My name is Devin A. Giordano. I am a journalist and essayist from New York, and the co-founder of You Are Not Alone (YANA), a nonprofit that began inside Eastern NY Correctional Facility. It started as a conversation among men who wanted to do better. It grew into a movement that challenges how men treat women. We created space to confront violence, to teach respect, to practice accountability. What began in prison now reaches the community too.

Before prison, my life was marked by mental illness and addiction. As a teenager I was diagnosed, medicated, and misunderstood. Prescription medications became a means to cope and then a way to escape. At nineteen, I was arrested and charged under New York’s felony murder law. Though I was never accused of touching anyone, I was sentenced to twenty years to life. That law, coupled with my own failures, changed everything.

Inside prison, I chose to respond with accountability. Today I serve as Chairman of the Lifers and Long-Termers Organization, building programs for men serving long sentences. Programs that push us to reflect, to learn, to prepare for life beyond the walls. I also facilitate the Youth Assistance Program, speaking with young people so they never repeat my mistakes. I am a college student through the Bard Prison Initiative, studying social studies. Education has shown me that books matter, but transformation matters more.

As a writer, I use essays to tell the stories I have lived and witnessed. On my Substack (@unchaindevin) my writing explores mental health, unexplored aspects of the felony murder law, and the human cost of incarceration. Writing has become the way I reach past these walls and into conversations that matter.