Victim, Perpetrator, Survivor: Portrait of an American Prisoner

Content warning: this article contains discussions of religious cults, child abuse/grooming, child-on-child sexual assault, police brutality, and drug-use. All names have been changed for anonymity.

“To put it bluntly, I’m in prison for sucking a dick. Of course, the story is much more complicated than that.”

James Anthony Cohen, age 31, is a self-identified gay Messianic Jewish man from North Carolina. He is also a thrice convicted felon. Raised in a “cult of a synagogue” for the entirety of his…