I write to my friend Ryan in Alabama every day. He has lived on death row since 2012. During that time, Alabama has executed more than 25 people.

“I have been keeping a count on my fingers of all the guys that died since January last year,” Ryan wrote to me in June 202...

Come July, a new Idaho law will require the state to prioritize use of the firing squad when performing executions. It will become the first state in the country to make shooting prisoners condemned to death its method-of-choice, followed by lethal injection.

Idaho’s turn to the firing squad follows years of controversy surrounding its procurement of lethal inject...

During the final weekends of 2025, instead of shooting hoops in the gym, writing in the library or playing cards or dominoes in the dayroom, the men at my prison sat in their cells and mostly watched TV — if they had one.

That was a result of recurring lockdowns spurred by a streak of short-staffing that, to my recollection, was unprecedented over the four years I...

When someone is hired for a job out in the world, they receive training and sometimes a bonus upon completion.

At my prison in Arkansas, when we start a job, we are often left to train ourselves, and there is no money in sight.

Here at the McPherson Unit — a women’s prison in the northeast part of the state — we are given a form upon intake asking what k...

As part of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ prison reform agenda, his administration last year announced plans to eventually close Green Bay Correctional Institution.

In light of the news, I surveyed a few people at my prison, Oshkosh Correctional Institution, about an hour south of Green Bay, to learn what they thought of the potential closure. Some people viewed the cl...