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Prison Life

Jeff Östberg for The Marshall Project
Cleveland
How Ohio Prison Staff Open and Read Confidential Legal Mail
An anti-drug smuggling policy has slowed the delivery of time-sensitive court documents as prison staff read letters protected by attorney-client privilege.
An illustration shows a closeup view of a man looking at a paper with the words “conduct report” at the top. Ripped scans of mail documents are layered on top of the illustration.
A photo of a White man behind a microphone gesturing while wearing a black judge’s robe.
News June 3
Judge Stops Federal Prisons From Enforcing Trump’s Trans Care Ban, For Now
The district judge ordered the prison system to continue providing hormone therapy to transgender people as needed, while a lawsuit proceeds.
By
Tom Robbins, a man with light-toned skin and gray hair, wears a suit jacket and stands in a newsroom with eight other people. Behind them are offices visible through glass walls.
Analysis May 29
Remembering Tom Robbins
Our founder reflects on the legacy of the reporter who helped set the standard for The Marshall Project’s investigations into prison abuse.
By
The White House, a white, multi-story building with columns and a flag on top, is visible between an out-of-focus rainbow-colored flag held up by protesters and an out-of-focus blue, pink and white flag.
News May 22
Is Trump’s Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Prisoners Unconstitutional?
A federal judge considers if the president’s executive order barring hormone treatment in the Bureau of Prisons is cruel and unusual punishment.
By
A Black man wearing a tan prison uniform holds a tablet while looking up at light, faded images of family members. On the left is a person in a graduation gown, in the center is a child running to a woman, and on the right is a woman helping a child ride a bicycle.
Life Inside May 9
When New Jersey Switches Prison Tablet Companies, I’ll Lose 10 Years of Family Memories
Writer Shakeil Price uses his JPay tablet as a hard drive for his photos and videos. He’ll soon have to mail it home or have it destroyed.
By Shakeil Price
A Black man wearing a green shirt and pants against a blue background sits with a notebook in his hand. Behind him, from left to right, a man in orange wears blue headphones covers his face, a woman with blonde hair sings, and a person in olive green plays the violin. There is also a gray Walkman with orange headphones on the left and an orange keyboard on the right.
Life Inside April 18
How I Became an Opera Composer in a Maximum Security Prison
I learned music theory through workshops at New York’s Sing Sing prison. I earned my stripes by singing for boisterous crowds of incarcerated critics.
By Joseph Wilson
An illustration shows a silhouette of a man with his hands up in frustration as he looks at a woman on a laptop screen. The background is a large representation, blurred with color, of the same woman, who is White with shoulder-length gray hair.
Cleveland April 17
All Stick, No Carrot: Ohio’s Reagan Tokes Law Acts as a ‘One-Way Ratchet’ for Prison Time
Intended to curb prison violence with promises of early release, the law is turning out as unbalanced as critics feared, with sentences extended at every turn.
By
An illustration shows a man with medium skin tone and black hair wearing a blue prison uniform in four scenarios. Clockwise from the top left: The man raises his fists in front of a White man in a prison uniform who is yelling and pointing at him; the man sits on his bed with his head down, looking at a piece of paper; the man sits at a table in front of a woman with a ponytail and medium-dark skin tone; the man stands in an office in front of a laptop, where a woman on a screen is speaking to him. There are four quotes around the figures that read: “It’s a dangerous place here. It got to the point where I had to defend myself.” - Giovanni Lee, “Long story short, they never investigated what happened. They just found me guilty.” - Lamont Clark, “You all had my fate sealed before I even got in the room.” - Edward Navone, and “I’m about to go home. They ended up maxing me out, giving me my whole time.’”- Giovanni Lee
Cleveland April 10
How Ohio’s Reagan Tokes Law Keeps People in Prison Longer
It came as a response by lawmakers to a horrific crime. Now, thousands of people imprisoned since 2019 risk more time behind bars for breaking rules.
By
An illustration shows a bearded White man in a graduation cap, holding up a rolled-up diploma in his left hand. Drawn over his graduation robe are four sections: From left to right, they show a judge’s gavel, a crying man holding prison bars, a hand throwing a red soda can into a wastebasket, and a man reading a book while a butterfly flies nearby.
Life Inside April 4
I Changed My Violent Prison Life in the Most Random Way: I Quit Drinking Soda
This simple act of self-denial forced me to admit that a major source of my life’s problems was my lack of self-discipline.
By Eric Williams
An illustration shows a silhouette of a person sitting down, in a mix of colors. Outlines of sitting people with bent posture surround the silhouette against a black background.
Life Inside March 28
Anatomy of a Prison Death
It’s stressful when anyone dies on your wing, especially when no one ever tells you what happened.
By Thomas Koskovich
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