Defending Prison Journalism
This is How I Report from Solitary Confinement
Two years after I was placed in solitary for my reporting, a wave of drug overdoses swept through Texas prisons. I followed the story from my cell.
incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors
130 posts in ‘incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors’
abolition
How I Came to Abolition
Even behind bars, I believed in prison. Then community organizing and the legacy of Martin Sostre helped me imagine a world beyond punishment.
book review
No Medicine, No Nothing
Rebecca M. Rodriguez Carey’s ‘Birth Behind Bars’ examines how the state regulates incarcerated mothers’ bodies. Reading it, I found language for my own trauma.
A closer look
A Somber Peace in Angola
In response to our 9/11 coverage, a contributor shares his memory of watching the attacks unfold from inside Louisiana State Penitentiary.
In Depth
Shifting the Narrative
This fall, Inquest is sharing a series of short films made by Represent Justice’s 2026 Ambassadors.
Essay
Rebuilding the Ummah Behind Bars
A decade after 9/11 fractured the Islamic community at Central Prison in North Carolina, I helped rebuild it.
In Depth
Twenty-Five Years Since 9/11
A series copublished by Inquest and Acacia magazines examining the impact of a quarter century of the War on Terror.
A closer look
“Muslims Were the Enemies at That Time”
In New York prisons, Islam offered Black men discipline, dignity, and a path away from violence. After 9/11, it also made us targets.
A closer look
“I Want to Know Who’s Responsible for This Man’s Health”
In Missouri prisons, people with cancer say lifesaving treatment is often delayed and denied by a private contractor, leaving incarcerated patients and their families to shoulder the caregiving.
first person
Virginia’s Prisons Have a Dog Problem
In the past decade, hundreds of incarcerated people have been attacked by guard dogs in Virginia’s prisons, often seriously. I'm one of them.
interventions
Freed from the Community Supervision Trap
Parole is a nonsensical bureaucracy, with demands that run counter to public safety and successful reentry. In recent years, Oregon has passed legislation to reduce the number of people caught…
A closer look
The Elderly “7-Ups” Enduring Indefinite Incarceration
Nearly 200 people are serving indefinite sentences in California. These are some of their stories.
interventions
Diagnosing the Trauma of Incarceration
It’s long overdue for Post-Incarceration Syndrome to be classified as a distinct psychiatric disorder, deserving of compassion and treatment.
Defending Prison Journalism
Destroying the Conditions that Make Speech Possible
Blocking reading materials and censoring writing are both ways that prisons erase expression before it can reach an audience.
first person
Getting Short
To imagine closeness to freedom is to invite disappointment. To speak optimism aloud in prison is to make yourself vulnerable.
first person
Making Our Own Change
There’s a general disinterest within the prison system in the rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals. This is cruel, and it is shortsighted.
Defending Prison Journalism
No First Amendment for Prison Journalists
The law has constructed a regime in which incarcerated journalists like myself are silenced, punished, and disappeared for telling the truth about what happens behind these walls.
Life Inside
Mindfulness Behind Bars
Learning Buddhist meditation and yoga while incarcerated can help people cope with the stresses of prison, prepare them for reentry, and strengthen their abolitionist resolve.
Defending Prison Journalism
Lighting the Black Box
Prison writing has often been the spark that lights the flame of political awareness among the incarcerated population and their outside allies.
first person
A Certain Darkness
Solitary confinement steals bites from the mind, heart, and soul every day, without you even realizing it. Eventually these stolen bites equal a whole piece of you gone.
poetry
Poetry from Incarcerated Washington, D.C., Residents
For National Poetry Month 2026, new work from incarcerated authors Andrew Daniels, Steven Harrison, and Curtis Dickson.
poetry
Into the Light
“No longer will I travel A road that has no end . . .
poetry
Days
I’m up all night looking out of the window. Staring at the moon.
poetry
I Don’t Know Why
“Unexplainable events of joy just blooms . . .”
advocacy
“It means a lot to show people who we really are.”
Beauty Behind Bars exhibits artwork by incarcerated people from the Washington, D.C., area in community spaces. Here, the project’s leaders discuss the power of art in advocacy work.
poetry
Two poems
“Five/Fourths” & “When Bars as These Won’t Read”
poetry
Two poems
“Whisperings from Old Pompeii” & “God(s) Particle(s)”
poetry
Angola haiku
“in the summer rain fences disappear . . .”
first person
Bare It All
This isn’t my first strip search during my incarceration. This, however, is the first time it’s being filmed.
A closer look
Inside America’s Most Secretive Supermax Prison
Colorado’s ADX is designed to hold people under conditions of the most extreme deprivation. Despite this, the men imprisoned there continue to fight for their rights and freedom.