Val Kiebala

Post Traumatic Prison Disorder and the Fight to Heal Our Communities

On November 8, 2021, John L. Buckalew, or Buck, was released from SCI Frackville after serving about ten years in prison. Five months later, on April 13, 2022, two women walking their dog reported to the police that they found a man “sleeping in his car.” When the police arrived, they found 34-year-old Buck dead …

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Virtual Life Sentences: the Least Discussed Form of Death by Incarceration

The following piece was written by 63-year-old Frederick Page, who was born and raised in North Philadelphia and has served 34 years of a virtual life sentence. In 1989, when Frederick was 29 years old, he was convicted of 17 misdemeanor burglaries and sentenced to 42 ½ to 102 years. Following his sentencing, Frederick said …

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The Origin Story of Life Without Parole in Pennsylvania

The author of the following piece, Jon E. Yount, died by suicide at State Correctional Institution Greene in 2012 while serving a life sentence imposed during 1966. Yount wrote this piece in February 2004 while incarcerated at State Correctional Institution Huntingdon. In this article, Yount reveals the political nature of the erasure of the possibility …

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Life-Without-Parole Sentences Slowly Replacing the Death Penalty in America

By: Charles Crowe, staff writer at the San Quentin News This piece was originally published in the August 2021 edition of the San Quentin News, a newspaper written and produced by incarcerated men at San Quentin State Prison in California. “Life without parole (LWOP) sentences are steadily replacing the death penalty across the United States,” …

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My Time Will Come: A Dialogue on Transformation and Death by Incarceration

Ian Manuel grew up in Central Park Village in Tampa, Florida. In 1991, when he was 14 years old, Ian was sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicide crime in which he shot and wounded a woman. Ian served 26 years in Florida prison, including 18 years in solitary confinement. The Equal Justice Initiative …

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