The Appeal Is a Finalist for the 2022 Online Journalism Awards

The Appeal’s work with incarcerated writers was recognized by the Online Journalism Awards. A selection of five works were shortlisted for the Excellence in Social Justice Reporting award. 

After The Appeal’s relaunch, we chose to center the marginalized and underrepresented voices of the people affected most by our country’s over-reliance on incarceration – not just by interviewing incarcerated people, but by directly partnering with incarcerated writers who know and understand the failures of the American prison system to tell their own stories.

‘Prison Dispatches from Incarcerated Writers’ is a series of articles written by four incarcerated men and one incarcerated trans woman. It gives readers a truly behind-the-bars look at the challenges of life inside, rehabilitation programming, COVID-19 misinformation, and what it’s like to prepare to go home.

As Christopher Blackwell and fellow incarcerated writer Nick Hacheney wrote for The Appeal, “Many incarcerated people are eager to exercise that right [to free speech] and contribute to the conversations in our communities around racial inequality, criminal justice reform, conditions of confinement, and numerous other issues. After all, who better to comment on the issues that affect us—and our loved ones—than us?”

Also at the ONA22 Conference, The Appeal’s Strategy & Legal Director Molly Greene and Managing Editor Tara Francis Chan led an hour-long session providing an inside look at how staff relaunched The Appeal.