We’ve Been Known

[Letters from the Editors]

Right now, our country faces a crisis of mass incarceration. With five percent of the world’s population, we have twenty-five percent of the world’s incarcerated people. The majority of these are held not in the federal prison system but in local facilities—jails. Since the 1970s, our country’s incarceration rate has increased by 700%, though crime per capita has gone down. And the majority of the victims of this crisis are people of color. In this issue we present the voices of those who are jailed locally, here in the Northwest.

Those who want to learn more about this crisis, and learn how to take action, can visit the ACLU’s page at https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration/mass-incarceration-animated-series

Writing on riffs from a poem by Denise Duhamel, our jailed authors speak their truth about their imprisonment. Denise offers us a beautiful reflection on their voices.

Thanks to Underground Writing for leading these workshops.

SUSANNE PAOLA ANTONETTA is Editor-in-Chief of Bellingham Review.