Every Sunday, Our American Stories host Lee Habeeb speaks with Mitchel "Big Mitch" Rutledge, who has spent more than forty years serving a life sentence in Alabama. Each call traces the shape of faith, regret, and forgiveness inside a place built for punishment.
In this chapter of his story, Mitch talks about the vigilance that shapes daily life behind bars and how that pressure settles into a person's mind. That reality makes the quiet, gentle moments stand out even more. He tells a story about Willow, a young girl who asked to sing to him during a call. Her small, bright voice reached him in ways he never expected, and the memory stayed with him long enough to become a poem. From there, Mitch reads several pieces that trace how he has learned to hold on to hope inside a place that rarely encourages it.