incarcerated people

117 posts

Decarceration is the best way prisons can adapt to climate change

When smoke from wildfires in Quebec started blanketing New York’s morning sky last summer, Corey Arthur, an incarcerated person at Otisville Correctional Facilities west of Newburgh, figured it was probably a chemical explosion. Despite having heard about the wildfires for several days on the news, he could barely believe

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6 Min
By: Christopher Blackwell, Sarah Sax

State violence in prisons is sanctioned violation of women’s rights

TW/CW: Descriptions of forced strip searches and mentions of sexual harassment and abuse With a metal ID clip in my right hand, along with my sequined bobby pin, watch, and ring, I walked through the metal detector with my hands raised over my head. A uniformed woman holding a

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5 Min
By: E.J.

First-of-its-kind fellowship offers system-impacted writers a living wage and support for building lasting careers

Writers across industries continue to raise concerns about pay equity, labor rights, and funding transparency. Movements like #PublishingPaidMe and the high-profile Writers Guild of America strike in 2023 showed how much writers must hustle to earn a living wage. As a solution, New York state, San Francisco, and St. Paul,

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6 Min
By: Taylor Michael

Multiple states are building new women’s prisons, but can they be stopped?

Tiff Harrington spent 15 years of her life under Department of Corrections (DOC) supervision in Vermont, where she gave birth to two children while incarcerated at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility—a prison with a particularly bad reputation.  In 2019, Vermont DOC came under fire when Seven Days, a local independent

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10 Min
By: Sierra Dickey

PEN America doesn’t prioritize incarcerated writers, former staffers say

When Rowan Thompson began working at PEN America in the Prison and Justice Writing program, they were eager to make a difference in the lives of incarcerated people. However, it wasn’t long before Thompson noticed serious signs of misalignment between staffers and management, leading quickly to frustration and disillusionment.

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19 Min
By: Natalye Childress

New York prisons are illegally subjecting disabled people to solitary confinement

Disability rights groups and legal organizations have filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and the New York State Office of Mental Health for illegally subjecting disabled people to solitary confinement. Disability Rights Advocates, The Legal Aid Society, and the

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5 Min
By: Elly Belle

Never eat the candy on your pillow: What hurts more?

Dear Reader, If imprisonment were a legal thriller, one of the most dramatic scenes would be the courtroom as the guilty verdict is read. Mothers would burst into tears, lovers would plead their undying love, and the person found guilty would take their walk of shame amid cries of, “You’

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5 Min
By: Derek R. Trumbo, Sr.

Who gets to benefit from changes in the law?

Johnny Lee Olds was born at his family’s home in Selma, Alabama. He was the youngest of 11 children, and he was and forever would be his mother’s baby. Being part of a large family had its upsides. Olds had a built-in group of friends, which was especially

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11 Min
By: Kendall Turner

Never eat the candy on your pillow: Breaking the cycle

Dear Reader,  When I came to prison nearly two decades ago, I believed my life to be completely over. Everywhere I looked behind the fences, there were broken people living broken lives. It was a cycle of brokenness. Prison isn’t a fix to anyone’s problems.  But the further

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5 Min
By: Derek R. Trumbo, Sr.

Michigan prison officials withhold evidence of retaliation against an incarcerated writer

“The eggshells I’m walking on turn into glass,” wrote Demetrius Buckley in a piece for Prism published in August. “I have to hold my tongue to keep from yelling.”  Buckley is incarcerated in Michigan’s Richard Handlon Correctional Facility, where he detailed how officers often abuse their power by

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4 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Collectives in the South help lead the charge to #FreeBlackMamas for Mother’s Day

Yolanda Johnson was detained in 2020 on a $20,000 bond, an extraordinary amount of money that left her with no sense of how or when she would be able to secure her freedom. She spent four months in Jefferson County Jail awaiting news on her court date until she

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8 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Philadelphia city plan may force houseless people to choose jail or treatment

The city of Philadelphia has released a 100-day Public Safety Plan with a section focused on cleaning up the “open-air drug market” in the city’s Kensington neighborhood. The release follows recent reports that the city’s jails are violent and understaffed, leading criminal legal advocates to call for a

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4 Min
By: Sterling Johnson

Showing 12 of 117 total posts

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