In America, an estimated 50% of the prison population is dyslexic. It’s an illiteracy incarceration crisis that has been going on for generations, as we turn dyslexic children into juvenile delinquents, and then into inmates. A prison pipeline for the learning disabled; a criminalization of illiteracy.
When I met my ex for the first time, I was 14 and he was almost 20. Shawn was the older brother of my childhood bestie. He was a cute, older ‘bad boy’ who I only saw occasionally because he’d been kicked out at 17 for behavioral problems.
I didn’t know it at the time, but he was also dyslexic and functionally illiterate.