‘That One Door’
— Andrew Sargus Klein
The theme for the recent issue of Territory is “prisons.” There are few populations as marginalized and forgotten as America’s inmates, and giving them a voice and a platform is important and necessary work.
I could stop here and say make your way through the entire issue, because it’s completely worth your time and attention. That’s all true, but I’ll say a few words about the special insert, because it’s made up of writings and drawings from inmates that detail the physical and psychological realities of their cells.
The drawings themselves lend a whole other dimension to the people behind the words: their choice of details and color palette, their use of first-person perspectives and floor plans.
Most men use the mirror to answer the questions like am I really, really beautiful? For me it’s the place, I lose the mask I put on for other men: the crooked eye, the flared nostrils, and bared babycorn teeth that tells everyone I eat raw meat like a bush animal. I use the mirror to plait the cornrow hair that tells everyone, I know the devil and we share the meat. It’s in the mirror I see my meaty arm muscles that have made many inmates to scurry away or slink off, to wait for a better day.
From another:
On the female maximum-security pod 4F, Cell 216 is home. Wait, allow me to be more specific. This is a home that I find unfit. But since we’ll be here for a while, let me explain how we give it some style. There are rugs made from towels to keep the dust out and towel “rugs” for our shoes. We make hooks out of soap to hang our towels by twos. We put up calendars and pictures of our loved ones. We have a window with a view of the river and the sun.
Territory didn’t just put together this incredible issue; the journal is also highlighting prison mapping projects that focus on justice—the near-impossibly long road to justice.