On Losing Liberty and the Power to Choose

By Ryan M. Moser — FROM THE INSIDE

Liberty: the right to act without restraint as long as the actions do not interfere with the equivalent rights of others

I gave up my liberty the moment I committed a crime, and the autonomy I’d held so dear throughout my lifetime was gone the instant I walked through the center security gates at a state correctional institution. The prison system is designed to break men and women in many uniquely cruel ways; horrible nutrition, pseudo-medical care, isolation, life-threatening violence, and undignified acts are commonplace in every penitentiary. But the most defining heartbreak of my incarceration has been losing my liberty, and the freedom to choose.

I’ve always been an independent person. The first time I moved out of my family’s home in the idyllic Philly suburbs I was only thirteen — committed to a psychiatric facility for adolescents. I had to fend for myself emotionally and physically. I then spent my teenage years bouncing from foster care to youth shelters to group homes to juvenile detention to county jail, with many enduring childhood memories in between. Although I was loved and supported my entire youth, I was a runaway rebel without a cause — and the most cavalier free-spirit you would ever think to meet at such a young age. Often mistaken for a baby-faced adult because of…