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Prison Life

Jeff Östberg for The Marshall Project
Life Inside
Mario Monteiro Was Incarcerated at 17. Gardening Helped Him Survive 23 Years.
“Each sprout was a quiet victory,” writes the tree steward. “Each harvest was a reminder that even in unexpected places, growth was possible.”
By Mario Monteiro
A photo of a man in an orange safety vest greeting another man in a black shirt. Both men have a medium skin tone and beards.
Redemption Songs March 29
Stevie Wonder and James Brown Put This Prison Funk Band on the Map
The Power of Attorney played shows with superstars, went to industry parties, and wore outside clothes — all under the watch of armed guards.
By
Redemption Songs March 22
Redemption Songs: The Music of Mass Incarceration
Redemption Songs is a limited-run newsletter that spotlights one song each week made by people in prison. Spanning almost a century, we’re telling the story of mass incarceration, one song at a time.
By The Marshall Project
Redemption Songs March 22
B. Alexis Is the First Woman to Drop an Album From Prison. But We Can’t Say Her Real Name.
She fearlessly raps about traumas like being trafficked at 13. But she’s so scared of institutional retaliation, she’s concealing her identity.
By
An illustration with a black background shows the head and shoulders of a woman, upside down, with her wavy hair hanging down and turning into waves of water. She is in tones of brown and sea green, and droplets of water shake off of the hair to the right.
Life Inside March 20
My Long Hair Isn’t a Vanity Project. It’s My Last Connection to Life Outside
In this foreign landscape of state-issued orange, my hair feels like all I have left of my identity.
By Lindsey Smith
A black-and-white photo showing a White woman with a bouffant hairstyle singing into a microphone on the left side of the frame on the dirt grounds of a rodeo, while in the background are Black and White incarcerated men, wearing dark colored jackets, black ties and billowing white pants playing guitars and a drum. The drummer is wearing sunglasses, as a correctional officer stands guard behind him dressed in white and a cowboy hat with the brim upturned on both sides. In the distance, crowds sit in the stands.
Feature March 10
When Texas Was Fertile Ground for Prison Bands
Until the 1980s, an annual prison rodeo offered a chance for men inside to perform and sell albums. Now we’re making them available to you.
By
A magazine called News Inside set against a grainy light blue backdrop. Light refracted through prison bars shines onto the magazine.
News Inside March 5
Women on the Inside
News Inside Issue 22 takes a hard look at how incarcerated women face unique challenges — and why their stories deserve to be heard.
By
An illustration shows figures walking along next to a barbed wire fence, a large pile of paperwork, a person in a green prison uniform lying down with a book on top of them, a guard holding a baton stick and a woman in a red suit waving her hand while standing at a podium.
Analysis March 3
It’s Dangerous to Feel This Desperate: How to Ease the Chaos in New York’s Prisons
When the governor doesn’t commute sentences, and the legislature won’t act, the carrot-and-stick system of rehabilitation disintegrates.
By
A photo shows a watchtower at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Nearby is a shorter building that has the words "Central Mississippi Correctional Facility" painted on it in blue letters. Behind the watchtower is some fencing and a reddish-orange building.
Jackson February 24
Beating by Guards, Not a Heart Attack, Killed Man in Mississippi Prison, Report Shows
FBI is now investigating after a report showed that Mississippi guards beat an incarcerated person to death.
By Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today, and , The Marshall Project
An illustration shows a bearded man with medium skin tone, wearing a white T-shirt and blue pants, sitting in the shadow of prison bars from a window. He is looking at two people of differing skin color holding hands in front of him.
Life Inside February 20
In Prison, Optics Are Everything
Assumptions and rumors determine the social hierarchy and the wrong friendship can be dangerous.
By Joseph Wilson
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