Relationships

How to Receive Judgment with Grace

Lessen the sting and find the middle ground between casting judgmental people off altogether and hiding in the sand

An olive talking to a pair of peanuts saying, quote, “you’re nuts!” — All illustrations by the author

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Viktor Frankl

Shortly after Valentine’s Day 2019, I fell in love with an incarcerated man. I was elated. Micheal was everything I…

Can Jared Kushner’s Clemency Task Force #FreeAdam Clausen?

Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Guidelines were devastating for families like Ro Clausen‘s, whose husband received 213 Years under a since-voided application of U.S.C. § 924(c). 20 Years Later, can Jared Kushner’s Clemency Task Force #FreeAdam Clausen?

When I ask her about it, she recalls an emotional rollercoaster. 16 years into her husband Adam’s 213-year federal sentence for a string of armed robberies — in which no one was physically harmed — the Supreme Court issued a decision in Johnson v. …

And What If We Unchained Him?

Recent Washington Post editorials on #IRAA focus on applicants’ adolescent criminality, but those aren’t the men I know.

It’s 2 PM on a Friday and I’m standing at the back of room 218 at the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse in Washington DC, wedged between a wooden bench and the wall. The room is packed — a gentleman in joggers and a suit coat stands immediately to my left…