Lyle C. May

Lyle C. May is a journalist incarcerated in Raleigh, N.C. He is an Ohio University alum and member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda honor society currently working on a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration. Visit scalawagmagazine.org to read more of Lyle’s work or you can buy his book, Witness: An Insider’s Narrative of the Carceral State which is due to be published by Haymarket Books in the fall of 2023.

Winner, 2022 PEN America Prison Writing Contest – 3rd Place in Nonfiction Essay for “Y’all Aint Here To Be Rehabilitated


Articles by Lyle C. May

Prison and Justice Writing
Wednesday September 7

Y’all Aint Here To Be Rehabilitated

Lyle May was awarded 3rd Place in Nonfiction Essay in the 2022 Prison Writing Contest. Every year, hundreds of imprisoned people from around the country submit poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic works to PEN America’s Prison Writing Contest, one of the few outlets of free expression for the country’s incarcerated population. Central Prison’s programs department