One of My Babies

One of My Babies

Illustration by Julie BenbassatWhat I recall about the prison is the smell. Not some dirty or rotting smell or even the fleshy old cheese odor of people who worked too hard and lacked proper access to deodorant. It was not that at all, even if that was what I expected when I was first buzzed into New Hampshire State Prison for Men to teach a class in literature and creative writing. No, the smell was clean. Too clean. Even beyond the antiseptic …