There’s a line in City Walls by Twenty One Pilots that feels less like poetry and more like Michigan DOC policy:
“Entertain my faith.”
I’m waiting.
Because Michigan DOC loves to decide when something is “over.” The system decides when hope is allowed and when it’s far too inconvenient. Michigan DOC decides who gets heard, who gets help, who goes deaf, who goes blind, and who gets out unscathed from their depravity.
Recently, Michigan’s Department of Corrections decided that a letter coming to me, asking me for help from someone behind the walls, should never reach me.
Not delayed.
Not returned.
Withheld entirely.
No explanation.
No notice.
ZERO due process.
Just silence, manufactured by a system built on walls.
The Illusion of Security
Prisons are often defended as places of “order” and “safety.” But City Walls reminds us that walls don’t just keep people in; they keep information out.
The person who wrote that letter wasn’t asking for contraband. They weren’t threatening anyone. They were asking for advocacy, visibility, help navigating a system that routinely buries people alive in bureaucracy.
Because this wasn’t about security.
It was about control.
Who Decides What Help Looks Like?
Michigan DOC policies grant enormous discretion over prisoner mail, discretion that is rarely transparent and almost never meaningfully challenged.
Mail can be delayed.
Mail can be rejected.
Mail can quietly disappear.
And unless someone on the outside is watching, unless someone notices the absence, no one would ever know.
That’s the real architecture of the city walls:
- No paper trail
- No accountability
- No appeal that actually reaches daylight
Walls don’t need to be violent when silence does the work for them.
Why This Matters More Than One Letter
This isn’t about me.
It’s about what happens when incarcerated people attempt to reach advocates, journalists, or watchdogs and the state inserts itself as the gatekeeper.
But alas, here we are, because Michigan DOC decides:
- who is “worth” contacting,
- whose voices are “appropriate,”
- which cries for help are “allowed” to leave the walls,
that’s not corrections.
That’s information suppression.
And it directly undermines:
- First Amendment principles
- Prisoner access to advocacy
- External oversight
- Public accountability
A system that controls the narrative controls the outcome.
The Quiet Power of Outside Witnesses
City Walls isn’t just about being trapped; it’s about being seen.
Systems like Michigan DOC rely on isolation to function smoothly. Advocates, journalists, and community members are disruptive by design, not because we break rules, but because we witness.
That letter wasn’t dangerous.
It was inconvenient for them and their narrative.
…And that’s why it never made it out.
What Comes Next
Withholding mail that seeks advocacy is not neutral.
It’s a deliberate choice and choices leave footprints.
This raises serious questions:
- How often does this happen?
- How many letters never reach their destination?
- How many people believe they were ignored, unloved, when they were intercepted?
City walls don’t fall all at once. They crack when someone notices what didn’t arrive. And this time, I did.
Clutch is On It.
If the system believes silence is safety, it has misunderstood the moment.
Because walls don’t protect institutions from scrutiny. They just make the truth louder when it finally escapes.
