THE PRISON PROFESSOR

IN HIS 6.5-BY-14-FOOT cell, Leo Hylton keeps an unopened cherry-flavored Hint seltzer. Since March 2022, he's held on to the bottle as a prized possession, a "touchstone" that he says helps remind him of "the visceral feel" of the first day he spent outside the Maine State Prison in 12 years.
Hylton left for work. He's a co-instructor with Colby College's anthropology department. Alongside tenured professor Catherine Besteman, this spring for the second year running, he'll teach via Zoom from inside the walls about abolition-the movement to end incarceration. According to a number of experts in prison education, Hylton is the first professor of his kind in the United States.
Last March, the prison approved an unprecedented chance for Hylton to meet his students in person on their campus. He left under armed guard, wearing a freshly pressed blue button-down shirt and jeans-and handcuffs, belly chains, and hobbles that would clamp his legs if he tried to run.
"I'm going through this whole process of putting these restraints on, cheesing ear to ear," he remembers. Headed to Colby, he says, "I don't think I had felt more free in my life." In the classroom, Hylton-a large 32-year-old at 6.5 feet and 275 pounds, with a calming deep voice and a contagious laugh and Besteman began, as they usually do, by instructing everyone to make a circle with their desks. Only this Hylton could hear chairs being dragged. As he saw his students speak, he registered their voices and their position in the room. The escort officers joined in, following instructions from their charge-not the other way around moving furniture and taking part in the conversation he would lead.
この記事は Mother Jones の March/April 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Mother Jones の March/April 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン

Immigrants on the Line
They fled Haiti only to endure brutal working conditions at a Colorado plant run by the world's biggest meatpacker. Now they face deportation.

HOW TO DRIVE ELON MUSK DOWN
If you think mass protests can't combat evil, remember what we did in the 1980s.

GUARANTEED FAILURE
Cash transfer programs are gaining steam, but our current bureaucracy is obscuring their potential.

THE BRUTAL AESTHETICS OF MAGA
Proximity to power might rely on a specific look.

ONE OF AMERICA'S BIGGEST FOR-PROFIT HOSPITAL OPERATORS IS BANKRUPT, BROKEN. AND RESPONSIBLE FOR COUNTLESS MISTREATED PATIENTS— THANKS TO ITS PRIVATE EQUITY OVERLORDS.
She'd never been one to take the easy route, and besides, she wanted to get things moving-and walking seemed the best way to do it.

THE GREAT PRETENDER
A fake campaign loan could have ended Andy Ogles' push for MAGA fame. Then Trump won again.

RAIN CHECK
The economic case for preserving America’s wetlands

GET CAUGHT FIGHTING
MAXWELL FROST IS LEARNING THE ROPES OF CONGRESS AND SHOWING HIS OLDER COLLEAGUES HOW TO PUNCH BACK IN THE AGE OF TRUMP.

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
Clearview Al's far-right founders always intended to target immigrants and the political left. Now their facial recognition dragnet is in the hands of the Trump administration.

SCHOOL'S OUT FOREVER
How hybrid homeschools hoover up your state tax dollars