10 Comments
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✨Beautifully Broken✨'s avatar

Girl, you did it with this one! The Buna recipe is classic! I'd love to let you pick my brain sometime if you're interested.

Rose Rivers's avatar

Careful — you might end up trapped under bad fluorescent lighting, no sleep, and definitely no coffee. 😉

But truly, I’m glad the details landed. Happy to talk craft anytime. Thank you, I appreciate you.

✨Beautifully Broken✨'s avatar

Too much time spent in institutions. The earplugs made from sanitary napkins definitely help when she's snoring like a freight train, and I swore I saw her eating toilet paper like a goat while she was sitting on her bunk. Anyway, we both have a bottom bunk memo, so I'll be using that to get the hell out of this cell on the 8-4 shift.

Rose Rivers's avatar

LOL! This is the best comment, I’ve seen in a while. Sounds like a strong case study in adaptive survival strategies. Wishing you a successful bottom-bunk appeal and a quiet exit.

✨Beautifully Broken✨'s avatar

She definitely had Pica, it was wild! I appreciate your laugh 🤣😂

Luna's avatar

Rose, my goodness, Rose. This series is so important. Most people do not know the realities you depict here, like Sonny's horrific imprisonment. Thank you for sharing this.

Rose Rivers's avatar

Thank you, Luna. Writing this felt necessary because these realities are so often ignored or softened. I’m really grateful you took the time to read and recognize that.

James Conlon's avatar

Thanks for writing and sharing this - I’m really enjoying the series, if enjoying is the right word to use. Even from here the Mayor’s injustice is frustrating, never mind living it and not hearing a word of common sense in reply. There’s definitely a novel in this, is that part of the plan?

Rose Rivers's avatar

Thank you for reading, and for taking the time to comment.

No, there’s no book yet, though I’d be lying if I said I haven’t drawn on some of what I’ve heard as material. Several of the men have asked me to help write their memoirs.

In Sunny’s case especially, much of what he shared was too horrific to put on the page directly. I had to sanitize a great deal of it. Writing something longer, like a memoir, might actually be a more cathartic way to hold those stories with the care they deserve.

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Dec 15
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Rose Rivers's avatar

Thank you, that really means a lot. They are real people, and part of my goal is to let them be seen as such. I’m involved in restorative justice work, which is how I’ve come to hear and share these stories. Writing them with care matters deeply to me. I appreciate your thoughtful questions.