Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars
    Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars
    Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars
    Ebook136 pages2 hours

    Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars

    By Tony D. Vick, Michael T. McRay and Richard Rohr

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Tony Vick is serving two life sentences for murder. After nearly twenty years in prison, Tony has literally taken to the pen to document firsthand what life is like behind bars. This book--handwritten by Tony and later transcribed by outside friends--indirectly challenges the reader to engage prison reform as one of the most important social issues of this generation, wondering if society can shift its emphasis from retribution to rehabilitation. Tony's new book describes the violent, even horrific, incidents that occur in prison, incidents mostly hidden in the shadows, away from public awareness. It tells you the stories that those invested in incarceration would rather remain secret. As captivating as it is timely, Secrets from a Prison Cell shortens the distance between those outside and inside prison walls. Through personal stories, essays, and poetry, Tony Vick's book pulls back the curtain on a world invisible to most people, dramatically revealing the realities of life in prison and the power of love to fight dehumanization.

    For Tony, writing this book has never been about money but about the message. Any proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the No Exceptions Prison Collective, a non-profit organization that advocates for prison reform. (https://noexceptions.net) No Exception's mission is furthered by its very name, referencing the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolishes slavery, except for those incarcerated in our nation's prisons. Slavery still exists in America!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCascade Books
    Release dateFeb 6, 2018
    ISBN9781498294348
    Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars
    Author

    Tony D. Vick

    Tony Vick is incarcerated in Tennessee serving two life sentences. He is the author of Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind (Cascade, 2018).

    Related to Secrets from a Prison Cell

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Dahleen Glanton: A Kid Charged With His Friend's Murder During A Botched Burglary In 2008 Got A Second Chance. The Teens Charged In Suburban Chicago Deserve One Too

      Aug 27, 2019

      Eleven years ago, a group of teenagers broke into a house near Rockford, Ill., planning to steal a cache of guns. The boys had meticulously planned the burglary. They knew the homeowner, who was supposed to be in the hospital that night. The house wa

      3 min read

    • Article

      I Watched a Man Die in Prison. His Last Words Haunt Me.

      Mar 15, 2019

      In 1993, California’s Pelican Bay State Prison was one of the worst prisons in the country. Violence permeated the place, the smell of blood literally filling the air. The main yard was even divided into four sections by chain-link, razor-wire fences

      4 min read

    • Article

      Not In My Backyard: The Reality of Human Trafficking and 5 Steps to End It

      Feb 18, 2020

      — ‘Human trafficking’? That can’t possibly be a real thing happening around me… Or could it?  Those were the questions running through my mind as I sat on my friend’s couch in Sydney, Australia back in 2008 listening to her tell me about a new nonpro

      6 min read

    • Article

      Healed People Heal People

      Feb 13, 2022

      Healed People Heal People
      4 min read

    • Article

      Trafficking Survivors Shed An Unjust Label: ‘Criminal’

      Jan 8, 2019

      As attitudes about justice in sex trafficking cases change, more states are giving survivors a chance to clear away convictions for prostitution. But the victim-centered approach is still in its early stages.

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Recidivism Trap

      Mar 15, 2018

      Any discussion of criminal justice policy inevitably includes the word “recidivism.” Usually more than once. Recidivism is the reoccurrence of crime among people known to have committed crimes before. At all levels of justice, from local probation of

      2 min read

    • Article

      Authorities Arrest Dozens In Probe Of Mexican Mafia Control In LA County Jails

      May 23, 2018

      LOS ANGELES - Federal authorities Wednesday unveiled a sweeping investigation into the Mexican Mafia and the control the criminal organization wields inside Los Angeles County jails, arresting dozens of the groups' members and associates for a litany

      1 min read

    • Article

      My Prison Experiment

      Jun 26, 2016

      My Prison Experiment
      124 min read

    • Article

      They Went To An Emergency Room For Help After A Sexual Assault. Instead, They Were Arrested

      Dec 11, 2019

      One woman was pinned to the emergency room floor by officers after her rape kit was done. Another woman was handcuffed to her hospital bed before the exam could begin. Both were sexual assault survivors who went to an Illinois emergency room seeking

      5 min read

    • Article

      How Much Easier to Hate

      Mar 15, 2018

      How Much Easier to Hate
      11 min read

    • Article

      Getting It Wrong

      Feb 20, 2019

      Getting It Wrong
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Iľja Rákoš

      Dec 23, 2020

      I’d been out of the hospital following (let’s call it) treatment for COVID-19 about a month. My hospital ward of 50 patients had one oxygen concentrator. Despite my blood-oxygen saturation levels of 90%, that device wasn’t coming my way anytime soon.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Building A Fortean Library

      Dec 3, 2020

      It wasn’t just the Beatles, you know. On Merseyside in the 1960s another group of irreverent young men coalesced around an iconoclastic idea, and with rather more intellectual heft than the admittedly slightly better-known, and better-earning, moptop

      7 min read

    • Article

      Making Sense Of Conspiracy Theorists As The World Gets More Bizarre

      Apr 11, 2021

      In 1999 I sat in a Vancouver café with a group of anti-capitalist activists. They’d just returned from protesting the WTO in Seattle to find a new, far stranger foe in town – David Icke. He was there to lecture about how the ruling elite are actually

      8 min read

    • Article

      Death Without Ceremony

      May 5, 2020

      Death Without Ceremony
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Conspiracy Theories You Hear in Prison

      Mar 16, 2018

      The Obamas are part of the Illuminati. Former inmates get lifetime benefits. “Franking.” And other myths that spread behind bars.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Mar 25, 2024

      Books
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Deep Wisdom Of Rootedness

      Jan 25, 2024

      The Deep Wisdom Of Rootedness
      3 min read

    • Article

      Enduring Message Of Nonviolence Reaches New Audiences

      Feb 29, 2024

      Clarence B. Jones is preaching nonviolence.  At 93, this civil rights pioneer, who helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. write his “I Have a Dream” speech, is still combating hate. But these days, instead of leading protest meetings, Mr. Jones is re

      3 min read

    • Article

      "These Are Invariably People Who Have Been Betrayed At Every Stage. You Need To Build Trust"

      Aug 3, 2023

      What’s the overarching idea of History on the Edge? It’s about stories that have slipped through the cracks of history. It’s investigative journalism, but looking into things that happened in the past that people should know about – particularly if t

      2 min read

    • Article

      Learning From The Past

      Dec 23, 2020

      Learning From The Past
      5 min read

    • Article

      Humans Are Wired for Goodness

      Aug 22, 2019

      Nicholas Christakis and I are on the same page: We would definitely sacrifice our lives to save a billion strangers, perhaps even several hundred million, plucked at random from Earth’s population. But, for sure, not a thousand strangers, or a millio

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Other Bibles

      Feb 27, 2024

      The Other Bibles
      12 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Secrets from a Prison Cell

    4.5/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Great book from a great writer whose introspection sheds light on the daily grind of prison life as he continuously searches for meaning and light in a dark world.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Secrets from a Prison Cell - Tony D. Vick

    9781498294331.kindle.jpg

    Secrets from a Prison Cell

    A Convict’s Eyewitness Account of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars

    Tony D. Vick

    with Michael T. McRay

    foreword by Richard Rohr

    9977.png

    Secrets from a Prison Cell

    A Convict’s Eyewitness Account of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars

    Copyright ©

    2018

    Tony D. Vick and Michael T. McRay. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

    199

    W.

    8

    th Ave., Suite

    3

    , Eugene, OR

    97401

    .

    Cascade Books

    An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

    199

    W.

    8

    th Ave., Suite

    3

    Eugene, OR

    97401

    www.wipfandstock.com

    paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-9433-1

    hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-9435-5

    ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-9434-8

    Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

    Names: Vick, Tony D. | McRay, Michael T. | Rohr, Richard, foreword.

    Title: Secrets from a prison cell : a convict’s eyewitness account of the dehumanizing drama of life behind bars / Tony D. Vick with Michael T. McRay.

    Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books,

    2018

    | Includes bibliographical references.

    Identifiers:

    isbn 978-1-4982-9433-1 (

    paperback

    ) | isbn 978-1-4982-9435-5 (

    hardcover

    ) | isbn 978-1-4982-9434-8 (

    ebook

    )

    Subjects: LCSH: Prisons. | Prisoners. | United States. | Poetry. | LBGTQ. | Title.

    Classification:

    hv9871 .v53 2018 (

    print

    ) | hv9871 .v53 (

    ebook

    )

    Manufactured in the U.S.A.

    11/06/17

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Foreword

    Preface

    Acknowledgments

    Chapter 1: I Am Prisoner #276187

    I Was, I Am

    Chapter 2: I’m Hungry, Feed Me

    Break Bread With Me

    Chapter 3: Cutting Through the Pain

    My Cocoon

    Stay With Me

    Chapter 4: Beyond the Living Room

    I See a Home

    Chapter 5: The Art of Redemption

    The Perfect House

    Chapter 6: A Little Kindness

    Endless Love

    Chapter 7: Sentenced To Death: By Old Age

    I Shall Not Die Alone

    Maybe Tonight

    Chapter 8: Monsters Don’t Live Under the Bed

    In Those Moments

    Taking Flight

    Chapter 9: Buster

    My hands touched God’s hands today

    Once a Slave . . . Always a Slave?

    Chapter 10: Is It Just This?

    Is It Just This?

    it’s not what i imagined

    Chapter 11: Wheelchairs, Walkers, and Wishes

    Walk On

    Chapter 12: Say No to Photoshopping

    Reality Monster

    Chapter 13: Hanging On in Tandem

    Hang On

    Chapter 14: It Is Possible

    Change: It Is Possible

    It’s Been Too Long

    About the Author—Tony D. Vick

    About the Author—Michael T. McRay

    Bibliography

    "The power of Secrets from a Prison Cell is that it unflinchingly looks the reader directly in the eye, makes no claim of innocence or excuses for crime, and demonstrates that accountability and forgiveness are mutually enforcing, not in contradiction as our current failed system would have us believe. After reading this book, it will be all of us—citizens, leaders, teachers, clergy, lawmakers—who are left naked and morally compromised if we fail to act to transform a soul-crushing system of retribution into a process and means of restoration. Tony Vick has given us the gift of discomfort. May we use it well."

    —Jeannie Alexander, Director, No Exceptions Prison Collective

    Prisons reveal the secreted nature of the regime that creates them. Two millennia ago John of Patmos pulled back the veil and exposed Rome’s monstrous essence. Seven decades ago, Elie Wiesel’s revelations of the concentration camps unmasked the sadistic bloodlust of the Nazi’s reign. In this tradition Tony Vick’s exposé of the prison-industrial complex divulges the concealed character of the American Empire. Like John’s and Elie’s revelations, Tony’s call is neither for despair nor pity. No, here is a summons to action. Read this book and you must join the Resistance.

    —Richard C. Goode, Lipscomb University

    2.2 million people are in US prisons and jails, with millions more on probation and parole, but such statistics about our ever-expanding carceral society tend to prove powerless at touching hearts or even minds. Tony Vick’s stories and poems have the creative power of word and image to make the prisoner’s life task of correction and rehabilitation a contribution to the urgently needed conversation among and within ourselves about who we are and what we might become as twenty-first–century Americans.

    —Bruce T. Morrill, Professor, Vanderbilt Divinity School

    To Cindy Ford

    There is a really deep pit. I live there, and God dwells there with me. On occasion, it is quite difficult for me to find him within the darkness of my soul. At those moments, he sends a beloved creation to communicate in terms I can understand, a creation whose voice I can hear, whose hands I can feel, and whose eyes I can see—to sit with me and remind me to just hang on.

    Cindy, my debt to you can never be repaid.

    There are a few seconds each morning where I find myself in complete peace. The moments, just as I am waking up—before I succumb to the realization of my existence. It’s the time of the day before the look, the feel, the taste of prison envelops me. In these moments, I am free, and equal to all humanity.

    Foreword

    Even though both John the Baptist and St. Paul spent much time imprisoned, as did Saints Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, and many others throughout Christian history, it is amazing to me that there is so little awareness of the needs, hopes, and possibilities of the incarcerated in most Christian communities. They are still other people who are over there and largely invisible to our daily lives and interests. Yet jails and prisons have often served as would-be monasteries, seminaries, hermitages, altar calls, and retreat houses—hotbeds of human transformation.

    Even in the classic listing of the six corporal works of mercy that were expected of all believers going back to the first millennium of Christianity, one of the six is listed as visiting the imprisoned and in some listings, it was put more bravely as ransoming the captives! At least one religious order took an actual vow to do just that!

    A man called St. Peter Nolasco in 1218 Spain required of himself and his followers a special vow to devote their whole substance and very liberty to the ransoming of slaves and the wrongly imprisoned, even to the point of acting as hostages for them. According to records, the Order of our Lady of Ransom accomplished approximately 70,000 rescues—some 2,700 during Peter’s own lifetime.

    They still exist, although in small numbers, and are commonly called Mercedarians because of their complete commitment to showing mercy (merced in Spanish) to the powerless, the enslaved, and the falsely imprisoned. Many of them later accompanied the conquistadors to the New World to do the same, first for the indigenous peoples and later the slaves. What a shame that they were not the dominant form of Christianity, and today few even know about this too easily forgotten history. Perhaps their existence was a judgment on the rest of us?

    Mostly, I fear it reveals the highly establishment position in which most Christian denominations and individuals found themselves after we ourselves moved from the Roman catacombs to the palaces, after the Emperor Constantine made us the official religion of the Empire, starting in 313 AD. We were no longer the persecuted, but too often ourselves became the persecutors. We radically changed sides and perspectives.

    Now why do I mention this in the foreword to Tony Vick’s fine book? I do it to make us aware of how much our Christian perspective has changed over the centuries. In most cases, we no longer look up at society from the servant position of Jesus, but instead began to look down at prisoners, the incarcerated, and the powerless in general—from our now established and comfortable position. Anyone in jail now is usually assumed to be likely wrong, bad, or at least deserving of just punishment. This despite the now weekly DNA tests that prove how many people have been judged and imprisoned unjustly and falsely still in the modern scientific and just law period. Our bias is firmly in place, I am afraid.

    I myself was a prison chaplain here in Albuquerque, New Mexico for fourteen years, and got to learn from many thousands of incarcerated people during that time. It was amazing to me how many of them eventually came to see their time in jail almost as a monastery, but now with all the historic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience imposed on them by necessity. But many used it to very good soul advantage—their own and others.

    Many developed a very real prayer life, a commitment to spiritual reading and Bible study, and a true love of God and service of neighbor during both short and more extended sentences. I cannot say it was the norm, but it was amazingly common. There are lots of little saints hidden away in jails! Many prisoners have used their just or unjust punishment to become highly transformed people, just like John the Baptist, Paul, Francis, Ignatius, and John of the Cross.

    You are now privileged to meet such a

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1