All prisoners have the right to marry, but there are lots of restrictions. You can't exchange rings or request a special ceremony, there's thick glass separating the couple and even applying for the marriage license itself

Off the Block

Lost weekends

Thousands of Los Angeles County prisoners are housed in Pitchess Detention center, 50 miles from the inner city neighborhoods where police make many arrests. For visitors, the journey to the jail can take all day. The close

Off the Block

Bail: How to buy your freedom [Explicit]

If you have the money, getting out of jail can be straightforward. If you don't, you're going to need some help.

Off the Block

Life on a million dollar block [Explicit]

One small neighborhood in Los Angeles accounted for hundreds of bookings into county jail over a five year period - and more than a million dollars in incarceration costs.

Off the Block

Trailer

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Preview a series of stories tracing the path from city block to jail block and back.

PEN America Works of Justice

C. Fausto Cabrera and Zeke Caligiuri on Precarity and Critical Resistance

In November 2023, Coffee House Press released American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion⁠, an anthology of essays edited by a collective of incarcerated writers involved in the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. The volume interrogates the comp

PEN America Works of Justice

Lisa Biggs on Black Women's Healing and Prison Performance Programs

Theater harnesses the power to both break worlds down, and build worlds of our choosing. As a performer and a former community engagement specialist for a Washington, D.C-based theater, artist and scholar Lisa Biggs has seen this happen several

PEN America Works of Justice

Lacino Hamilton on Intentionality and the Language of Justice

This month marks the three-year anniversary of the exoneration of Lacino Hamilton, who was falsely incarcerated for the murder of his foster mother at the age of 19. Sentenced to at least 50 years in prison, Hamilton spent 26 years maintaining

PEN America Works of Justice

Jennifer Baker on Restorative Justice in Young Adult Fiction

How far would you go for forgiveness? This is the question stamped on the cover of Forgive Me Not (Nancy Paulsen Books / Penguin, 2023), the debut young adult novel by Jennifer Baker. The novel follows two siblings navigating the growing pains

PEN America Works of Justice

Ethan Heard and Marcus Scott on Adapting Beethoven in the age of Black Lives Matter

In Beethoven's 1805 opera Fidelio, a man who has been wrongly imprisoned, and his wife must bring him justice. More than two centuries later, Heartbeat Opera breathes new life into the opera by confronting contemporary challenges with anti-Bla

PEN America Works of Justice

Damascus James on Witnessing, Letter Writing, and Solitary Confinement

In January 2023, people incarcerated throughout the state of Texas organized a collective hunger strike to demand better living conditions. A couple years prior, Canada native Damascus James had relocated to Texas from New York City, and began

PEN America Works of Justice

Tommy Trantino on Perseverance and Protest

Ask Tommy Trantino to describe himself, and he may simply respond, “endless.” Ask him the same question on another day, and the answer will be different. For Trantino, it’s complicated. Officially, he writes, draws, and paints. But he also love

PEN America Works of Justice

Tracy D. Schlapp and Danny J. Wilson on Cultivating Writing Communities Inside Oregon Prisons

A few years ago, Tracy D. Schlapp and Danny J. Wilson were inspired by Johnny Cash’s album, At Folsom Prison (1968), to stage concerts of Cash's music in prisons around Oregon. Schlapp and Wilson's performances blossomed into Bridgeworks Oregon

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