May 30, 2024 — The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and Prison Journalism Project (PJP) have today announced the winners of the inaugural Stillwater Awards. The Stillwater Awards are a joint effort between SPJ and PJP, a non-profit organization that trains and publishes the work of incarcerated journalists. Named after the first prison to publish a newspaper — the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater — the awards seek to honor journalistic excellence in the incarcerated community, while promoting the field of journalism as a viable path for justice-impacted communities. “The ..read more

PJP contributors won big at this year’s Stillwater Awards, a first-of-its-kind national prison journalism contest sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists.  PJP alumni Steve Brooks and correspondent Jeffrey McKee, who write from California and Washington state, respectively, were runners-up for Prison Journalist of the Year. McKee also took home the first-place prize in the “best feature” category with his in-depth story about a mental health unit at the Washington State Penitentiary.  PJP journalists were honored for work published in major news outlets, including Al Ja ..read more

Prison culture dictates that it’s better to act tough than risk seeming weak. A tough exterior garners respect. Vulnerability, on the other hand, can make you prey. This leads incarcerated men in particular to shy away from expressing emotions.  But I don’t adhere to that ideology. I have noticed that when I am my true self, I gain respect. That’s why I decided to ask people incarcerated at Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Missouri, to open up on a topic that can elicit deep emotions: family.  Family is a heavy topic for me. I was born in another country and didn’t grow ..read more

Joshua Plourd was sitting in a county jail when he read a book from cover to cover for the first time. It was a Western dime novel. His own story could have been a novel: He was still a teenager when he was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder and given a life sentence. But in his 26 years inside Snake River Correctional Institution, in eastern Oregon, he has studied psychology, trauma-informed therapy, Buddhism and prison ecology, receiving 15 educational and vocational certificates on top of his GED. To lock anyone in prison for the rest of their life is a way of asking: Is rehabi ..read more

Last year, New York’s corrections department ordered artists and writers in custody to provide their work for review before circulating it publicly. New York Focus reporter Chris Gelardi wrote that the directive established “a stringent, months-long approval process for people in its custody to publish creative work, including books, art, music, poetry, film scripts, and other writing.”  It also provided prison superintendents with broad authority to censor any work that mentioned the artist’s or author’s crime or portrayed the agency in a manner that could threaten operations, according ..read more

Instead of telling you about how brutal the Florida heat is, I will show you.  The walk from most prison dormitories in my state to the dining hall is in full sunlight. Shade, in the form of trees or awnings, is uncommon in Florida prisons for security reasons. When I make this three-minute walk in the summer, I get pummeled by the sun’s oppressive rays. Dressed in cornflower blue poly-blend pants and shirts, I soak up the heat. My clothes become sopped with sweat.  Heat hits the incarcerated even harder because we spend so much time indoors without air conditioning, which is common ..read more

Last year was the planet’s hottest ever, and this year has a shot at being even hotter. In prison, spiking temperatures can be fatal. Deaths in prisons climb 5.2% with every 10 degrees the summer’s thermometer rises above average, according to a 2023 Prison Policy Initiative report. Suicides go up 4.8%. Fatal heart complications rise 6.7%. “It ain’t like I can go buy a bag of ice,” said Jimmy, a 78-year-old who’s serving a life sentence. “I can remember snow as deep as your ankles as far south as Alabama. You ain’t going to see that ever again, no siree.” Like most elderly people in prison ..read more

From my cell at an Idaho prison, I write a monthly newsletter called First Amend This!, which provides news and stories for the incarcerated community about the goings-on of the Idaho Department of Corrections.    Because of this work, I’m often approached by people with DOC-specific questions that I am unable to answer. Rather than speculate or commit myself to finding the answer, I use these opportunities to educate others on how to obtain the information themselves. My main advice? Learn to request public records.  For prison journalists, public record requests are a cr ..read more

MaryAnn Swift lost my case in court, but she never left me behind. In 1996, MaryAnn was my court-appointed counsel on the case for which I am currently serving 34 to 68 years in a central Pennsylvania prison. For the 15 years following my conviction, she continued to correspond with me, never failing to send birthday and Christmas cards, each with a $10 money order stuffed inside.  MaryAnn died in 2011 after a long, hard-fought battle with oral cancer — the woman smoked like a steam engine. We kept in touch until shortly before she died.  Since I am imprisoned more than 200 miles fr ..read more

Prison strips you of any sense of individuality. Take a look in a cell and you will find gray bunk beds, gray footlockers, gray end tables, gray walls. Prisoners in the state of Missouri are issued gray pants and gray shirts, white underwear, white socks and white towels. Despite the forces that impose sameness, many have found ways to keep their individuality alive. Preserving our individuality is how we maintain our humanity. Fashion and other personal style choices For me, I wear my makeup proudly and style my hair beautifully. I never wear the same outfit two days in a row, and I paint my ..read more