“Yet, walking in, I was acutely aware that I was no longer a prisoner: I parked in a spot intended for a ‘community coordinator.’ And after buzzing near the first steel gate, I’d walked in confidently, telling the guard I was the guest speaker.
“The general kindness of the guards told me that the steel gates and the barbed wire were not meant for me anymore. I knew the guards had no real idea of who I was, nor that I had once been just like their current wards. It was as if I was both at home and a stranger.”