Moments: How I Bonded with Lifers

Teaching creative writing to prisoners

The author stands in front of California State Prison-LA County, Lancaster.

Students don’t normally shake the teacher’s hand when they enter a classroom, but at this writer’s workshop that I’m teaching, that modicum of manners counts for a lot. These students don’t have a lot of contact with people, especially physical touch.

They are lifers at California State Prison Los Angeles County. Most are LWOPs, sentenced…