Hamptons Diary: Andrew Visconti — Why I Love Going to Jail

I’ve never understood people who say East Hampton is boring in the off-season. No beach days, no parties, no carefully curated social life? Fine. Have you tried … doing something useful?

There’s no shortage of organizations looking for volunteers — unless, of course, working for free isn’t your idea of a good time. Personally, I seem drawn to activities that pay absolutely nothing. In fact, some of them cost me money. It’s a questionable hobby, but I highly recommend it.

Take Mondays.

I leave the house around 10 a.m. and drive west for a little over an hour until I reach Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Yaphank. I show my ID, the gate goes up, and just like that — I’m in.

I love going to jail.

I actually miss it when I can’t go, like this past winter when snow made the trip impossible. There’s something about the routine. By 11:45 a.m., I’m checked in, waiting for an escort. Then it’s a procession of long hallways, buzzing doors and sally ports that lock and unlock behind me like I’m in a low-budget spy movie. At some point, you stop noticing how many doors it takes to get in — and how reassuring it is that you don’t have to figure out how to get out.

Andrew Visconti, in jail to teach memoir writing to inmates at Suffolk County Correctional Facility,

Then I walk into the unit and hear, “Hello, Andrew.”

The men are ready for Memoir Writing. For the next two hours, we sit together and write. Real writing — about real lives: addiction, regret, family, bad decisions, second chances. Nobody is pretending. Nobody is polishing anything for Instagram.

At 2 p.m., it’s a quick transition to the women’s unit for another two hours. Different room, same intensity, same honesty.

I’m not there scouting for the next Orange Is the New Black. I’m there to help people put their lives into words — to make sense of what happened, and maybe imagine what comes next.

Andrew Visconti teaching memoir writing at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Yaphank. Photo courtesy of Andrew Visconti

Their stories stay with me all week. They follow me home, into conversations, into quiet moments. Jail, oddly enough, keeps me grounded.

And three years in, I still get a kick out of saying, “Sorry, I can’t talk right now — I’ll call you when I get out of jail.”

Andrew Visconti and Christiana Jackson, a former incarcerated woman. at the inauguration of an exhibit about memoir writing in jail, at the SCCF Visitors Center. Photo and permission courtesy of Andrew Visconti
Andrew Visconti

After a career in journalism, Andrew Visconti discovered the power of memoir writing and developed a series of workshops at the East Hampton Library. He later adapted this model for incarcerated individuals, where writing becomes a tool for reflection, self-discovery, and reclaiming one’s voice. He lives in East Hampton.