Last April, Salvatore Barone rubbed his hands together anxiously as hundreds of fellow community college competitors from across the country cheered the announcement of each winner at the awards ceremony for the Phi Rho Pi national forensics speech, debate and performance tournament.
The packed and noisy Virginia ballroom was a stark contrast to the silence and isolation Barone had endured for more than three years as a prison inmate.
Back then, he spent nearly every moment of his life locked away alone in a cramped cell, sometimes going weeks without seeing anyone other than a corrections officer…