Here we are, enjoying a simple game of basketball in a yard in our house in Los Angeles, but quickly I find myself thinking about love and how the boys and men with whom I lived in prison displayed so little of it toward themselves. How could they, given the degradation of their pasts, the degradation of their daily lives inside? As I learned their stories, I came to appreciate how a lack of self-love had often led to the bad decisions and pain that brought them to this place. I think about those guys every time we play.

For you, son, it’s just a fun activity with your dad, but for me, and for many of those men, it’s a crucial salve against the brutality of our lives.