title: Dark Tales from the Dungeons: Horrors from the 'Hood for Youth to Beware
author: The Men for Honor Writing Group
description: Dortell Williams is a forty-three-year-old life prisoner in California, where he has been confined for the last twenty years. A lover of learning, Williams calls prison his university, and proudly asserts that despite the inherent repression of prison, he has still accomplished a list of personal achievements. He is currently studying for an associates degree in Seminary through a correspondence course. He has taught himself to type, operate computers, communicate in Spanish, and earned a paralegal certificate. But most importantly to him, he has taught himself to write, and by that means he passionately represents the underclass, speaking tirelessly to the mass injustice his peers and social class suffer in chucks of decades on a daily basis. Williams is a proud father of a beautiful daughter, a mentor to many, and a follower of faith through action against scarce odds. The Men for Honor Creative Writing Class represents the unique California program located in the State Prison in Los Angeles County, called: The Honor Program. This volunteer program, initiated in 2001 by prisoners tired of the senseless violence and backward travels, proposed to some progressive minded staff to start the pilot program they envisioned. To qualify for the program men must request it, abandon all gang and racial ties, agree to random drug tests and respect their peers and staff. Through a bank of prisoner-led groups the men offer peer-taught classes in fields for which they have experience and the few teach the masses. The groups also conduct food sales to give to charities in the outside. In 2003, Los Angeles Times writer Richard Faucett wrote about the success of the Honor Program. Faucett found that since the inception of the program weapons infractions decreased 88 percent, and violence and threatening behavior dropped 85 percent. The program saved $200,000 in its first year alone. In 2008, the Secretary of Corrections recognized the program and renamed it the Progressive Programming Facility.
zlib_text: Table of Contents
  Title Page
  Copyright Page
  Dedication
  Epigraph
   
  CHAPTER ONE - MR. NOBODY
  CHAPTER TWO - THE TOUR
  CHAPTER THREE - THE UNFORTUNATES
  CHAPTER FOUR - BY SOME PERSON UNKNOWN
  CHAPTER FIVE - A GLORIOUS BOY
  CHAPTER SIX - WALTER AND THE BOYS
  CHAPTER SEVEN - THE GENTLEMAN SLUMMER
  CHAPTER EIGHT - A BIT OF BROKEN LOOKING GLASS
  CHAPTER NINE - THE DARK LANTERN
  CHAPTER TEN - MEDICINE OF THE COURTS
  CHAPTER ELEVEN - SUMMER NIGHT
  CHAPTER TWELVE - THE YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL
  CHAPTER THIRTEEN - HUE AND CRY
  CHAPTER FOURTEEN - CROCHET WORK AND FLOWERS
  CHAPTER FIFTEEN - A PAINTED LETTER
  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - STYGIAN BLACKNESS
  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - THE STREETS UNTIL DAWN
  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - A SHINY BLACK BAG
  CHAPTER NINETEEN - THESE CHARACTERS ABOUT
  CHAPTER TWENTY - BEYOND IDENTITY
  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - A GREAT JOKE
  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - BARREN FIELDS AND SLAG-HEAPS
  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - THE GUEST BOOK
  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - IN A HORSE-BIN
  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - THREE KEYS
  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - THE DAUGHTERS