One of the first things we think about after leaving the pen is when we're going to have sex. It's is usually up there with the first thing we want to eat--maybe higher. In the years of incarceration, it is the deprivation of sex that is a part of the 'punishment' that society inflicts when it sequesters the prisoner. The yearning for sex is a part of the tension one feels in prison, which is manifested by pornography and other forms of sexual imagery.

But once one leaves prison; what…

My father, Ishaq, aka Louis Cox, passed away a few weeks ago. This great man began a real concrete legacy of Islam in America. In the late 1960's, he and the sisters and brothers formed the Dar ul Islam Movement in New York City (Brooklyn). My dad was the first wazir (deputy or officer) of education for the small, growing community, and he held this position, by proxy, for many years.

One of his great acheivements was the introduction of…