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John J. Lennon

John J. Lennon is a contributing editor at Esquire, a contributing writer at The Marshall Project, and the author of The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us. He is currently serving his 25th year in prison at Sing Sing for murder and drug sales.

An illustration shows figures walking along next to a barbed wire fence, a large pile of paperwork, a person in a green prison uniform lying down with a book on top of them, a guard holding a baton stick and a woman in a red suit waving her hand while standing at a podium.
It’s Dangerous to Feel This Desperate: How to Ease the Chaos in New York’s Prisons

When the governor doesn’t commute sentences, and the legislature won’t act, the carrot-and-stick system of rehabilitation disintegrates.

March 3, 2026