It’s One of the Hardest Parts of Getting Out of Prison and Nobody Ever Talks About It

Jurisprudence

Aug 06, 202610:00 AM

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by icafreitas/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

What information can strangers find out about me at the click of a button? As a prisoner, I don’t have direct access to Google search, but occasionally when I’m on the phone with my sister Angela I ask her to search “Robert Lee Williams journalist.” She’ll complain about me needing to find a secretary before rattling off the results, links to Slate articles and a recent award. The more articles I publish, and the more publications that showcase my work, the deeper the old negative press gets pushed to the bottom.

But last year, a Slate piece of mine was syndicated by Apple News. I was published in the New York Times. Then I noticed a footprint that I didn’t make, at least not directly, had crept back up onto Page 1 of the search results. It’s the reason I’m sitting in Eastern NY Correctional Facility, in Napanoch, New York, serving my 17th year for manslaughter.