Tony Vick

Tony has served almost three decades of a life with parole sentence in Tennessee. Before prison he lived as a closeted gay man; his Southern Baptist parents and an older brother have since died. While incarcerated he has worked as a tutor, clerk and newspaper editor. He’s also begun book clubs and writing workshops, and prisoner-led elder care programs. He writes about captivity in the hope of contributing to the prison reform movement.

 

The Right to Consensual Sex—and Condoms—in Prison

Greg* has been incarcerated in Tennessee for about 18 months. He’s been on a waiting list for job placement for…

November 8, 2023

Selling Meth Sent Him to Prison. It Also Saved His Life.

Louis Bell was a type of person we typically didn’t encounter in our Tennessee prison. A middle-aged white man with…

October 18, 2023

Amid the Trauma of Prison, an Unexpected Oasis: Crochet Club

Travis learned to crochet from his grandmother. He was 10 when she showed him his first stitch, in 1986, and…

October 3, 2023

Sex Offender Registry Reform Is a Harm Reduction Issue

In the United States, anyone convicted of a sex offense is punished with two criminal sentences. The first is the…

September 7, 2023

The Only Openly LGBTQ Prisoner-Led Community in Tennessee

I thought I was too old to have to worry about being raped in prison. But as his sweat dripped…

July 26, 2023

COVID Left Our Private Prison With a New Normal: “Rolling Lockdowns”

Like with so many prisons across the country, the pandemic sent Tennessee's South Central Correctional Facility (SCCF) into a state…

June 21, 2023

Traumatized Veterans Who Use Drugs Left to Suffer in Prison

About seven years ago, the Tennessee private prison where I’ve been incarcerated for the past 26 years created a special…

May 24, 2022

We Know Visitors Aren’t the Ones Bringing Drugs Into Our Prison

The Tennessee private prison where I’ve been incarcerated since 2016 has long maintained that the supply of contraband drugs here…

March 22, 2022