No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us

After Donte Lewis’s reincarceration, Snyder sees him at Canaan prison in Pennsylvania. Lewis describes Canaan as a prison divided by geography: The men from New York, for instance, stick together against the prisoners from California. There are several notorious criminals at Canaan. Lewis is in a drug program in addition to ManAlive, but he says that the men in Canaan are less receptive to the emotional sharing he experienced in the ManAlive group with Jimmy Espinoza. Snyder asks Lewis about his time interning at Community Works with Jimmy Espinoza. Lewis tells her it was a time of discovery.

As Snyder leaves the prison, a guard confiscates the notes she has written during her three-hour meeting with Lewis. Snyder engages in a sarcasm-laden exchange with him before recognizing the entitlement she feels by virtue of being white and educated. Reflecting on the incident, Snyder says that what bothers her about it is “I know better. I wish I’d done exactly the opposite in the moment. I wish, when that supervisor came out with my notebook in his pocket and told me it was contraband, I wish I’d said this to him: ‘You’re right. I’m really sorry’” (198).