From a father in prison to a son in jail

An American Father’s Day letter

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 24 million children — 1 in 3 — live without a father in the home…Nearly 3 million children (mostly kids of color) have a parent (most commonly a father) in prison or jail…Fathers in prison were, overwhelmingly, fatherless themselves. Youths in father-absent households have significantly higher odds of being incarcerated.

Read a shortened version of this letter on Huffpost Personal.

Dear son:

It’s customary for children to honor their dads on Father’s Day, but for all intents and purposes, I never had a father. I swore that if I had a son of my own, I’d be there for him. But I wasn’t; instead, I’ve spent the last 24 years in prison, starting from before you were even born. When we finally find ourselves together, without a phone, glass partition or table in a visiting hall between us, it’s in jail! Yet even now, due to COVID-19, we still can’t really be together; we’re all separated. And once that eases, I fear I will be moved back to the “fed” in Florida [since D.C. doesn’t have its own prison]. So, I am writing you a letter, in the hope this will go a little way toward forging a real father-son bond.