My Shattered Illusions of Justice and Fairness

Growing up white, middle class, with a parent in the military, I believed in the system. I asked to be sent to jail, thinking it would save me.

My illusions of this nation being a fair and just place — illusions founded on my own racial and class privilege — shattered into a million pieces.

OxyContin morphed into smoking heroin morphed into IV heroin. Those things weren’t in my life plan — all I’d ever wanted to do was work in the…