The charnel house of liberty

Ever since I began to serve sentences of imprisonment three decades ago I have preferred not to know too much about what I’m missing outside. Whenever I do find myself receiving a social visit, crammed in amongst squabbling (or more often dysfunctionally silent) families enjoying their monthly 40 minutes together, I tend to steer the conversation deliberately away from the natural subjects of free men — which was how I came to learn about a somewhat unlikely ‘imam’ ministering to the needs of Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo, one Colonel Steve Feehan, ‘born again’ Southern Baptist, who had had this greatness...