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 ...

The following story is part of PJP's special project, "The Graying of America’s Prisons." For this series, we curated reported stories and essays from across the country to catalyze a conversation ...

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 part of Locked Out, a special series from PJP about voting, politics and democracy behind bars. Click here to read more. When I arrived at the Central Treatment Facility of the ...

Unlike the meat we are served, there is no great mystery to Aramark’s motives. They are not responsible for providing the best possible, most nutritious, most appealing food to Florida prisons, ...

For the first time in almost three decades, the Pell Grant is once again available to incarcerated individuals enrolled in an approved prison education program. This exciting news has resulted in the ...

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 ...

Alabama’s prison homicide rate is among the highest in the country, leaving many changed people to die behind bars. I remember the first day I stepped foot inside a prison. It was 1995. The place was ...