Comments for Doing Time: John's Diary

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This piece belongs to the series "Prison Diaries"

Produced by Radio Diaries/Joe Richman

Other pieces by Radio Diaries

Summary: John Mills, a 21-year-old inmate, is serving seven to nine years.
 

Caption: PRX default User image

Review of Doing Time: John's Diary

This is a revealing and challenging first-person piece, an excellent and affecting example of its genre. The overall impression is of an environment that is loud, jarringly loud; replete with inmates (if this diarist is representative) whose potential to change/make amends is being squandered by the prison system. The piece is filled the mundane details of daily life behind bars: smoke breaks, watching ricki lake, endless hours in the cell. The diarist is honest and intimate, and the piece is seamlessly constructed.