Kelly provides his in-depth thoughts about the Walpole takeover after his first few weeks as a frequent observer. Among these notes are frustration over inaccurate and bad-faith reporting by the press, conversations with prisoners about occupational training, the good relationship between workers and the NPRA, a prisoner who is trying to prove both his innocence and the lack of danger he poses to the public, a stabbing incident, poor mental health and medical facilities,
Kelly is horrified by the "chaotic" conditions of segregated confinement and maximum security, including human waste thrown on the walls in protest of Superintendent Porelle. In particular, several prisoners are "distraught" due to their circumstances, which Kelly characterizes as being able to drive a man with "complete sanity" to "border on some form of insanity."
He also explains "soul contraband" in the prison as a means to challenge the "fraudulent" security of the prison system. He identifies the main parts of this soul contraband as love, spiritual courage, and hope, which