He left for home yesterday.

Hi, readers. :)
Yesterday, the 31st of August, my little brother from another mother graduated from the prison yard to the real world yard.

I am immensely happy for JJ's end of sentence to have come and gone. The dorm felt different yesterday without his presence, but I would not wish him back into this place, not even for $100,000,000. He's a good egg that just worried he was going to do bad egg things, and got put in the bad egg bin for asking for help.

Florida's algorithm for determining what to do when someone cries for help needs a lot of work -- someone who would have probably been better served in a Behavioral Health Unit to help him work through a mental crisis was shoved into the network of most frightening places in Florida instead.

He's definitely working through some posttraumatic symptoms, exacerbated by living in a poorly educated, toxic, and racist environment for four years.

From my heart, I hope for his success outside this yard; for connections with positive, influential, spiritual people that will guide him forward, not back into the maw of captivity; and for his growth into the person he wants to be.

Be safe out there, Joshua. You've got this.

• Jayel