Empowerment Avenue

a flyer that reads Advance Justice Through Storytelling—Volunteer with Incarcerated Writers with a photo of Kwaneta Harris, a Black woman, underneath

Join our movement! If you’re a storyteller, editor, or journalist committed to justice, your skills can have a real impact on our Editorial Council.

Editorial Council members partner with incarcerated writers to move their stories into public conversation.

Apply here: bit.ly/EAeditorialcouncil

a flyer that reads Advance Justice Through Storytelling—Volunteer with Incarcerated Writers with a photo of Kwaneta Harris, a Black woman, underneath

Join our movement! If you’re a storyteller, editor, or journalist committed to justice, your skills can have a real impact on our Editorial Council.

Editorial Council members partner with incarcerated writers to move their stories into public conversation.

Apply here: bit.ly/EAeditorialcouncil

A Letter from Dr. King In recognition of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Kwaneta imagines how Dr. King would react to the state of his legacy—and his movement

In recognition of MLK Day, EA writer @kwanetaharris.bsky.social imagines how Dr. King would react to the state of his legacy and the movement he helped lead.

Holiday Funk: What Christmas is Like in Prison Facing my 17th holiday behind bars, here’s how I connect and seek joy.

EA writer, Demetrius Buckley, writes about his experience of holding on to holiday joy while being incarcerated for Vera.

How ‘routine’ strip searches traumatize people in U.S. prisons In my 20 years of incarceration, I’ve been strip-searched at least 500 times. Each was an act of humiliation and sexual violence

“In my 20 years of incarceration, I’ve been strip-searched at least 500 times,” writes Carla J. Simmons in this powerful essay for @prismreports.org. “Early on, I found that in order to endure strip searches, it was necessary for me to detach myself from what was happening to my body.”

Vermont Department of Corrections once claimed to support abolition and is now pursuing new prison The “pinkwashing” of prisons ramps up in Vermont, where local officials are pushing for the construction of a “gender-responsive” facility

In 2024, Sierra Dickey reported a story for @prismreports.org in which an official from VT Department of Corrections claimed the agency supports abolition. Sierra came through with this follow-up, reporting on how VT DOC is actually trying to expand the state's carceral system to ensnare more women

In Washington, youth of color face harsher sentences More than 80% of children charged as adults in state court are not white, data shows

More than 80% of children charged as adults in state court are not white, data shows. Some Washington lawmakers would like to pass a law that would retroactively remove "juvenile points" that can lengthen sentences, but such proposals face stiff opposition.
www.investigatewest.org/most-childre...

WATCH: Innocence Project presents its new short film “What I Didn’t Know.”

Three exonerees speak about the inner strength that carried them through years of wrongful incarceration, and how they navigate their newfound freedom.

Watch here: youtu.be/Mt_prlNPCbM

Thanks to our friends @empowermentave.bsky.social for bringing attention to this article from @inquest.bsky.social about the retaliationJeremy and other incarcerated journalists face for speaking the truth.

How Kenya’s jailhouse lawyer turned a life sentence into a legal career behind bars After being incarcerated for murdering her partner, Ruth Kamande studied the legal system to understand her own case. Now she is fighting to reform Kenya’s laws

I visited Lang'ata women's max security prison in Nairobi, Kenya to meet Ruth Kamande - convicted of murdering her boyfriend. She studied for a law degree in prison and helps other incarcerated women. I wrote about her for @theguardian.com Women in prison series www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

From Victims to Offenders: How the Justice System Fails Traumatized Children A new report exposes the devastating truth: America is prosecuting the most abused and neglected children in adult courts and locking them up instead of healing their trauma.

From Victims to Offenders: How the Justice System Fails Traumatized Children
open.substack.com/pub/bruceles...

It is long past time we stop treating these children as invisible and disposable.

How Washington State Discriminates Against Incarcerated Immigrants - Type Investigations

“There is a very clear and distinct caste system in prison.” Aaron Edward Olson reports for @thenation.com and @typeinvestigations.org about how prisons in Washington State intentionally discriminate against incarcerated immigrants.

Thrilled to share that Chris Duncan, whose conviction was vacated in April, was just granted bail today, after spending over 25 years on Louisiana's death row.

It's so rare to get good news when you're covering capital punishment, but this is one very real light in the darkness

You can read about it in the New York Times today, as leading scholars of law and technology from around the country sound the alarm about what happens if the courts permit prosecutors to ignore basic conventions of truth and support on which we all rely. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...

THREAD. Over many years, we became the national experts in fighting unconstitutional pretrial detention--all the more urgent because authoritarians need detention without process. But something wild just happened in one of our habeas cases: a DA used made up cases and citations.

Opinion | Finding Beauty in a Prison Yard These trees were the only living beings that I could touch without fear.

In a beautifully illustrated piece for the @nytimes.com, Robert Lee Williams writes about how he came to embrace trees as a symbol of freedom.

Cool the Cell, Feed the Spirit: Abolition as Reproductive and Climate Justice – Scalawag This convergence of carceral violence, climate violence, and authoritarian detention regimes deepens the harm against aging bodies.

“Until reproductive justice and climate movements truly center incarcerated voices ... their work remains incomplete.”

EA writer @kwanetaharris.bsky.social joined @omisadeburneyscott.bsky.social for a @scalawagmagazine.bsky.social piece about menopause, incarceration, and the climate crisis.

'Why won't you help me?' Pregnant women and their babies endure inhumane conditions in jails Dozens of pregnant women locked up in county jails described excruciating pain, saying their cries for help were ignored as they miscarried or gave birth into cell toilets or on filthy jail floors.

Pregnant women who are jailed, often for petty crimes, are miscarrying or giving birth in excruciating pain and into cell toilets or on filthy jail floors, according to an investigation from @bloomberglaw.com and NBC News.

When Reporting Is a Crime - Corinne Shanahan & Andrew Crespo - Inquest States have restricted, surveilled, and punished prison journalism for decades, with dire consequences—for incarcerated people and for democracy.

One of our writers, @joinjeremy.org, spoke to @inquest.bsky.social, about the obstacles he and other incarcerated journalists encounter when trying to share what is really happening inside our prisons, jails, and detention centers—the most secluded public institutions in the United States.

November is Native American Heritage Month.

Sadly, Native people are consistently overrepresented in the US criminal legal system, accounting for only 1% of the total population but 3% of the incarcerated population.

Infographic with text: 50% of people in state prisons have a substance use disorder, but only 10% have received treatment. Prisons and jails are not meant to treat addiction.

As the U.S. continues to criminalize substance use disorder, jails & prisons are often thought of as de facto treatment facilities – but the reality couldn't be further from the truth

Communities must prioritize public health, not punishment

Prison reform advocate goes on hunger strike in response to alleged assault by ADOC staff Kenneth “Swift Justice” Traywick began his protest days after allegedly being pepper-sprayed by an officer in retaliation for his advocacy.

Kenneth “Swift Justice” Traywick began his protest days after allegedly being pepper-sprayed by an officer in retaliation for his advocacy.

Louisiana Made It Nearly Impossible to Get Parole. Now It’s Releasing Prisoners to Deport Them. Gov. Jeff Landry eliminated parole for prisoners arrested after Aug. 1, 2024, and tightened eligibility rules for those already in prison. Then he set all of that aside for one group: undocumented imm...

Gov. Jeff Landry eliminated parole for prisoners arrested after Aug. 1, 2024, and tightened eligibility rules for those already in prison. Then he set all of that aside for one group: undocumented immigrants. Why? To have them deported.

By @richardawebster.bsky.social & Bobbi-Jeanne Misick

Connecticut prisons offer college courses, but a lack of space, resources is limiting enrollment Thousands of incarcerated people in Connecticut want to enroll in higher education — and financial aid is available — but limited space and resources in the state’s prison system have prevented the programs from expanding to meet the demand.

“Thousands of incarcerated people in #Connecticut want to enroll in higher education ... but limited space & resources ... have prevented the programs from expanding.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/colleges-and-universities-prisons-connecticut-general-news-7025a7bac41590a2e6c0adebcd43298a

Prison Heat - Columns - AIA Dallas Prison Heat by Xandan Gulley I sit in a 6’ x 9’ concrete and steel cell, 24 hours a day, in solitary confinement. The heat drains me physically, leaving me exhausted, dehydrated, and petrified. The ve...

For Columns, a quarterly publication produced by the Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Xandan Gulley writes with Ben Reavis about unbearable heat inside Texas prisons.

www.aiadallas.org/columns/pris...

Experiencing Canadian Wildfire Smoke in a Michigan Prison June 3, 2025. I can’t breathe. I wake up in an eight-man cube at JCS Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan. I pull the air inside my lungs and heave. “You OK?” An inmate says in the cube, holding...

For The Media Co-op, Demetrius Buckley writes about experiencing wildfires from Canada at his Michigan prison.

"June 3, 2025. I can’t breathe. I wake up in an eight-man cube at JCS Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan. I pull the air inside my lungs and heave."

mediacoop.ca/node/119308

Thinking Beyond the Bars | The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education How higher education helped a prison inmate develop confidence and rediscover his humanity.

For The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Darrell Jackson writes from Washington State prison:

"While incarcerated, I became a “better late than never” enthusiast for higher education," his essay states.

jbhe.com/2025/09/thin...

When Isolation Became the Supreme Punishment - Solitary Watch SW editor-in-chief Juan Haines reviews Pete Earley's book about the unbearable conditions of isolation at the infamous federal ADX supermax.

For @solitarywatch.bsky.social, EIC Juan Haines reviews and reflects on "No Human Contact: Solitary Confinement, Maximum Security, and Two Inmates Who Changed the System,” by Pete Earley.

solitarywatch.org/2025/09/02/w...

State Property Kimberly Hricko entered prison in 1999, when inmates still wore street clothes and ordered from JCPenney. In 2025, a piece of cardboard is contraband.

The latest in our partnership with Black Lipstick, where we highlight essays from women and queer incarcerated writers, is STATE PROPERTY by Kim Hricko:

"In 2025, a piece of cardboard is contraband."

blacklipstick.substack.com/p/state-prop...