prisons

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

How Tennessee’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills Are Already Playing Out in Prison

Through my three decades of incarceration in Tennessee, I’ve seen attitudes toward LGBTQ+ prisoners like myself change a lot. But…

March 16, 2026

Tennessee Prison Guards Want to Wear Body Cams. Prisoners Want That, Too.

Tennessee’s GOP-supermajority legislature seems to have found a bipartisan idea it can support: body-worn cameras for corrections officers in the…

March 4, 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

When Prisons Ban Visitors With Felony Records, Everybody Loses

On August 29, 2020—a date I had been counting down to for 10 years—I walked out of South Central Correctional…

February 19, 2026

Audit: Widespread Failures in Federal Prisons’ Use of Halfway House System

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is not only continuing to incarcerate people past the point when they should have…

February 18, 2026

“An Attempt to Shift This Dynamic”—House Revives Prison Libraries Act

On January 27 lawmakers reintroduced the Prison Libraries Act, the first federal bill to establish and expand library services within…

January 28, 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

“Your Life Is Over”: Prison Guards on 16-Hour Shifts With No Backup

Three decades ago when I began my prison sentence, corrections officers worked eight-hour shifts. Some did the work well and…

January 6, 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