IN HIS 6.5-BY-14-FOOT CELL, Leo Hylton keeps an unopened cherry-flavored Hint seltzer. Since March 2022, he’s held on to the bottle as a prized possession, a “touchstone” that he says helps remind him of “the visceral feel” of the first day he spent outside the Maine State Prison in 12 years.
Hylton left for work. He’s a co-instructor with Colby College’s anthropology department. Alongside tenured professor Catherine Besteman, this spring for the second year running, he’ll teach via Zoom from inside the walls about abolition—the movement to end incarceration. According to a number of experts in prison education, Hylton is the first professor of his kind in the United States.
Last March, the prison approved an unprecedented chance for Hylton to meet his students in person on their campus. He left under armed guard, wearing a freshly pressed blue
