T. J. Parsell
American activist
Timothy J. "T. J." Parsell (born July 12, 1960) is an American writer, filmmaker, and human rights activist committed to ending prison rape. He is best known for his book Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison, which details the sexual violence he experienced while serving a four-year prison sentence as a teenager.
Early life and education
A native of Dearborn, Michigan, Parsell was incarcerated at age 17 for holding up a Fotomat photo developing booth with a toy gun. During the four years he remained in prison, older inmates sexually assaulted him numerous times.
He completed high school while in prison and later received a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently working toward a Master of Fine Arts degree in film and television at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he was named a Reynolds Fellow in 2010.
Career
Parsell worked in sales in the software industry from 1982 to 2002, employed by companies such as the New York City Transit Authority and DuPont. He left that field to write and pursue a career advocating against prison rape. In 2006, Parsell authored the book Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison (Da Capo Press), which has received praise in several reviews.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7668368. VIAF identifies the subject as 46528021. The Library of Congress control number is no2006124000. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2010, 1982 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “T. J. Parsell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.