Tablets bring connection to prison

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation distributed tablets in state prisons for the first time after more than a decade of relying on pay phones and snail mail.

An essay about Taylor Swift reaches readers

After publishing an essay titled Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison for The New Yorker, the author received responses from readers worldwide, including a playwright and several filmmakers.

A filmmaker wants to document the journey

Documentarian Jon Kasbe contacted the author about making a film. The author was preparing for a parole hearing, their first real opportunity at freedom in twenty-one years.

A risky decision about the documentary

The author's parole attorney Heidi Rummel warned that filming could work against them at the hearing. Still, the author let Kasbe interview them and gave him permission to ask for approval to film inside.

The support group gives permission

The author asked participants in a lifers support group if they would be comfortable being filmed. They agreed, saying they would be okay with it if the author could actually make it happen.

“What goes on in here stays in here”

Kasbe gets approval to film

Months passed before Kasbe was approved to film. By then, the author had been found suitable for parole and was waiting for Governor Newsom to clear them for release.

The essay reaches inside the prison

The group's vice-chair Tyrone Tittle asked his wife to find the author's essay online and read it to him over the phone.

Filming captures the final hours

Kasbe and his crew filmed the author walking around an empty rec yard and sitting at a pay phone.

The film inspires other inmates

Two years after release, the author still talks to men featured in the film using an app on their prison tablets.

“I think I love love a little more now”