Upon my return from a six-year stint at San Quentin State Prison, I look at the world with new eyes. Prison life has brought into focus many of the mysteries I see in modern society as it enters this post-Rationalist/Humanist Age with all the anxiety that accompanies such momentous upheaval. …

Everyone’s half right and everyone’s simultaneously half wrong, and nobody is having a real conversation about what’s actually going on. — I have lived the American Dream, from a trailer park to an Ivy League law degree. It was my hard work (and government loans) that made my adult upper-middle-class life possible and the one I have given to my children. I BELIEVE in our American meritocracy. Meritocracy and its importance…

Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) told lawmakers that between March 2021 to May 2021 nearly 31,000 prisoners requested compassionate release. The BOP approved just 36. — As an Ivy-league attorney, start-up techie, and someone who served a 6-year stint as San Quentin (also former Managing Editor of the San Quentin News), I often used novel ways to explain complex concepts to an uninitiated audience. New mental constructs are both difficult to formulate and consume. The time…

By Wayne Boatwright * Most people consider happiness to be a feeling, without weight or substance. I know different. I witnessed the creation of 500 pounds of happiness before my very eyes at San Quentin State Prison. Happiness is rare. It’s not easy to make, nor can you buy it…

Rights and Obligations of Transgender Athletes — In a concise opinion piece, a Choate high school junior argued that it was to society’s benefit to allow transgender athletes to compete in competitive sports regardless if that athlete retains some biological advantage. Fairness Vs. Inclusivity: Transgender Athletes | The Choate News Just a few weeks ago in Atlanta, Georgia, the top college-aged swimmers were pitted against each other at the National…thechoatenews.choate.edu

Prison Journalism Project trains incarcerated writers to become journalists and publishes their stories. Subscribe to Inside Story to receive exclusive behind-the-scene looks at our best stories, as well as author profiles and other insights. The Son’s Story Baseball and my dad — the two are inextricably linked inside of my brain. When I…

Can I capture my re-entry from San Quentin? Prison changes a man. Trust me. I am a more difficult person. — I am one of the Fallen. Re-entering to the society that judged me a violent criminal less than ten years ago and considered my crime deserving of significant incarceration, mostly at San Quentin, a level two facility that includes all 700+ death row inmates. My fall is well known or…

My list of heretics that would have been burned at the stake in the 16th century and suffer a similar fate today. — I’m a member of the SISYPHUS ROCKS!. Not a rock band, but a quirky club on Clubhouse with 250 members and 500 followers. While its self-description is “A lighthearted series of conversations about some of the most fascinating books, events, figures, and ideas that have shaped human civilization,” I have…