Jimmy Iakovos

Jimmy Iakovos is a pseudonym for a writer who is incarcerated in Georgia. It is illegal in some Southern states to earn a living while under a sentence of penal servitude. Writing has enabled Jimmy to endure over 30 years of continuous imprisonment.

Lockdowns Are a Dangerous Way for Prisons to Respond to Gang Violence

One morning in July we wake to rumors of being on lockdown, which happens at least once a month these…

July 16, 2026

Ignoring Georgia’s Public Defender Crisis, and the Obvious Way to Fix It

Georgia’s public defender shortage was recently of interest to the media when it affected the prosecution of Robert Aaron Long,…

June 4, 2026

Everyone Against the Drug War Needs to Know About Jury Nullification

In 1734, New York Weekly Journal publisher John Peter Zenger was arrested for seditious libel because the publication was critical…

June 2, 2026

Lifers Fall Through the Cracks of the Prison Security Classification System

The Georgia Department of Corrections assigns every person in its custody a security classification: Minimum, Medium or Close. This classification…

May 4, 2026

Georgia Lawmakers’ “Number-One Priority” is Literacy, Except in Prisons

Georgia legislators say they're going all-in to improve literacy rates. On March 10 the House approved a budget proposal of…

March 19, 2026

Georgia Moves Backwards With New Forensic Mental Health Hospital

For the past 16 years, Georgia was under a federal injunction: It could not build any state-run psychiatric hospitals, because…

March 10, 2026

Georgia “One Strike Act”: Even More Life Sentences, Even Less Parole

In late February, senators in Georgia introduced a bill known as the One Strike Act. Though the name—a riff of…

March 2, 2026

The Last Days of Parole

For the first time in six years, in 2025 the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles allowed more people…

January 26, 2026

Fixing Electronics in Prison

There are few soft surfaces in prison, so when one of us drops a pair of glasses or a radio…

December 29, 2025

The Georgia Parole Board Pardoned a Turkey

Each year when the president did the White House turkey pardons it always seemed kinda funny, even from prison. Seeing…

November 26, 2025