We were lucky to catch up with Bailey McManus recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Bailey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Over the last eight years, I have corresponded with over 200 men in prison. I had two pen pals I wrote at night when I couldn’t sleep, and because of these two pen pals, had the idea to send a questionnaire for a research project/book I was working on to other people in prison. I sent out about 450 questionnaires. When I received responses, I was completely blown away. I could not believe what these people had been through and who they had become. These men who I had written with a simple questionnaire about their time in high school sent me beautiful, shocking, haunting, and triumphant letters describing abuse, gang violence, drug addiction, and how they are learning from their experiences to become better people. I discovered the humanity in people who are locked away in cages 23 hours/day. I decided to stay in touch with everyone who responded to my questionnaire. They were such beautiful people, I felt grateful just to know them. Over these years, I have built some of the strongest friendships of my life with people who are re-building, finding themselves, and looking for a way to make themselves and the world a better place – just like me. I put together a collection of letters I have received interspersed with my personal experience and research titled, Sincerely, Your Friend: Letters From My Incarcerated Pen Pals. I have been so lucky to have a chance to learn from my pen pals, I felt it important to give other people that chance too. The book is an opportunity to read letters I have received and learn a little about incarceration in the United States.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I come from a family of writers. My mother is a poet, and I grew up being read Sylvia Plath and Joy Harjo in my high chair. My son is named Oliver Walter after Mary Oliver and Walt Whitman. My grandfather’s cousin was Patrick McManus, the writer. Almost everyone in my family studies English Literature in school (I did as well). It’s in our DNA. I am obsessed with reading and read about one book/week. I have an Instagram account where I review books – @baileybooknerd. Stories, words, the human experience – these are the things that make my soul come alive.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
The goal is that, through these stories of my pen pals, we could become more empathetic and understanding toward people who have been or are currently incarcerated. Lawyer and activist Bryan Steven said, “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” The truth is we all have our sins, and for someone with extreme trauma like the majority of people in prison, life circumstances didn’t give them a fair shot at knowing their value and worth in the world. They may have made bad choices, but there are no bad people. Everyone I have talked to while they are incarcerated has something beautiful to offer the world. We need to stop telling them they are bad, awful people who should be locked away and made invisible to the rest of us. The message people in prison get is that the world would be better off without them, and that simply isn’t true. Our job as a society is to nurture everyone who belongs to it. We all belong. I pray that with a combination of data and personal accounts, Sincerely, Your Friend can support our nation with finding a way to change policies that limit people. The number one thing that has proven to dramatically decrease recidivism and increase productivity and success in people who have been incarcerated is the opportunity to earn an education. In-person high school and college education needs to be available at every prison in the United States. By doing this, we will not only save billions of dollars. We will save lives.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
If readers want to learn more about incarceration, public policy, and the criminal justice system, I suggested the book, The New Jim Crow by Michele Alexander. To hear life-changing stories of redemption and love, I suggest Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle. If reading isn’t for you, there is a docu-series on Netflix called College Behind Bars that is extremely informative and inspirational.
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