How Prison Visit Restrictions Force Parents to Make Tough Decisions Patrick Stephens, a formerly incarcerated writer, explains how arbitrary, byzantine, and punitive visiting rules tear apart the families of the incarcerated—especially after the pandemic. Patrick Stephens
Instead of Rehabilitation, Prisons Fuel a Vicious Cycle of Instability Incarcerated people need opportunities to learn and grow. Phillip A. Jones
How The Prison Food System Denies People Healthy Choices I wanted to have a better diet in prison. But when you’ve been stripped of your freedom, it can be impossible to make the “right” decisions. Michael Capers
‘Reborn Into A Strange New World’: A Trans Woman Prepares For Release After 18 Years In Men’s Prison An incarcerated writer reflects on what her "going home" story will look like when home no longer exists. Jessica Phoenix Sylvia
How I Helped Fight Vaccine Misinformation While in Prison One incarcerated author used skills from an HIV/AIDS group to push imprisoned people and prison guards to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Patrick Stephens
Buying a Home Is Hard. Doing It While Incarcerated Is Nearly Impossible. Serving out a sentence in a Washington state prison, I was certain I’d never own a home. When my wife and I started the process, we found out just how difficult it would be. Christopher Blackwell
Let’s Bring Back ‘Prison Warehousing’ Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, “prison warehousing”—which used to be a derogatory term—would look like an upgrade. At least warehouses care about the value of the goods they store. Nick Hacheney, Tomas Keen
The Pandemic Isn’t Over Inside Prisons—and It Might Never Be A cycle of hopelessness is taking its toll in prisons across the country, amid continued restrictions on the things that make life more bearable. Christopher Blackwell
How Prison Writers Struggle to Be Heard Sky-high email and phone costs, fear of retaliation by prison staff, and isolation create roadblocks for incarcerated people to share their experience and join a growing national conversation on reforming the criminal legal system. Christopher Blackwell, Nick Hacheney
