STILLWATER, Minn. — Principal Mauri Friestleben has declined dozens of requests to speak across Minnesota and the country, but she said ‘yes’ to this one — a chance to meet men behind bars at the Stillwater Correctional Facility. They watched Love Them First before she arrived.
“I had fire in my throat and they listened. And they spoke and I listened," Mauri wrote after. "I’m not the same as I was when I walked in there.”
We are grateful to the Minnesota Department of Corrections for allowing photojournalist Ben Garvin in with his cameras to capture these powerful moments.