Writings by Dortell

Dortell Williams is a prolific writer and has published widely. His essays cover trauma, healing, incarceration, victims rights, and more.

What It’s Like to Serve a Life Sentence Without Parole

Jan 16, 2025 YES! Magazine

I’ve been incarcerated for the majority of my life, spending more time in prison than in society. It’s where I grew up. I was arrested at the age of 23, and I’m now going on my 35th year of incarceration. I was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole(LWOP).

I don’t think anyone really knew when I was sentenced in 1992 what “life without parole” meant. There was a lot of speculation. The courts said I would probably do 30 years before I went up for some sort of review. That time has passed.

I remember not being able to grow a beard when I first came in. I was so naïve, ignorant, and undereducated. As I was growing up in prison, some of my mentors told me, “Hey, get comfortable. You’re gonna be here for a while.” They were right. We, as a society, sentence people like me when we’re really young to die in prison because we are seen as incorrigible.

Trauma Prevention Is Crime Prevention

Politicians and pundits assert that our criminal justice system—from law enforcement to mass incarceration—are inevitable aspects of society and that there are no viable alternatives. But if we view crime and punishment through the lens of trauma, we begin to see that there are indeed alternatives, and that crime can be prevented before it begins.

Are We Responding to Crime or Reacting to It?

As an incarcerated person for the past 34 years, one of the basics in personal transformation is to respond to life’s stressors, not react to them. The difference is simple, responding to a stressor is a completely cognitive function; we deliberate, reason, and address the problem. The latter is based on emotion and impulse, we act then think about it later — usually with a string of collateral damage in Reaction’s wake.

Getting to the Roots of Crime

Ariana Grande, the music sensation of Pop/R&B, was recently condemned for expressing her desire to get to know Jeffrey Dahmer, a man convicted of serial killing. I thought it was a thought-provoking declaration from a critical mindset, a warm welcome in an era where critical thinking is often absent.

National Crime Victims Week: What Victims Want

have learned a lot from victims (survivors) as an incarcerated person. Generally, I have learned the purpose of National Crime Victim’s Week (April 21-27 and throughout the year) which is to raise awareness about victim’s rights and services. More specifically, they don’t like being labeled “victims,” no one does. Indeed, people who have been victimized are survivors in every sense of the word.

Imagine: A Society of Healing

The anguish of a mother’s loss: unfathomable, unimaginable, indescribable, pain. No mother should be left to bury her own child. And yet the mother of the child who did the deed likewise feels an unquenchable pain. It is the latter mother’s experience that is rarely told.

In this story, Susan* empathizes with Tammy,* who has permanently lost her son…