first person
On Aging and Dying in Captivity
This year I passed a grim milestone: I’ve now been in captivity longer than I’d been alive when I was arrested.
Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated writers possess unique insights into mass incarceration, having experienced its harms firsthand. This insider knowledge must be at the center of any decarceral work. This page collects the essays, ideas, poems, and art that these experts have shared with Inquest readers over the years.
Image: Wesley Pacifico/Unsplash
public health
Surviving Abstinence
Abstinence-only drug treatment doesn’t work. For people in prison, where drugs flow freely, such programs simply place them at greater risk of relapse.
first person
Stripped of Dignity
The routinized violence of prison strip searches robs incarcerated men of their health, sexuality, and so much more.
culture
Punishment TV
We are fighting to end carceral reality TV—including shows such as ‘60 Days In’—because no one should profit from punishment.
activism
A Radical Genealogy
A recent anthology offers an accessible political education in the long history of seeking to abolish U.S. prisons.
interventions
Uprooting Violence
Restorative justice seeks to address the root causes of violence—while also doing the work of healing the grief caused by it.
A closer look
No More Shame
Sex offender–specific treatment can leave you feeling humiliated. Or it can ground you, help you grow, and remind you of your worth.
Decarcerating from the Inside
The latest interventions from people who have firsthand knowledge of the harms of mass incarceration.
In the States
The People v. the Prison
California is discovering the hard way that you can’t leave decarceral reforms in the hands of prison officials.
A closer look
Graying in Prison
There’s no aging with dignity for people serving extreme sentences. Freeing them is only a start to a deeper paradigm shift.
first person
Learning to Live
For incarcerated people, prison education programs can offer not only knowledge but also hope that a different future is possible.
advocacy
Hope Against Hope
A candid portrait of the experience of fighting for clemency in Louisiana—a route to freedom now severely threatened by the state’s new carceral governor.
first person
The Banality of Mandatory Surcharges
In New York and elsewhere, exploitative court-ordered fees shouldn’t saddle a person who is already poor and criminalized.
In Their Words
Ambassadors to Freedom
People condemned to die in prison are telling the world about it—and fighting to free one another in the process.
activism
Asymmetrical Partners
Activism must involve incarcerated people—but few outside advocates really understand the dangers and limitations that imprisoned organizers face.
campaigns
Beauty on the Inside
A look at how decarceral, abolitionist filmmaking can help us envision new worlds.
Essay
The Last Breakfast
I kept my promise to break bread with my friend Dobie one last time, right before the state of Louisiana put him to death.
by William Kissinger
Decarceral Pathways
Policy Prescriptions
From early release to ending solitary confinement to meaningful reentry, writers who know how hard it is to set people free have a few ideas about how to do just that.
law & policy
Breaking the Chains
Ending prison slavery and giving fair wages to incarcerated workers are necessary steps on the pathway to justice.
interventions
A Place to Be Free
Life in prison is hard. Transitioning back home through reentry shouldn’t be harder.
Beyond Reform
Why Incarcerated People Work
A new research project seeks to understand present prison labor conditions—and build a path toward lasting freedom.
Institutions
The Surreal Prison Censorship Regime
Society isn’t being done any favors keeping literature out of the hands of incarcerated people.
advocacy
A Passport to the Future
Pell grant restoration for incarcerated students is long overdue. But without infrastructure and safeguards, higher education, and true freedom, will remain elusive.
interventions
More Than a Number
Older New Yorkers are dying in state prison at an alarming rate. Once and for all, they need to come home to their families.
Policy
Decarcerating from Within
Here’s how imprisoned writers can offer reasoned analysis on policies affecting the carceral state.
interventions
Seeing the Light
We can’t end mass incarceration without first ending solitary confinement once and for all.
Institutions & Practices
The Harms of the System
These essays illuminate distinct features of our jails and prisons that hurt the people in them.
Long Sentences
Book Excerpts
Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors have had a hand in the production of original works, collections, and other long-form projects.
abolition
A Thousand Possibilities
culture
A Narrative of Control
Policing
Unsafe on Campus
activism
No Killing Revolutionary Hope
excerpt
The Embodied Observers
Politics
Mass Incarceration on the Cheap
voices
Caring Collectively
Surveillance
A Model City
Life Inside
Burn the Spot
“Most people are not sentenced to prison for life; their punishments are only supposed to last a certain amount of time. Yet in our current criminal legal system, having your life constrained and restricted, even after your sentence is over, has become a fact of life.”
—Jeff Noland, on the surveillance that people placed on sex offender registries are made to endure
Culture
Decarceral Art
How incarcerated artists are using artworks to imagine a world without mass incarceration.
Photo Essay
Resisting Creatively
In Pittsburgh, a collective of incarcerated and non-incarcerated artists is dreaming of a world without mass incarceration.
From our archives
Early Days
Since our launch in 2021, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated writers and advocates have been putting forth their ideas on how to end mass incarceration—locally and beyond.
In the States
A ‘Warm’ Closure
The state of Washington plans to close 18 prison units. It sounds like progress. But don’t be fooled: It’s a problem.