor Trident Naval…
July 8, 2011 Dear Peacemaking Friends, With all the prayers and positive energy coming to me from so many directions, I feel I’m doing very well here at the Ocilla jail. This…
A JOKE AND A LETTER The U.S. and Russia are supposedly allies in fighting Islamic terrorism. But they do not trust one another – they spy upon one another. The U.S. Navy Seals used…
Thank you for your letters, your prayers, the books you have sent. Thanks for maintaining contact with me. I arrived at the federal prison here in California, flown in with 29…
TOILET PAPER by Bonnie Urfer I really want to complain about every woman in this jail receiving one roll of toilet paper to last for the whole week but I can’t because the for…
May 25, 2011 Dear Friends, Welcome to another of America’s gulags – this one in Eastern TN – the Blount County Correctional Facility in Maryville, TN! This is day number 15 and I…
Concrete walls and locked doors cannot take away images of bright lights, fences and towers protecting tombs of unimaginable horrors. We remember fertile lands, natural forests…
After spending the first 2 1/2 weeks of his prison sentence for the Disarm Now Plowshares action at the SeaTac Federal Correction Facility, Jesuit priest Bill “Bix” Bichsel was…
In “From Hiroshima to Fukushima,” an article published in The Nation on March 15 in the wake of the nuclear power disaster in Japan, historian Jonathan Schell once again hit the…
December 8, 2010 HERE WE ARE AGAIN by Fr. Louis Vitale Two weeks have passed since David Omondi and I began our sojourn here at Irwin County Detention Center in southern Georgia…
I. In January I was found guilty in Federal Court in Columbus, Georgia of “Illegal Reentry onto a United States Military Reservation.” I have been incarcerated here at Danbury…
(from the Nuclear Resister #158/159, September 20, 2010) February 6, 2010 Greetings to everyone, Thirty-four years. It doesn’t even sound like a real number to me. Not when one…
SERVING TIME FOR PEACE IN SWEDEN 17th of June, 2010 I am led into the central office of the prison Skenäs outside of Norrköping. Two guards help me to carry my stuff. “It looks…
(From the Nuclear Resister #157, June 1, 2010) February 25, 2010 How Can I Cope? Many people who write me – friends and supporters – ask about harsh treatment and brutality. I do…
(From the Nuclear Resister #154, July 17, 2009) Strategy Behind Swedish Disarmament The network Ofog (meaning mischief in Swedish) started in 2002 as an anti-militarist network for…
(From the Nuclear Resister #153, May 1, 2009, via lettersfromprison.com) March 22, 2009 (in the afternoon) I got my first visit yesterday – mom and dad. When I found out they were…
April 4, 2009 Ten years ago I was in jail in England, awaiting trial for an action within the Trident Ploughshares campaign. Now I’m on remand in Sweden, for a disarmament action…
(From the Nuclear Resister #152, February 24, 2009) February 6, 2009 Greetings my relatives, First of all, before anything else I want to thank all for the work that you’ve been…
(From the Nuclear Resister #151, December 20, 2008) December 16, 2008 Two days ago, December 14, was my second anniversary here in CMU-Terre Haute, Indiana. Two years ago, with…
