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Bo-Won Keum is a designer, researcher and critic based in Brooklyn, New York. She is also the co-editor and designer of "Dear Books to Prisoners," a book compiling incarcerated people’s writings on access to books in prison.
Email bkeum@themarshallproject.org
Feature November 2, 2021
Police Hurt Thousands of Teens Every Year. A Striking Number Are Black Girls.
By Abbie VanSickle and Weihua Li
The Language Project April 13, 2021
How I Convinced My Incarcerated Peers to Make Language a Priority
Rahsaan Thomas, an imprisoned journalist, has long fought to change the way outside media describe people in prison. One of his toughest crowds? His fellow reporters.
By Rahsaan Thomas
The Language Project April 13, 2021
People-First Language Matters. So Does the Rest of the Story.
While we have to be aware that any word we choose has influence, no amount of Googling will reveal the magic word that brings justice into American prisons.
By Wilbert L. Cooper
The Language Project April 12, 2021
Good Intentions Don’t Blunt the Impact of Dehumanizing Words
Of course not everyone means harm when they use prison labels. But that doesn’t make the language any less damaging.
By Lisette Bamenga
The Language Project April 12, 2021
The Language Project
Rethinking the words journalists use to talk about people who are currently or previously incarcerated.
error in byline
The Language Project April 12, 2021
I Am Not Your ‘Inmate’
I didn’t always detest this term. But hearing officers use it as an insult reminded me to call incarcerated people — including myself — by our names.
By Lawrence Bartley
The Language Project April 12, 2021
I Was Trained to Call Prisoners a Word They Hated
As correctional officers, we are conditioned to call prisoners ‘inmates.’ But at Sing Sing, where I worked for 25 years, that was as bad as calling them a snitch.
By Kevin Byrd, as told to Adria Watson
Feature March 24, 2021
A Bestselling Author Became Obsessed With Freeing a Man From Prison. It Nearly Ruined Her Life.
After the success of her novel Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen spent years trying to prove a man's innocence. Now she’s “absolutely broke” and “seriously ill,” and her next book is “years past deadline.”
By Abbott Kahler
Photographs by DeSean McClinton-Holland
Coronavirus December 18, 2020
1 in 5 Prisoners in the U.S. Has Had COVID-19
Even as the first Americans begin to receive vaccines, the spread of coronavirus behind bars shows no sign of slowing.
By Beth Schwartzapfel, Katie Park and Andrew Demillo
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