Cover story
The California Model: Normalizing the Carceral State of Being
by Ghostwrite Mike, Valley State Prison Do not be fooled. Models template futurities, in the same way origin stories indict contemporary propagandist framings of uncomfortable historical atrocities that stain the collective memory. California’s very statehood was built upon a proto-genocidal construct of slaver ambition that oozes like a slow lava from the mouth of an…
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Urs’s Girls
by Victoria Huynh, Anti-Deportation Organizer It was my best friend Havannah who first began writing to Ursula, back in 2021. Havannah had heard through an incarcerated pen pal about a woman in a California prison who wanted to fight her ICE hold. Back when we both still lived in Oakland, Havannah would come over to…
Features
A New Way of Life Advances Community-Led Reform Across California
by Christiane Rios, Communications Associate, A New Way of Life Since early 2026, the policy and advocacy teams from A New Way of Life (ANWOL) and All of Us or None (AOUON) Long Beach and Los Angeles chapters have been actively involved in statewide organizing, public education, and legislative advocacy to advance justice-impacted communities. “A…
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We Remember You, Bennie!
Sunrise: January 6, 1957 • Sunset: May 13, 2026 On behalf of the Riverside All of Us or None Chapter and Starting Over Inc., we extend our heartfelt and deepest condolences on the passing of our beloved brother, Bennie Burrell. Brother Bennie, you will be deeply missed and never forgotten. You brought so much more…
news from inside
Killing Me Softly: A Self Reflection
by Da’Shae Summer Breeze, Eastern Reception & Diagnostic Center I sit in my cell inside the segregated Housing Unit at Eastern Reception/Diagnostic Center, confined away from the rest of its prison population. I am depressed, feeling as if I am being constantly deprived of the human kindness and standards of decency deserving of all human…
CA Should Send Prisoners Home Instead of Spending Millions on New Facilities
by Steve Brooks, San Quentin State PrisonOriginally published in Truthout/The Appeal on April 3, 2026 For two years, I walked the lower yard track at San Quentin State Prison, watching construction crews tear down an old furniture factory to build a $239 million Scandinavian-styled learning center. They have now removed the fence blocking the incarcerated…
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Art and poetry
Poem: Evaluate Me by Anthony Rakim Jones
Bring to my awareness the historic scientific studies of thehuman body, soul, and mentalso that I may incur knowledge, truth, and insight beyond themisconceptions, Ignorance or false masculinitywhich only an irrational mind can see For this rating…
Father, Unfathered
by DeAngelo Parker, Graham Correctional Center Lifetime of conflicted priorities, oppression, poverty, and bad decisions; by design roads to prison. Our fatherless children left to their own devices. Fathers thinking they are still a good father from…
Juneteenth: Freed By the People
Written and Illustrated by Chase Doulphus
