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Small Comforts Keep You Sane When You’re In Prison

This facility is so disorganized, you can’t count on having them.

Damian Delune
5 min readMar 21, 2024
Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

Before I went to prison, you would never have caught me reading much of anything. I’m dyslexic and always struggled with reading, as I never learned any tricks to help myself get through it. No, there isn’t a cure, per se, for dyslexia, but there are some ways to struggle less. Where I grew up, the school system isn’t big on helping kids who struggle so much that they push them through the system.

But I refused to be the inmate who sleeps all day or gets in trouble throughout their time in prison, so I decided one way or another, I was going to find something to occupy my time — reading seemed to be something that would help me do that.

Words I never thought I would say — I love to read. Now, I understand why my wife, Demeter, always had her nose in a book! Good storytelling can take you somewhere else, and when you’re in prison, that’s something you want to experience regularly.

The camp where I’m housed limits the number of books we’re allowed to have in our rooms to 10, which is different from other facilities. As there are some books I won’t get rid of, like my Bible, dictionary, and one self-help book, this means I can only have seven other books at once. I usually have…

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Damian Delune
Damian Delune

Written by Damian Delune

Incarcerated writer sharing real stories about life on the inside, through my wife, Demeter Delune (editor, publisher, promoter, responder)

Responses (8)

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It's incredible. How come this toxic culture is allowed to progress. All you wanted were books. It's not like you had a box of dope in your mail. Toxic culture starts at the very top and progresses down the line.

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My name was on the fucking label.

I'd like to say I don't understand what the issue is, but I get that's it's not about reasonable, normal intelligent behavior. They clearly just don't care.

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It's good to see your stories again Damian (and Demeter!) I'm so ready for you guys both to be done with this. Also, if you're getting along with roommates (/"cellies") not having problems, why even move you?

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