Youth Voices Rising writer Daniel Bisuano. Courtesy of Bisuano.
By Daniel Bisuano, The Imprint, May 24, 2023
Growing up, very few things existed outside of the couple blocks I knew by my home, or the prison’s four walls and metal door that often seemed like a nightmare. I do not know how often people like me grow up in circumstances where fight or flight response is not constant or the cops were the good guys. I felt it was always a “us vs. them” situation. See, the cops always oppressed individuals like myself, constantly harassing us, planting drugs on us, and using their power to justify abuse. Even when I wasn’t caged in by the facilities created to oppress people like me, I was caged in by the false ideals and the closed-minded people at home. People constantly tried to feed me the idea that I was not good enough or that I would grow up to be a monster. This cage was my reality, but it was also my home — broken, but still my home. Soon, that all changed. Each time I found myself shackled, it struck a chord within myself that screamed, “this isn’t me.” I craved fitting in. So, for many years, I allowed that chord to be hit over and over, spending years incarcerated and years in my own man-made hell.
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