John J. Lennon

Prison Journalist

RECENT JOURNALISM BY JOHN J. LENNON

Peddling Darkness

Peddling Darkness

True crime stories, like Sarah Weinman’s Scoundrel, make for suspenseful reading. But do they exploit the criminal, and deepen a thirst for punishment?

> More stories by John J. Lennon

Cover photo: Christaan Felber

ABOUT JOHN J. LENNON

John J. Lennon currently serving a 28-years-to-life sentence at Sing Sing Correctional Facility for murder, drug sales and gun possession.

He is a contributing editor at Esquire and a contributing writer at the Marshall Project. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and elsewhere.

> More About John

JOHN J. LENNON’S TWITTER

When I heard the fellas in Sing Sing's B Block reacting to the footage of Robert Brooks' death, which they had seen on the news, many identified and shared their own stories of abuse over the years. Tiers on top of tiers, guys shouting out anecdotes from their cells.

Check out Robert Lee Williams's latest in @Plough, about a man we used to see and hear playing the trumpet in the Sullivan yard. I miss it now, but am happy Robert captured Ummah's story for you all to experience.

Here's another piece in @MarshallProj from my friend LaMarr Knox, who writes about his nightmarish transfer from Sullivan to Shawangunk. Happy he's continuing to write and publish.

I loved @esquire's "The Invisible Man" by Patrick Fealey, a journalist suffering from manic depression and homelessness. The best magazine pieces are the ones that stay with you after you finish reading them. This one stayed with me. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a62875397/homelessness...

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