The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds.
While inside, inmates relied on one another’s voices to cope with the loneliness:
Last Sunday I visited an inmate at Pontiac, a maximum security prison 100 miles from Chicago. He’s been serving a two life sentences for murder since the mid-80s. After a successful escape from another IDOC prison in the 90s, the man was sent to Tamms. He spent nearly nine years there and only got to touch another human being once, when a doctor shook his hand. Somehow, he’d manage to get a copy of Felshman’s story on the inside. He still believes the Reader played a part in shutting Tamms down.
