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a Me

@amejx.bsky.social
189 followers 247 following 818 posts

Nerdy, Quaker, queer, neurodivergent penal abolitionist in NC. She/they. Lover of the natural world. Full of hope & grief.

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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 16h
The week in review. #NativePlants
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 16h
Trees. Happy sigh. (Details in Alt Text)
White oak tree, taken from the base of the trunk looking up.  Beyond the green, lobed leaves is a blue sky.When I was a kid, I read and reread My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George.  To this day, my happy place is imagining living among the critters in a hollowed out tree.  This hollow at the base of a white oak tree is too small for me, alas, but I can still imagine.Entering the Nasher Art Museum in Durham.  In the foreground are steps.  At the top of the steps are trees.  One tree in particular is a huge pine, with which I am bizarrely obsessed.  (I will not upload ALL of the photos I took of this tree.  You're welcome.)  Behind the trees a cream colored, flat roof building - the museum - is visible.  Above that, a blue sky.That pine tree at the Nasher, taken from the base of the tree looking up the trunk, with pine needles visible at the top.  Behind the tree is the cream colored Nasher building and a blue sky.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"My friends never mentioned the incident. My family didn't either. No one wanted to remember. Not even me. But carrying on as if it had never happened didn't help me. My bruises healed. I didn't." 💔
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"Incarceration is deeply rooted in slavery. Violence and terror are just as effective today as they were in the 1700s. You can’t coerce people into bondage without a system of violence backing it up." truthout.org/articles/wor... #prisonabolition
truthout.org
Working in Prison Fields Didn’t “Correct” Me, It Revealed the System’s Brutality
If one was paid to design a system that exacerbates trauma for vulnerable women, this would be the ideal model.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It's goldenrod time of the year! 💛 #NativePlants
Yellow goldenrod flowers against a background of a blue sky and a blurry evergreen tree. Yellow goldenrod flowers and two spiderwebs woven in between the stems.  One well-used web is easily visible on the right.  Another more intact web is in front of that web, but it is blurry so difficult to see.  The background is blurry, with trees and a bit of blue sky visible.Yellow goldenrod flowers against a background of a blue sky
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Orange sunrise over a line of dark trees.  There are thin strips of orange clouds in the sky, and a bit of blue sky just above the trees.Turkey tail mushroom striped in multiple shades of brownClose up of a green bud and leaves of a swamp sunflower
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jacob biba @jacobbiba.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“They take my food for the rest of my life because of a choice I made when I was 23, which I know I shouldn’t have done,” said McCord, now 42. “It really does affect me daily.” www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2026/09/14/n...
northcarolinahealthnews.org
A drug conviction can mean a lifetime without SNAP in North Carolina
People affected by the restriction say the loss of food assistance can make reentry and everyday life harder.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This is excellent.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
After months of being on the waitlist at the Alamance Co Library, I finally am getting to read this powerful history by Sylvester Allen Jr. & @belleboggs.bsky.social 📖 @jacobbiba.bsky.social & @southey4senate.bsky.social have you read it? uncpress.org/978146968649...
uncpress.org
The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw
Wyatt Outlaw’s story was one of Black success: He was a Union League leader, business owner, and the first Black town constable and commissioner in Graham,...
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It's Monarch time of the year again! This one escaped the morning sun glaring on the milkweeds to rest in the shade of the nearby Carex grass. #NativePlants
Yellow, white and black striped Monarch butterfly caterpillar resting on some green grass
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Can any of you answer questions from these friends inside prison walls?
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This bears repeating: "The entire U.S. carceral system is built on cruelty." 💯 Immigration detention. Penal detention. Pre-trial detention. Juvenile detention. Military detention. Psychiatric detention. All simply threads of the same ugly tapestry. #prisonabolition
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Have I mentioned that I love my native garden? #NativePlants
close up of small, light pink flowers of Joe Pye against green leavespurple American Beautyberries against green leaves
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Read this new post from @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social about the horrors of the 3-month+ scabies epidemic in #NorthCarolina's state prisons, and the negligence of NC DAC. @ncgovernor.bsky.social @jeffjacksonnc.bsky.social prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com/p/what-its-l...
prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com
What It’s Like to Have Scabies in Prison
I have scabies.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🕷️
The base of a tree, with a circular "orb" spider web built on it.  The web is damaged and appears unoccupied.  There is grass behind the tree.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
orange and gold sunflower, with sky and leaves behindyellow sunflower, with sky and leaves behind2 Orange and gold sunflowers, with sky and leaves behind
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Two pinkish white cherry blossoms blooming out of season, against green leaves, with a blurred background of tree trunks and grass field.
Brown Horace's duskywing butterfly on green mountain mint leaves and small white mint flowers
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I love my neighbors. Quack.
Non-breeding male mallard with bright orange legs and a yellow beak taking a drink of water off a stone dam.  White feathers from molting surround him.Female mallard in a pond on the left.  On the right, another mallard is in the foreground, standing on a stone dam in shallow water, with a feather in its mouth as it grooms itself while molting.A pair of mallards standing in the morning sun on a stone dam, a pond beyond them.  In the foreground is the metal railing of a fence.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I failed the single correspondence course I ever tried to take. I couldn't seem to learn a darn thing just through written texts, w/o lectures & a professor to answer questions. @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social earned an entire degree that way. Kudos, Phill! I am so excited for you.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The description of what women have to endure to get prison health care - and substandard healthcare, at that - is just horrific. A very powerful read. #prisonabolition
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
The intricacy of these wings!
Black and brown tipula furca crane fly on the white siding of a house.  It is missing the back right leg.  5 long legs and a set of two wings extend from its midsection.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Please contact #NorthCarolina DAC to ask them when and how DAC is planning to mitigate the scabies epidemic that began in mid-May at Neuse Correctional, and let me know what happens. DAC 919-838-4000 or 919-733-2126 x1 or www.dac.nc.gov/contact/send... Thank you!!!
dac.nc.gov
Contact Us / Send Email | NC DAC
This form is for non-emergency communications. E-mails received are not monitored 24-hours a day.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I've been hearing about this scabies outbreak since mid-May. The doctor there has been refusing to follow proper public health protocols for treatment. @ncgovernor.bsky.social your DAC is STILL allowing this outbreak to run rampant. www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Sj...
youtube.com
Scabies Outbreak Reported Inside NC Prison | Inmate Speaks Out
YouTube video by Inmate Tea with A&P
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I donated because I really appreciate @boltsmag.org, with their fantastic journalism from @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social @kwanetaharris.bsky.social @jacobbiba.bsky.social and so many other great journalists.
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Michael Barajas @michaelbarajas.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Here's @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social, a journalist incarcerated in North Carolina, talking about his recent story in @boltsmag.org about three-strikes laws—featuring the voices of a man serving life, and the victim he shot who’s been pushing for his release full story boltsmag.org/north-caroli...
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
For #Quakers wanting to visit friends behind bars, @pendlehillusa.bsky.social has a pamphlet on that. Once we have friends inside, the need for #prisonabolition becomes clear. pendlehill.org/product/beyo...
pendlehill.org
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
From my morning walk (details in alt text)
brown grass skipper butterfly on a pink zinnia in my neighbor's yard, with green leaves in the backgroundjuvenile Cooper's hawk in a neighbor's tree, makin' a really cute racket with its 4 or more siblingsburgundy sunflower in my neighbor's yard waking up, still wrapped in a leaf blanket as it sleepily begins to greet the new day, blue sky behind
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jacob biba @jacobbiba.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
“Turning Southern plantations into Southern prisons is not a secret. It’s not an innovation, either. It’s a distinguished tradition in the South." washingtoncitypaper.com/article/2683...
washingtoncitypaper.com
Back to the Big House
The Federal Bureau of Prisons plans to send 1,200 D.C. inmates to a new private prison on the former site of one of North Carolina’s biggest slave plantations. In an open field not too far from the Ch...
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Carceral Abolition @carceralabolition.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Modern Day Slavery in the United States: Exploring Forced Labor for Prison Inmates www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/modern-...
humanrightsresearch.org
Modern Day Slavery in the United States: Exploring Forced Labor for Prison Inmates
Author: Kaitlyn Andres, MPH & MSJune 2, 2026The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States (U.S.) Constitution was passed in 1865 as a means to codify President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamat...
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
"When that door closes and I am sealed in metal mesh while a white man watches...something in my body goes backward in time. I feel the transatlantic crossing I never lived through but carry in my blood..." @kwanetaharris.bsky.social kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/all-our-at...
kwanetaharris.substack.com
All of Our Attorney Visits Are Inside a Literal Cage
I sat in a chair with no arms, and then they closed a cage around me.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
A poem by my friend Ojore McKinnon "I remember on the slave ship The crew forced us to the ground, assaulting us with barbs "Now we lay spread-eagle on prison yards, the crew standing over us are prison guards" prisonerswithchildren.org/newspaper/po...
prisonerswithchildren.org
Poem: NOW WE CONFORM
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Michael Barajas @michaelbarajas.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The latest from @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social, a phenomenal journalist incarcerated in North Carolina, is this striking piece about three-strikes laws, how they condemned someone to prison for life, and the man he shot who's trying to get him out "If I can forgive him, why can’t everybody else?"
boltsmag.org
In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - Bolts
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
"San Quentin will always be the bulldozed crime scene where the state’s first prison Warden—a white slave owner—secured a lease from the state legislature, which permitted him to lease captives out to area businesses for personal profit." #prisonabolition prisonerswithchildren.org/newspaper/th...
prisonerswithchildren.org
The California Model: Normalizing the Carceral State of Being
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I am really looking forward to this! #prisonabolition #Quakers
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I appreciated the 2012 @pbs.org documentary, Slavey By Another Name. I learned a lot about US history between Reconstruction & WWII. But I was disappointed that PBS did not acknowledge the fact that slavery STILL persists in the US. news.uchicago.edu/story/rethin... www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-...
pbs.org
Watch Slavery by Another Name | PBS
SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME is a 90-minute documentary that challenges the belief that slavery ended with the Civil War.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
"Of the state’s 141,000 prisoners, more than 85,000 are held in cells without air conditioning where internal temperatures regularly exceed 115F (46C) in summer months. "A high of 149F has been recorded." #prisonabolition #FreeThemAll
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
You need to read this.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
My neighbor's Black Eyed Susans and Beautyberries in my yard #NativePlants
Three golden yellow flowers with black-brown centers against green leavestiny white flowers against green leaves and stem
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
My neighbor's sunflowers 🌻
Bee on a yellow sunflower, with green leaves in the foregroundGreen leaves of a sunflower budyellow sunflower and red zinnia surrounded by green leaves, with green grass in the background
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
This post was profoundly disturbing. And sadly, no surprise to me. "Prison doctors act as gatekeepers to health. If they don’t think we deserve adequate healthcare, because of personal or professional bias, we won’t get it. Full stop." @ncgovernor.bsky.social
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
💯 #NorthCarolina #ncpol #prisonabolition @ncgovernor.bsky.social
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
“Abolitionists don’t begin with punishment. They begin with harm. When someone is hurt, what would healing look like? When someone causes harm, how do we repair it, reduce it, and prevent it from happening again?” #prisonabolition #Quakers davisvanguard.org/2025/04/pris...
davisvanguard.org
Op-Ed | What Prison Abolition Is—and Why 'Forks and Dorms' Matter - Davis Vanguard
Prison abolitionists argue that the U.S. prison system is ineffective and that alternatives such as restorative justice and community-based systems of care can better address root causes of crime and ...
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
"There are more children with parents in prison than there are people in prison." This was an excellent @prisonpolicy.org webinar. I highly recommend. www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/06...
prisonpolicy.org
WEBINAR: Fighting for families: How advocates are resisting attacks on visitation and physical mail
Protecting family connections and bonds with loved ones during incarceration is one of the most important and, increasingly, one of the most difficult things advocates ...
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
"When we allow ourselves to be separated from each other, we are creating...greater brokenness." #Quakers #prisonabolition #transformativejustice quakerspeak.com/video/how-qu...
quakerspeak.com
How Quakers Can Help End Mass Incarceration - QuakerSpeak
The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, with over 2.4 million people currently behind bars. What can Quakers do about it?
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Prison Policy Initiative @prisonpolicy.org · 04/07/2026
A grim reminder this 4th of July: The US has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy on Earth, making it a leader in mass incarceration. Far too many people are locked up in the “land of the free.”
Graph showing that the U.S. incarcerates people at a rate of 614 per 100,000. This is at least 4x higher than any other founding NATO countries.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
The violent carceral system of the US is built on this very war-shipful posture & explains why the US has - by far - the highest incarceration rate of any democracy. We are at war with ourselves. The casualties are those who can least bear the cost. open.substack.com/pub/rwoodley...
open.substack.com
Special Issue: What Are You Celebrating? | War, the Star-Spangled Banner, Frederick Douglass, and the DNA of MAGA
250 Years of American Myth: With God on Our Side? | THE JULY 4TH ISSUE
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Love this. Read Phill's blog if you don't already: prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I've been enjoying the Quakers Today Podcast, hosted by @petersontoscano.bsky.social , as they explore #Quakers & money. The best part so far was a prophetic listener comment by John Choe at the end of the June 16 episode. Thank you, John. www.friendsjournal.org/podcast/quak... #prisonabolition
friendsjournal.org
Quaker Podcast - Podcast Exploring Quaker Life & Religious Beliefs
Quakers Today, hosted by Peterson Toscano, features writers, musicians, and thinkers who are seeking wisdom and understanding in a rapidly changing world.
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Excellent resource from @hannahnpbowman.com exploring a theological basis for abolition. christiansforabolition.org/wp-content/u... #prisonabolition #restorativejustice #Quakers
A Christian Case for Abolition
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a Me @amejx.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
My heart just swells with joy reading this inspiring vision of an abolitionist future. #transformativejustice
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