We aim often to feature voices of the incarcerated in this space. Today, we highlight incarcerated journalist Kwaneta Harris, currently serving a 50-year sentence in a Texas state prison since her conviction in 2009.

Excerpts from the essay “Two-Tiered System: Racial Disparities” are included below.

The concrete walls and steel bars may be the same for everyone, but make no mistake. There are two different prison systems operating under one roof. I’ve watched it play out day after day, how privilege walks these halls alongside oppression, how mercy and cruelty are doled out based on nothing more than the color of one’s skin.

Let me tell you about visitation day. I remember watching an elderly white man arrive gray-haired and weathered, a rifle slung casually over his shoulder. He demanded to see his granddaughter, citing his Second Amendment rights. The guards radioed for backup and he displayed his second firearm—a pistol holstered in his waist.

And guess what happened next? They talked to him. For forty-five minutes, they reasoned with him, explained policy, treated him like a confused grandfather who’d made an honest mistake. They let him secure his weapon in his vehicle and still allowed him his visit.

Now, contrast that with Marcus, a young Black man whose crime was trying to keep his asthma at bay. His mother had taught him since childhood: never go anywhere without your inhaler. But when he accidentally brought it in to visit his sister, they slapped handcuffs on him so fast, the echo rang through the visitation room. “Contraband,” they called it. He faced new charges of “Introducing Contraband into a Correctional Institution”, his sister lost visitation privileges, and another Black family was torn apart by the system’s uneven hand.

Every day, in a thousand small ways, white privilege reinforces itself behind these walls, proving that even in a place where everyone is supposed to be equally punished, some are more equal than others. The prison system mirrors the society that created it, reflecting and magnifying the disparities that exist beyond its walls. Until we acknowledge these inequities, until we confront them head on, we perpetuate a justice system that isn’t just at all.

You can read the full essay “Two-Tiered System: Racial Disparities” on Write or Die, Kwaneta Harris’ substack page. Kwaneta Harris is a former nurse, business owner, and expat, now an incarcerated journalist. In her writing, she illuminates how the experience of being incarcerated in the largest state prison in Texas is vastly different for women in ways that directly map onto a culture rooted in misogyny. Her stories expose how the intersection of gender, race, and place contribute to state-sanctioned, gender-based violence.