Wellington activist Valerie Morse was among the Urewera 16 arrested and jailed 10 years ago. We present an excerpt from her prison diary, Can’t Hear Me Scream.

As follows, four pages reproduced from a kind of journal written inside Arohata Womens Prison by Valerie Morse — one of the Urewera 16 –  “of life in prison, the bureacracy and arbitrary exercise of power, and how those on the outside can support those trapped within.” It includes the Arohata shopping form (Mum Roll-On Deodorant, $4.15), and a list of “Things that have made me laugh in prison”, such as dodgeball, Kurt Vonnegut, “hiding contraband in your cunt”, and “being called a terrorist”.

Can’t Hear Me Scream by Valerie Morse was published by Wellington-based anarchist publishing collective Rebel Press. Their entire list of books, pamphlets and other literature is available to order at their website, or can be read online.

The Spinoff Review of Books is brought to you by Unity Books.