Investigations, legal guides, and reports from inside.
Forty-five pieces across five threads — documenting the daily reality, the law, and the people inside U.S. prisons.
Investigations & first-hand reports.
Documented conditions, named institutions, named officials — the reality of incarceration.
Hopelessness: Another Idaho Inmate Death in Arizona
“I don’t know if I can keep doing this . . . ,” Adam said. “I had a good job in E- and G-Block. I was doing great. Staff loved me, but said they…
Increase of Tech in Prisons, a Double-Edged Sword?
The Rise of Digital Technology in Prisons Technology has become a source of solace to prisoners, a tool for reform, and a window to the outside world.…
Free Speech Protections for Electronic Communication
The legal landscape surrounding electronic communication in prisons is uneven and highly dependent on where a prisoner is housed. In some…
First Amendment Right to Email in Prison
Prisons have not been left out of the tech renaissance of the last twenty years. It started in 2006 with basic email services for Federal Board of…
No Shoelaces on the Prison Bus: Inside U.S. Inmate Transfers
On September 9, 2025, I was packed up for transfer from a prison in southern Idaho to a prison in southern Arizona. At 5:30 in the evening I was…
Robot Guards and A.I. Monitoring
A.I. monitoring, biometric surveillance, and robot guards—what does the future of law enforcement look like in the near future? It looks… oppressive. I…
Contaminated Water at an Arizona Private Prison
For years I’d heard rumors about the terrible water at Saguaro Correctional Center (SCC) — the private CoreCivic prison in Eloy, AZ where I was…
Mission Impossible: Private Prison Failures at Saguaro
Roughly an hour’s drive southeast of Phoenix, Arizona, in remote Pinal County, several sprawling complexes of concrete blocks and razor-wire-topped…
Idaho’s Prison Progress . . . to Purgatory
Expansive manicured lawns, marigold-lined walkways, and a fragrant rose garden, the prison complex resembled a tidy college campus. Facility-wide…
Retaliation in Prisons: The Case of David J. Meister
On September 9, 2025, Idaho officials transferred artist and advocate David J. Meister (IDOC #70703) from the Idaho State Correctional Institution…
Why Can’t We Just Play Ball? Death of Intramural Sports
by David Joseph Meister The Yard’s Design and Original Purpose Built in 1974, the Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI) — known as the Yard — is…
I Killed My Cellmate: The Mental Health Crisis
Rest in Peace, Jerry I wake up suddenly in the middle of the night. It’s dark, my cell door locked. I hear thud, thud, thud but don’t know where from.…
Prison Made: Mental Impact
The Psychological Cost of Incarceration When a person crosses the threshold into prison, they leave more than freedom behind. They are stripped of…
Nutraloaf: The Cruelty Idaho Prisons Still Serves
Every Saturday, lunch in Idaho prison is the same: a roll, a packet of peanut butter, and nutraloaf—a dense food brick banned in several states as…
Prison Chow: Dead Carbs & the Fight to Feed Humans
Let me tell you something real: prison (and jail) kitchens don’t serve meals — they serve survival. What gets labeled “food” often reads more like a…
Profitable Prison Pastime: Building an Investment Portfolio
Inmates and the Stock Exchange There was a time when conversations on the tier centered around poker, football stats, or who was brewing the next batch…
Impact of Supreme Court Changes on Incarcerated Rights
Prisoners don’t lose all their rights when they’re locked up—but they’re getting harder to protect.A little-known legal doctrine called substantive due…
I Sure Don’t Feel Like a “Resident”
The Idaho Department of Correction doesn’t incarcerate prisoners anymore. They house residents. That’s right. In recent years, IDOC began quietly…
Swindling Idaho Taxpayers to Renovate a Ballfield?
By David MeisterIdaho State Correctional Institution – July 2025 The Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI) opened in 1974. It’s the oldest prison…
So Another Prison Program Bites the Dust
Another Quiet Kill Inside the System—No Justification, No Oversight, No Reform Cpt. Gibney wrote in a response to a Concern Form that soccer, football,…
How to grieve, appeal, and survive on paper.
PLRA, exhaustion, written and verbal requests — building a record that survives in court.
Inmate Appeals + What to Do When They Ignore You
Don’t let silence shut you down. Here’s how to file smart, finish the process, and protect your right to fight back under the PLRA. You filed your…
Inmate Healthcare: Profit from Denied Care
Private prison healthcare providers deny, delay, and deflect inmate care – while avoiding lawsuits thanks to legal loopholes, high barriers, and…
How to Write a Court-Ready Grievance
By David Meister | Edited by Amy Smith Let’s get real. You don’t write a grievance to change a CO’s mind.You write it to create evidence in case it…
The Big Legal Pitfalls: PLRA + Case Law Made Simple
By David Meister | Edited by Amy Smith So you filed a grievance. Maybe it was ignored. Maybe it was denied. You’re pissed. You’re ready to sue. But…
Filing a Grievance — Strategy & Traps to Avoid
By David Meister | Edited by Amy Smith So you tried to fix it. You spoke up. You wrote it down. And now… nothing’s changed. Welcome to the part where…
Written Requests — How to Document a Problem
By David Meister | Edited by Amy Smith In prison, if it’s not written down, it may as well not exist. Verbal requests are useful—but when you need to…
Verbal Requests — How to Talk to Staff
By David Meister | Edited by Amy Smith When you’re inside, it’s tempting to skip straight to a grievance. But most prison policies require you to…
Why Bother? The Purpose Behind Prison Grievances
By David Meister | Edited by Amy Smith A grievance is a formal complaint—a bureaucratic maze that incarcerated people must navigate just to assert the…
Daily routines, mindset, and reflection.
What it takes to make a life inside — and what stays human when so much is taken.
Society Wins When Inmates Invest
By David Meister Easy Investing The proliferation of trading apps and user-friendly brokerage websites like Charles Schwab and Fidelity has made it…
Mindset for Incarceration
Welcome to the Archive
This isn’t a cry for innocence. This isn’t a redemption arc. It’s a record. A record of 23 years inside. Of what I’ve seen, what I’ve survived, and…
Prison Is Dumb — But It Doesn’t Have to Be
Other writers. Other facilities. Same fight.
Essays from incarcerated contributors, family, and partner organizations.
Prison Labor in Texas: TDCJ & Modern-Day Slavery
A Firsthand Account of Unpaid Prison Work, Involuntary Servitude, and Survival in TDCJ By Johnny Odle I Am Just a Number I am #02538393and I am just a…
The Value of Mentors in Prison
Originally published by Prison Journalism Project and reprinted here with the author’s permission. The day I was processed into prison 10 years ago was…
“Meth Is Not a Wonder Drug”
by Jailhouse Johnny (Johnny Glen Odle)Buster Cole Unit, TDCJ — Bonham, Texas Editor’s note: Submitted via prison correspondence. Lightly edited for…
To Love an Inmate: From the Inside Out
Guest Contributor (IDOC #72763) Relationships are never easy. Add prison walls into the mix and the challenges multiply. Yet for those of us who find…
Idaho’s Inmate Labor Potential
Guest Post by James Mancuso The 13th Amendment and Incarceration The 13th Amendment abolished slavery for everyone except those “duly convicted of a…
When Speaking Out Means Retaliation
Guest post by Amy Smith David J. Meister has spent nine years working to improve prison conditions from the inside. In this post, I share how his…
Not Broken, Just Rewired
guest contributor to the Meister Archive Let’s be blunt. We don’t talk enough about what prison does to people. Not just in the first year. Not just in…
A tabletop RPG built behind bars.
Designing a complete role-playing system without dice, screens, or store-bought books.
Built to Build: How MEISTER MANUAL Empowers Storytellers
from MEISTER MANUAL: Complete RPGBy David J. Meister & Lee T. Smith This isn’t just a game. It’s a platform for storytelling. The MEISTER MANUAL is…
No Dice? No Problem: Playing with Nothing but Paper
from MEISTER MANUAL: Complete RPGBy David J. Meister & Lee T. Smith A tabletop game designed to survive even the harshest lockdowns One of the most…
Magic, Mutations & Melee
from MEISTER MANUAL: Complete RPGBy David J. Meister & Lee T. Smith A game system where your actions matter and your powers are wild In the MEISTER…
Choose Your Adventure: Two Systems, Infinite Possibilities
from MEISTER MANUAL: Complete RPGBy David J. Meister & Lee T. Smith Fantasy or sci-fi? Why not both? The MEISTER MANUAL: Complete RPG isn’t limited…
Prisoner-Crafted, Player-Tested
from MEISTER MANUAL: Complete RPGBy David J. Meister & Lee T. Smith How a game built behind bars breaks barriers in tabletop RPG design One of the…
MEISTER MANUAL: Why We Made This RPG for Prisoners
from MEISTER MANUAL: Complete RPGBy David J. Meister & Lee T. Smith What do incarcerated gamers need? Everything. So we built it—all in one book.…
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