During Pride Month this year, I have invited everyone to celebrate with me, a transgender woman. I am using the strategy my mother and grandmother told me they used to defeat Jim Crow: Be the best ...

Cathead is the nickname we give Salisbury steak patties and meatballs in Michigan state prisons. It’s unknown where the name came from, but both dishes are probably called by the same name because ...

We Train Prison Journalists to Change the Narrative About Mass Incarceration Prison Journalism Project is an independent, national nonprofit organization that trains incarcerated writers to be ...

On February 8, 2022, about an hour before the 6:30 a.m. morning count, an announcement rang out over the loudspeakers at New Jersey State Prison. It was an emergency code, a “Code 53,” indicating a ...

Prison Journalism Navigator Laws Around Prison Journalism In the United States, journalists enjoy broad freedoms to investigate, author and publish news stories for the public good. There are also ...

"I get really frustrated at the treatment of the elderly," writes Amy McBride, 61, who is incarcerated in Pennsylvania. "It’s a long walk to the medical clinic and twice as long as that to the dining ...

Nothing in prison is soft and cuddly. Prisons are concrete and steel and stocked with hard people doing hard time. Toughness is mandatory, brutality a virtue, as we resist — are forced to resist — the ...

For more than half of my life, I have not been free. I was sent to prison when I was 15 years old for second-degree murder, a crime I truly regret. I began my sentence at Thumb Correctional Facility, ...

The weight deck, where we exercise at the Washington State Penitentiary, is not hospitable to vegetation. Sunbaked gravel and decades of dumbbells dropped from prisoners’ hands make it the last place ...

This story is a Kite, a special category dedicated to first-person reports that rely heavily on a writer’s first-hand observations and experiences. Read more about why PJP uses this category here.

There is not much I can do to control my situation at my prison. For example, I can’t choose to come and go from my cell when I want. Rather than let these restrictions defeat me, I remain optimistic ...

Next, we were loaded onto a modern white bus with large, tinted windows. It was the size of a touring bus, like those used for musicians and sports teams. The bus was divided into three sections, each ...