prisons

Prison Can’t Be the New Nursing Home If It Isn’t Wheelchair-Accessible

Ralph*, one of the men incarcerated with me at South Central Correctional Facility in Tennessee, hasn’t showered in more than…

April 21, 2026

The “Felony-Friendly” Job Lists Don’t Really Mean Anything

In 2020 when I was nearing the end of my 10-year prison sentence, I started repeatedly bugging Tennessee Department of…

April 15, 2026

Illinois Bill Would Put Long-Acting OUD Meds in Prisons, Sort Of

Illinois lawmakers are considering a proposal to pilot long-acting injectable medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) within the state prison…

April 14, 2026

White House Budget: No Funds for Housing, Some for Reopening Alcatraz

President Donald Trump has released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027, which outlines sweeping cuts to essentially everything that…

April 9, 2026

Prison Suicide Watch Was Once a Staff Job. “Inmate Observers” Are Cheaper.

[Read Part 1 of this story here] Up until 2019, monitoring the people in the suicide watch cells at South…

April 6, 2026

Jair Bolsonaro, Enemy of Books, Now in Brazil’s Prison Reading Program

In 2020, Brazil’s then-president Jair Bolsonaro criticized grade-school didactic books for having “too much written in them.” Apparently the Left,…

April 2, 2026

With Suicide Watch Full, Prisoners Now Kept in Makeshift Cells

A decade ago when I transferred to South Central Correctional Facility, a medium-security Tennessee prison privately operated by CoreCivic, there…

April 1, 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

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