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If you are working on an APWA-related project, please let us know how you plan to utilize the Archive. We hope to share information about your work with our readers and, whenever possible, with relevant APWA authors.

The APWA is an open access archive. We encourage use of the writings for research, course planning, and projects engaged in examination of the criminal legal system. Reproduction of essays in their entirety infringes on author copyright without their explicit consent from the writers. Please contact us if you plan to reproduce entire essays; we will do our best to put you in contact with the authors for consent, and their compensation for any project that is profit making.

*At this point in the Archive’s growth, it’s important to revisit actions taken to protect privacy when the APWA had fewer resources. For this reason, we are temporarily pulling all essays and poetry under pseudonyms and anonymity to quality check and ensure all identity protecting redactions have been thoroughly applied. The privacy of the writers in the APWA is a top priority, and so is displaying their writing as they wish it to be displayed. We will restore all pieces as soon as we can confirm the highest quality privacy protections.

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The * operator replaces zero or more characters, so searching for w*ess would match “wilderness”, “witness”, “WordPress” and also “wess”.

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Put phrase in quotation marks, e.g., “just as complicit”.

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Dream on
February 5, 2021

Dream on

Dream On Are all prisoners "bad guys?" I admit that a lot are. The TV portrays nothing but rapists and mass murderers. Well they are the minority. The majority are in for drugs. I'm in...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
Letter to the Director of Prisons
October 2, 2020

Letter to the Director of Prisons

Mr. Director, We have all this violence at Alexander. According to an eyewitness the c/o who got beat up told the prisoner, "Do something! Do somethin' I dare yo....." and was cut short because the...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
The true nature of the corporate, for-profit, so-called "justice system"
May 28, 2020

The true nature of the corporate, for-profit, so-called "justice system"

1 The True Nature of the Corporate, For-Profit, so-called “Justice System” It’s really not the prisons themselves that profit from mass incarceration. It is the court system. It begins from the day we were born...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
Money and power corrupts
April 25, 2018

Money and power corrupts

"Money and Power Corrupts" Chris Hughes 4-25-18 I'm locked up. I sit idle doing basically nothing all day, every day. Well, how do I have any ambition? I have no idea of a realistic place...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
It's been a while since I last wrote
January 22, 2018

It's been a while since I last wrote

Monday 1-22-18 APWA, It's been a while since I last wrote. Prison's only gotten worse since. They steadily take away "privileges". About 8 years ago we had some decent food. They've ruined our food. It's...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
I'm writing this while in hand-cuffs
October 19, 2016

I'm writing this while in hand-cuffs

No Title I’m writing this while in hand-cuffs and/or “full-restraints”, pardon my writing. This morning I was too sick to eat my food right then at that time. The c/o demanded that I give him...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
This is to let you know
October 19, 2016

This is to let you know

NO TITLE APWA, This is to let you know that I sent an essay last time I wrote and it's in your file. You can print this: I have done a lot of time in...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
I was jumped on by a man
October 19, 2016

I was jumped on by a man

NO TITLE I was jumped on by a man while I was too drunk to defend myself with my hands. I was at a homeless camp off the side of Highway 85 in High Point,...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
I'm locked in this cage for defending my life
2016

I'm locked in this cage for defending my life

NO TITLE By Chris Hughes I'm locked in this cage for defending my life, which for a poor man is a crime, but not for the rich. I want to claim that classism began in...
Hughes, ChrisNorth Carolina
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If you are working on an APWA-related project, please let us know how you plan to utilize the Archive. We hope to share information about your work with our readers and, whenever possible, with relevant APWA authors.

APWA is an open access archive. We encourage use of the writings for research, course planning, and projects engaged in examination of the criminal legal system. Reproduction of essays in their entirety infringes on author copyright without their explicit consent from the writers. Please contact us if you plan to reproduce entire essays; we will do our best to put you in contact with the authors for consent, and their compensation for any project that is profit making.

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