Meeting Maroon Shoatz by Troy Miller

July 17, 2024

I remember meeting Russell Maroon Shoatz in 2020, in the infirmary at SCI Fayette. We only had  a few moments to build, but it was a time in my life that I will never forget. Before meeting him, I still had the mindset that the prison system isn’t that bad and if you keep your head down, you will be treated with humane treatment.

I learned a great wealth of knowledge about the Prison Industrial Complex in my few moments with Maroon. He opened my vision up to understand why there are abolitionists and people who fight the system.

Maroon had been incarcerated for decades and was riddled with many health issues but in our brief time he knew that his fight wasn't over to teach the next generation of revolutionaries.

Here I was, in my first 5 years of a 20-40 year sentence, learning that the system will kill you any chance it can, or at minimum, will give you inadequate health care instead of release from a death sentence by incarceration.

It was that moment when I knew I had to start researching about those who come before me, those who fought for everything I have now. When Maroon and I spoke, I was preparing for my first hernia surgery and he made sure to instill in me, exhaust all your options before believing what they tell you.