1 Nora DocksonThe lock clicked and Nora Dockson pulled open the steel gate in the tall chainlink fence between her and the public entrance to Washington state’s correctional facility for females.
Behind her, metal slammed against metal. The clang set off an alarm in some deep animal part of her brain. The skin on her face went cold, as though a cloud had blocked the spring sun shining that afternoon on the western side of the state. For a second, she was eighteen and fearful she’d never be free again.
Taking a deep breath smelling of concrete dust, she forced herself to cross the barren pavement to the institution’s see-through door. Beyond the thick bulletproof glass, a stony-faced man in a black long-sleeve shirt and matching ball cap sat with his back to the white wall, a chest-high r
