Jury Citation

“Utterly compelling, Invisible Prisons is an indictment, a courageous testimony, and a call to change. Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen collaborate to bring to life Whalen’s distinct voice and the terrible experiences he was subjected to as a teenage boy during four years of abuse in a ‘reform school’ in Newfoundland. By documenting Whalen’s removal from his family home by the hands of the state, his incarceration in places known to be violently abusive, and his refusal to remain there, Moore and Whalen give language to the violence hiding in plain sight and the effects of solitary confinement on the body and psyche. Whalen escapes again and again, and we see how he is sustained by his determination to be free — along with the love and support of his birth and made families.”—2024 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction jury (Annahid Dashtgard, Taylor Lambert and Christina Sharpe)