“Want to see the condition of a society, walk inside its prisons.”
— Nelson Mandela
The call came from inside Folsom State Prison. Miguel Rivera — a man I had been incarcerated with — was on the line, and I could hear something in his voice I had never heard before: fear. A dental provider had just told him that CDCR does not cover root canals and that the only option was to pull his tooth. He was calling to ask if that was true…