About the American Prison Newspapers Collection

What is the American Prison Newspapers collection?

The Reveal Digital American Prison Newspapers collection brings together hundreds of newspapers from across the country, published within prisons by incarcerated persons. JSTOR Daily is working with Reveal Digital to spread the word about the collection and encourage reader engagement by publishing stories about individual publications and prison journalism more broadly. The engagement editor over the collection is accepting pitches for articles that draw on the primary source newspapers in the collection. Learn more on the submissions page for the American Prison Newspaper collection.

JSTOR Daily Language Use Policy for the American Prison Newspapers Collection

Commitment to Person-First Language

JSTOR Daily is committed to using the power of language to promote, not diminish, justice and equity. For this reason, JSTOR Daily will use person-first language whenever possible.

People in prison have complex and multi-faceted identities that cannot be reduced to labels such as “inmate” or “prisoner.” Moreover, certain labels, especially “felon,” “inmate,” and “convict,” have been used to stigmatize and dehumanize incarcerated people. If formerly incarcerated or incarcerated people refer to themselves or others with one of these labels, we will respect their autonomy to self-identify. Otherwise, we will refrain from using labels that refer to one’s incarceration status as if it were one’s identity.

Privacy of Individuals

Elevating works of prison journalism does not “give voice to the voiceless.” It amplifies voices that are very much intact, if more difficult to hear. The rights and privileges of incarcerated writers should not differ fundamentally from those of writers who are not incarcerated. Their craft is equally deserving of recognition.

Because of the nature of imprisonment, JSTOR Daily and Reveal Digital recognize that digital publishing of previously print-only documents has privacy implications. We will undertake diligent efforts to protect the privacy of individuals depicted in the pages of the publications in this collection, and will take steps to notify the individuals and institutions that have contributed to the publications in this collection.

If you are a writer, editor, or other contributor to a publication made available as part of American Prison Newspapers and/or JSTOR Daily story and encounter personal information of any kind that should be removed from view, please write to us to request it be removed. There are multiple removal options to satisfy the privacy needs of the impacted individual while still, whenever possible, keeping the rest of the content accessible.

Reveal Digital
1 Liberty Plaza
New York, NY 10010
+ 1 212-358-6400
support.revealdigital@ithaka.org

Displaying Criminal Charges and Convictions

Moreover, JSTOR Daily will not display someone’s charges except in rare instances of directly quoting the primary source. The stories told within the publications’ pages transcend the crimes committed by their authors.