• Works of Art, Rosado, Enysia
  • Many women are dying here, Novinger, Lee
  • End the suffering, Burnette, Chanell R.
  • Crime is common happenstance where I come from, Cooper, Kista R.
  • Are we justified in using prisons?, Novinger, Lee
American Prison Writing Archive Logo
Explore the Archive
About the Archive
American Prison Writing Archive Logo
Explore the Archive
About the Archive

Bear Witness.

The United States holds nearly two million people in its prisons and jails — a larger share of its population than in any other nation on earth. Yet there remains widespread ignorance of conditions inside. Amid the unprecedented American experiment in mass incarceration, the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) hopes to disaggregate this mass into the individual minds, hearts and voices of incarcerated writers.
Explore the Archive

Image Credit: Larry May

Bear Witness.

The United States holds nearly two million people in its prisons and jails — a larger share of its population than in any other nation on earth. Yet there remains widespread ignorance of conditions inside. Amid the unprecedented American experiment in mass-scale incarceration, the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) hopes to disaggregate this mass into the individual minds, hearts and voices of incarcerated writers.
Explore the Archive

Image Credit: Larry May

Essays from the Archive

Artist Behind Bars

Cosgrove, Kristine

California

A soup, Georgia

The Wordist WAM

Georgia

A Hidden Cost, Peter Mehmel

Mehmel, Peter

New York

Browse More Essays

About the Archive

The APWA strives to replace misrepresentation of prisons and imprisoned people with first-person witness by those living in legalized confinement.

Read more about our mission >

Image Credit: Smith, Andrew Jackson, “Adaptive core curriculum for prisoners”

Special Thanks

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Get In Touch

We’d love to hear from you about:

  • Projects you’re working on inspired by the Archive.
  • Courses or teaching using the Archive
  • Opportunities for relationship building and collaboration.
  • Opportunities to build connections with organizations engaged in similar work.
  • Opportunities to disseminate our call for entries within active prison publications and networks.
  • Opportunities to Volunteer

American Prison Writing Archive
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21218

Help us get the word out to new writers to contribute writing about their first-hand experiences to the APWA. Share our Call for Essays with family, friends, and incarceration focused support and advocacy groups and educational programming.