I overcame PTSD after fighting in war, but I had no encounters with other mental illnesses until I helped people in crisis at my prison.

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 ...

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 ...

In her nine years working in a mental health unit of the Washington State Penitentiary, S. Acosta has seen some horrific things. She has worked with prisoners who have cut off their own body parts, ...

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.

On any given day, there are nearly 60,000 incarcerated teens in U.S. prisons and juvenile detention centers. The problem begins with what advocates call the school-to-prison pipeline, or policies and ...

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 ...

I remember the first day I stepped foot inside a prison. It was 1995. The place was eerie and intimidating. I was 20 years old and thought I might die. But it didn’t take long for me to discover that ...

Shortly after I entered state prison, at age 15, I received my first Pap smear, a cervical screening for cancer. Pennsylvania state law mandates that minors in adult facilities be directly supervised ...