Adena M'lynn's Voice

  Dear America, We keep writing more laws. Each one stacked like bricks, tall as courthouse steps, heavy as locked doors.They pile up until they block the horizon. And yet, behind this wall of rules, justice does not always live, its drowning in silence and pretense.  Laws are written in ink. Justice is written in spirit.  Laws can trap us in a “gotcha” game—measuring people by mistakes or “I’ll show you”, not possibilities. Justice asks us to measure with compassion, to weigh the whole of a life, not the worst moment of it. America, we have become fluent in punishment. We know how to legislate. We know how to prosecute. But do we know how to restore? Do we know how to listen? Do we know how to heal? Too often, justice is answered with silence—or worse, with lies. We call it fairness when it is only paperwork. We call it truth when it is only politics. We call it law when it is really power. But real justice—does not bend to convenience. It does not hide in loopholes or g...

I’ve seen the white bus. Not a school bus. Not a church van. A ghost—rolling bones and orange jumpsuits— southbound on Highway 83 like it’s dragging the weight of a broken country behind it. They call it “transport.” Like it’s just movement. Like it doesn’t smell like bleach and piss and panic. Like it doesn’t hold a mother’s scream pressed against steel. Like it’s not a coffin on wheels with a heartbeat you can’t hear. I saw it once at a rest stop— all tinted windows and chainlink daydreams. A woman inside mouthed “Tell my babies I’m okay” but the glass didn’t translate grief. That highway knows her name. Knows how she once danced barefoot in the rain before the needle before the man before the court that forgot she was a child once. Highway 83 stretches like a judgment without mercy— north to courtrooms, south to cinderblock silence. No exits. Only destinations that forget redemption. Some of the women on that bus never learned how to cry without flinching first. Some still braid the...

The criminal justice system stands as a cornerstone of societal order, tasked with the dual responsibilities of safeguarding communities and ensuring justice for all. However, the growing consensus among policymakers, researchers, and activists is that the current system, especially its reliance on incarceration, necessitates reforms. Let’s look into the intricacies of the criminal justice system, spotlighting the pressing need for reform, rehabilitation efforts, and the undeniable influence of social and economic factors on crime rates and recidivism.   The Current State of Affairs The United States, in particular, has one of the highest incarceration rates globally, a fact that underscores the systemic reliance on imprisonment as a primary mode of punishment. This punitive approach, however, has not corresponded with a proportional decrease in crime rates, leading to questions about the efficacy of incarceration as a deterrent. Moreover, the prison system is beleaguered with issu...