A lot of times, prison is seen as a place where you just put people and let them spend time and then they're going to magically get better.

Were building something that hasnt been done before, its gonna be fine.

Unbound Authors started as a writing center.

And then we finally received approval to move ahead and to try a statewide prison publication.

We have published our first issue, it came out in May.

Its call Messenger Quarterly.

We're literally helping people learn to write That's phenomenal.

The fact that they had problems with those skills before, is often the reason they're here.

Today we're actually having one of our weekly meetings where we discuss some of the things that we might be considering for publication.

I find that the piece is about incarceration.

I think its an analogy of it.

Um, I thought it capture the feeling of freedom and love and the tragic loss of both of those really beautifully.

We dont have, currently, funding to provide copies of the newspaper, but we had a launch event a few months ago.

So this is one of the very few c 36 folks from inside contribute to this issue of the newspaper And I thought it was really important for all of them to have their own copy of the newspaper.

So we spent an obscene amount of money at Office Depot to print out paper copies Theyre not bound, theyre not fancy.

But they very much show that people were published in a newspaper.

The the types of stories are extremely diverse.

It's about people, it's a lot of narrative.

And then of course, a lot of situations that are difficult within this environment will be shared on.

A lot of what makes it into the paper are people trying to help each other get to places where they want to be.

Now there are stories where, you know, maybe maybe they don't like the chow hall food.

You know, There's also a lot of sports.

and there were bragging rights across different facilities.

But a lot of just about the individuals and how they experience their time in here.

I started writing for a prison newspaper while I was incarcerated.

I was a part of the last program that was in the Department of Corrections.

And I was the first woman from my facility published in that newspaper at that time.

Were reminding them of their own worth and value.

Their words matter, they deserve to be able to share their stories in their way.

Maybe its a piece of poetry, maybe its a short story, maybe its a piece of art.

I think programs like this matter because people inside need to be reminded that they still have value even though they have made poor choices in their past.