at the intersection of child labor & incarcerated labor
“Well, I got incarcerated. Oh, I was 14.” - former Arkansas incarcerated person released after 26 years
I didn’t know if the interview would be relevant to my work. He lived in a small town a few hours away, and I was supposed to drive there but got sick and couldn’t go at the last minute. A few weeks passed until he texted me that he was in Little Rock. We almost didn’t meet. His story probably didn’t relate directly to my work, I thought.
But what is meaningful is never straightforward, not something we can predict, try as we might. I didn’t know he had been incarcerated with adults at age 14. He was the youngest person at the correctional facility, and like many incarcerated people in Arkansas, he was forced into unpaid labor. He worked on a prison farm, describing, “So all I know is this is some hardcore serious labor that no juvenile should be doing. Because later on, as I grew up and started to study, I started reading about child labor laws.” After serving 26 years, he was released in 2022.
Sitting at the coffee shop, he pulled out his phone and slid it across the table. He had written something and wanted to show it to me. I sat, rapt, reading the story of his childhood spent in a prison for adults. “How many pages do you have?” I asked.
“200.”
I told him I would read it in a hot minute.
He wanted advice about how to sell a book. And so we sat there for two hours, discussing the world of book proposals and editors. After he left, I emailed him some example book proposals because, by God, I want to read his book.
Alice
News
I am a James Beard Award nominee for investigative reporting alongside Christina Cooke and Gosia Wozniacka for the Civil Eats series on animal agricultural workers and the meatpacking industry “Injured and Invisible.”
OMG, Yes...I want to read his book. Thanks for sharing, Alice. You are awesome,'so glad you were able to meet with him. I'm sure your experience, your input is a great benefit to him.
I’m so anxious to read this. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time there was some long overdue justice. God, let us hope so. My father and brother-in-law worked in meat packing at Fort Morgan, Colorado for a time. It’s difficult work, savage work, it tears into a persons soul.