Witness: An Insider's Narrative of the Carceral State

by Lyle C. May

Overview

<strong>A first-hand account of the death penalty's wholly destructive nature. <br /><br /></strong>In Witness, Lyle C. May offers a scathing critique of shifts in sentencing laws, prison policies that ensure recidivism, and classic "tough on crime" views that don't make society safer or prevent crime. These insightful and analytical essays explore capital punishment, life imprisonment, prison education, prison journalism, as well as what activism from inside looks like on the road toward abolishing the carceral state. <br /><br />No outside journalist can adequately report what happens inside death row or what it is like to live through thirty-three executions of people you know. May's grounded writings in Witness challenge the myths, misconceptions, and misinformation about the criminal legal system and death in prison, guiding readers on a journey through North Carolina's congregate death row, where the author has spent over twenty years of his life. <br /><br />With a foreword by activist, lawyer, and professor Danielle Purifoy, and drawing on the work of Angela Y. Davis, Mariame Kaba, and other abolitionist scholars, Witness shows there is more to life under the sentence of death than what is portrayed in crime dramas or mass media. Lyle C. May's life, journalism, and activism are a guidebook to abolitionism in practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888900406
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	792,582
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Lyle C. May is a prison journalist, abolitionist, and Ohio University Alum currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology, with a criminology major. He is a member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society and the Author's Guild. Lyle's writings have appeared in Scalawag Magazine, Perspectives on Politics, The Intercept, America Magazine, Inside Higher Ed, and elsewhere. Lyle is also a coauthor of Inside: Voices from Death Row (Scuppernong Editions, 2022) and contributor to Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America's Death Row (Duke University Press, 2021). He routinely lectures to high school and university students, church groups, and community organizations on the politics, policies, and experiences of mass incarceration. As he pursues every legal avenue to overturn his wrongful conviction and death sentence, Lyle advocates for greater access to higher education in prison.

<strong>Lyle C. May </strong>is an Ohio University alum, member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society, and member of the Author’s Guild. His writing regularly appears in Scalawag Magazine and he guest lectures at universities, high schools, and academic conferences around the US. To sign up for May's newsletter or to contact him, visit www.LyleCMay.com.

Table of Contents

Section A—State of Violence: Capital Punishment and Death Row

On Death Row, Eating to Live
A Confirmation of Faith
Secrecy and the Death Penalty
Beyond the wall
Death Row Phenomenon
Jesus as a Man on Death Row
Learning to Die

Section B—Carceral State: Life imprisonment

Life Without Parole is a Silent Execution
A Tale of Two Henrys
Paroling Michael Pinch
Death by Incarceration
Mob Mentality and Politics: The viral space where bad laws are made

Section C—Culture of Control: Higher Education and Prison Journalism

Draconian Ideals
Obstructing Reform
Resilience and Resistance
Freeing the Press in Prison
Prison Journalism: Fighting the Narrative of Control
NC Innocence Inquiry Commission Does Not Save Every Innocent of Death Row

Section D—Witness: Speaking Out

The Digital Abolitionist Twitter Feed: Lisa Montgomery
Science vs. Anti-Intellectualism and the Death Penalty
Inside the Tinderbox: COVID-19 in Prison
The Economics of Capital Punishment
Qualified Immunity
When the Thermometer Breaks
The Myth of Deterrence
No Man Left Behind

Section E. Activism
Front Line Snapshots of Activism
On Retaliation against Incarcerated Writers
The Hole: To Live Means to Resist
The Fury of Our Resistance

Editorial Reviews

Lyle May has written a powerful, must-read book for those embedded in the struggle for freedom, justice, and abolition. Witness is essential reading. ” —Mariame Kaba

"Lyle May is a tempered writer; he’s wise enough to trust the power in his message and to avoid overstating it. He deserves enormous respect and credit — not only for what he has already committed to paper, but for the fact that he has written at all. As May points out, incarcerated activists are not popular among those who are charged with confining them. It’s not surprising that May is no stranger to solitary confinement." —The Arts Fuse

With fierce beauty, Witness brilliantly chronicles the everyday and intimate layers of life on death row in a US prison. May's detailed reporting - and, as powerfully, his critical analysis of the prison industrial complex - illuminates crucial pathways to strengthen our movements for healing and liberation for all." —Erica R. Meiners, co-editor of The Long Term and co-author of Abolition. Feminism. Now. 

"Lyle May is a voice for the voiceless. He draws the reader into his experiences and perspectives as a man living with others condemned to death. Remarkably circumspect, he explores ineffective and deadening attempts to deal with crime and criminals that do not redeem the lost and forgotten. Whether or not you agree with him, it is important for us to listen to him. There are some passages in this book that may touch your soul." —Alice Lynd, co-author with Staughton Lynd of Moral Injury and Nonviolent Resistance: Breaking the Cycle of Violence in the Military and Behind Bars

"From death row, May not only presents a searing, unflinching and damning first-hand examination of North Carolina's death row, but also walks the reader through the decades of punitive policies that have built this house of hopelessness." —Victoria Law, journalist and author of "Prisons Make Us Safer" & 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration

From the Publisher