Man, I Wish We Would Have Known

"Man, I Wish We Would Have Known" is a collection of letters written by inmates at Calipatria State Prison in California. The letters are addressed to at-risk youth in response to the prompt, "If you could have given yourself advice twenty years ago, what would it be?" Unlock Tomorrow and Words Uncaged, two non-profit organizations working on prison reform and literature, partnered on the project. Founder of Unlock Tomorrow, Ray Adornetto, says, "[We] believe when we share our stories we can heal as individuals and as a society. I hope this book is proof of that. The letters in the collection are brutal and honest. They have a power rarely found in literature of any kind and they give us access to life in a maximum-security state penitentiary and the inner worlds' of the men who live there.