Sentence Structure

Prisoner. Convict. Inmate. Criminal. What’s often missed in this list of terms for incarcerated people — by unconscious habit or deliberate choice — is the foundational truth underpinning everything else: human being. Labels work like walls; they can obscure, separate, and silence. And as with physical barriers, efforts must be made if we want to get around them. In 1995, a CBC reporter visited the maximum-security Edmonton Institution for a story about National Prison Justice Day, when inmates remember those who have died behind bars. He met with a lifer named Rik McWhinney and asked, “Is there anything you’d like to get across to people on the other side about prisoners? About why they should care?” Offered the rare opportunity to speak publicly, McWhinney answered, “I don’t know it’s so much if they should care, but why they may want to care.”

This nuance — distinguishing a sense of obligation from genuine interest, even real concern — pokes at us...