This section presents reports and other storytelling products from the Confronting Conditions of Confinement research team and other CSP teams whose work intersects with these topics. This section documents the physical and social conditions, the social, emotional, and psychological impacts, and the human costs of being confined in a Michigan correctional facility, both historically and today. The publications under the Confronting Conditions of Confinement theme also excavate a usable past and imagine a more just future through documentation of the creative expression of people incarcerated in Michigan, collection of oral histories and letters from from people on the inside and those who have returned, and research into the many ways that individuals, communities, and organizations have resisted the dehumanization and violence of the carceral state. This section focuses on prisons and jails in the state of Michigan; the research area of immigrant detention, while closely linked, can be found in the Immigration and the Carceral State section.
Documenting Incarceration and Resistance in Michigan Prisons and Jails
“The Intersection of Disability, Health, and Incarceration,” a 2026 report by CSP researcher J’Mauri Jackson, details the health experiences of incarcerated women with disabilities at Women’s Huron Valley (WHV) Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, MI. The report first provides an overview of federal anti-discrimination laws, policy responses from the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), and significant historical disability cases within the MDOC. The report then covers the contemporary experiences of women currently incarcerated at WHV, highlighting how they navigate prison while managing their health and resisting precarious conditions of confinement and systemic medical neglect.
Using newspapers and other print media produced from the 1970s to present, “The Bar Behind Bars” documents the history and legacy of jailhouse lawyers in Michigan prisons. In addition to covering landmark court rulings and legislation that have determined prisoners’ rights to legal resources, it looks at the challenges that jailhouse lawyers and pro se litigants faced when trying to advocate for themselves in both traditional court processes and internal prison grievance procedures. Using newspapers written by and for Michigan prisoners, it additionally examines the extensive legal resource network that jailhouse lawyers cultivated to support their peers.
What happens to the women society forgets? Inside Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, the only women’s prison in Michigan, those serving life and long sentences endure conditions that remain largely unseen and unchallenged. This new story by Kyra Newman on our Conditions of Confinement team sheds light on their lived experiences—through firsthand accounts, we uncover the harsh realities of confinement, the systemic failures that define daily life, and the urgent need for change. These women are more than their sentences. By listening to their voices, we can begin to rethink justice, demand reforms, and create a future where incarceration does not strip people of their humanity.
In 1935, prisoners in approximately half of all U.S. carceral institutions wrote original news publications. This number has dramatically decreased over the past 90 years. As of February 2023, there were just 24 operational prison publications across 12 states. Determined Action for Women Now, or D.A.W.N., is a newsletter that was published between 1980-1990 by women prisoners at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility (WHV). D.A.W.N. was consigned to archival boxes at the Bentley Historical Library before it was brought to light and digitized. “Decoding Resistance Through Creative Expression” amplifies over 300 pages of articles, cartoons, puzzles, advice columns, and advertisements published at WHV.
The 1981 uprising in Jackson Prison exposed a multitude of systemic issues within Michigan’s prison system and sparked a wave of legal action seeking accountability and change. Our new story, “Prisoner Activism and the Jackson Prison Uprising” explores how the Jackson Prison Uprising and its subsequent legal battles brought significant attention to the urgent need for prison reform, challenging society to confront the inherent flaws and injustices within the corrections system, which it continues to face today.
Surviving Inside narrates the experiences of violence and community resilience among trans women in Michigan prisons. In a partnership project with Black and Pink at the School of Public Health, this project uncovers the policies that shape the livelihoods of transgender individuals in the MDOC and how individuals respond. It examines the realities of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and its unique consequences for transgender individuals. It features narrated testimonies from the trans advocate, Phenlee DeSilva.
As the United States is a prison nation, Michigan can aptly be described as a prison state. Throughout its history, Michigan has housed more than 90 state-run carceral facilities incarcerating adults, and the State’s incarceration rates have mirrored national trends of mass incarceration. In this story, “Postcards, Prison Camps, and Politics”, Lawson Schultz combs through the planning archives to demonstrate that the prison landscape of Michigan was not an inevitable product of history but a consequence of active and intentional planning.
“The Origins and Evolution of Michigan Women’s Prisons” (by Ph.D. student Alex Burnett) investigates the origins of women’s prisons in Michigan, the conditions of incarceration faced by women and other imprisoned people, and the importance of coerced labor to Michigan’s system of female incarceration. From the antebellum era to the dawn of mass incarceration, penal administrators consistently forced imprisoned women to work for little to no pay under the guise of “rehabilitating” women into law-abiding citizens and obedient wives. Drawing on newspaper articles, administrative reports, prisoner newsletters, and activist ephemera, this report narrates how imprisoned women rebelled against this patriarchal system of female incarceration. Whether through running away, organizing strikes, or refusing to follow restrictive rules, imprisoned women created a transcript of resistance that challenged official narratives of progress and revealed the brutality at the heart of Michigan’s carceral system.
“Confinement in Macomb County” Michigan’s Macomb County Jail, just north of Detroit, opened in 1954. It was built to hold approximately 100 prisoners. Today, it regularly holds over 1,200 people and years of constant expansion have resulted in buildings covering over 300,000 square feet. This past January, it was approved for yet another expansion, which will cost over $228 million dollars. In the era of American Mass Incarceration, the Macomb County Jail accounts for a small portion of the entire U.S. prisoner population of approximately two million people. But the jail’s rapid growth, its racially disproportionate population, and inhumane conditions of confinement are representative of mass incarceration throughout the country. In this report, a team of researchers from the CSP investigates the growth of the Macomb County Jail, with moving first hand testimony from researcher Kel Keller, who spent over a year held in the Macomb County Jail.
“The Prisoners’ Labor Union in Jackson, Michigan”, written by CSP researcher Dominic Coschino, is the story of prison labor in America, as seen in local perspective. Over 1.2 million people are incarcerated in the U.S. Nearly all of these people must work for little to no pay or face additional criminal punishment. Incarcerated people have always resisted this labor exploitation in a number of ways throughout history. On April 30, 1972, prisoners at Michigan’s Jackson State Prison took the radical action of starting a Prisoners’ Labor Union. This multimedia investigative report traces the history of prison labor in the United States and the centrality of prison labor to keeping prisons operating. It then tells the story of the origins of the Prisoners’ Labor Union at Jackson, its rapid rise and swell of support across Michigan, and finally the repression union leaders faced from prison administrators and the eventual legal defeat of the union. Though prisoners at Jackson and nationwide have never secured the right to unionize, prisoners still form unions and organize strikes. The story of the Prisoners’ Labor Union serves as a testament to the ingenuity and courage of incarcerated people to protest their confinement and demand better conditions.
“Jackson Prison, 1981” is the story of incarceration and resistance at Michigan’s Jackson Prison. On May 22, 1981, guards at Michigan State Prison (also referred to as Jackson Prison) staged a ‘lockdown and weapons search’ of incarcerated individuals, despite warnings from prison authorities not to do so. During this lockdown, incarcerated individuals also staged an uprising against this unfair search and treatment. To this day, questions remain about the actual cause of the Jackson Prison uprising – was it the result of tensions boiling over after years of a growing carceral state?
Through this report, we hope to shine more light on the political atmosphere of Michigan leading to the uprising, the prison’s history, the grievances of those incarcerated, the debate over the causes, and the aftermath for all involved.
“Eyes on the Inside“ presents a series of eye opening interviews with Michigan prisoners. CSP researcher and returning citizen Kel Keller was incarcerated in Michigan during the Covid-19 outbreak. While in prison, Kel spoke with other men who wanted to share their stories about the Kinross uprising, Covid-19, and other experiences. As well, Kel shares some of his own writing about dealing with the COVID crisis firsthand as well as narrates his account of important discussions he had while inside with friends who had experienced the uprising at Kinross directly and personally.
“Washtenaw County Jail: Politics, Power, and Resistance in a College Town” is the first in a series of investigative reports about the history of local jails in Southeast Michigan. Washtenaw County Jail, located in Ann Arbor, has a history of corruption and controversy, overcrowding and protests, and more recent reform initiatives. The jail has incarcerated political activists, including UM student radicals; African Americans from Detroit, during the 1967 Uprising; and many people charged with low-level offenses over the years. This multimedia investigative report utilizes archival documents and photographs to reveal the largely hidden story of a jail just down the road from the University of Michigan. Created by the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team (researchers: Jamie Hein, Samantha Bodin, Claudia Rubalcava, and Alex Burnett).
Voices From Inside is a groundbreaking exhibition that showcases the lived experiences of people currently and formerly incarcerated in Michigan. The project’s goals are to contextualize experiences of incarceration within an individual’s whole, human life, and to offer a platform for incarcerated people to share their unfiltered experience with the public. In oral history interviews, formerly incarcerated people spoke about their childhoods, their first experiences of the criminal punishment system, how they coped in prison, and how they have rebuilt their lives since their release. Currently incarcerated individuals sent in written testimonials covering the same subjects.
“Kinross Uprising, Michigan 2016: The Silenced Revolt over Basic Human Rights in Prison” is a multimedia investigative report that documents the origins, events, and implications of an uprising of incarcerated persons at a maximum security prison known as Kinross in Kinchloe, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula. The investigation, conducted by six students on the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team, involved detailed and immersive research in the town of Kinross; interviews with lawyers, guards, union officials, and politicians; and documents from newspapers, legal records, and more. The report is built on a partnership between academic researchers and impacted communities and reveals how incarcerated people resist both survive and resist the conditions of their confinement, refusing to let carceral structures or policies strip them of their humanity.
Let Me Tell You is a storytelling initiative working across Michigan’s 31 prison facilities to document the experience of life and long-term prison sentences. Michigan’s prisoners serve longer sentences, on average, than all other prisoners across the nation. There are currently 13,000 people serving life and long-term sentences in Michigan prisons. Each one of these people shares with us a common humanity. They are living proof that extreme punishment doesn’t work. People serving life and long-term prison sentences are proven to age out of crime, but they’re trapped in a merciless system that doesn’t recognize growth. Meanwhile their families and communities suffer, robbed of vital connections and resources.
The Let Me Tell You project is an attempt to showcase this humanity, by collecting and archiving first person stories about the experience and impact of long imprisonment in Michigan.
Focus: Youth Incarceration and Resistance
What They’ve Been Told is the first part of a two part series by Ariana Kertsman, an undergraduate researcher for the CSP’s Conditions of Confinement Team. Part I examines how America’s educational and juvenile justice systems have long relied on racialized narratives—such as assumptions of criminality, the superpredator myth, and Zero Tolerance policies—to shape public perceptions of Black and Brown youth. This two-part series discusses societal and personal narrative construction and deconstruction, inviting viewers to question why youth and their voices are consistently left out, or silenced, in conversations concerning their own lives, identities, and futures.
In Part II, What They’re Telling Us, CSP researcher Ariana Kertsman asks: what if, instead of the narratives youth have been told, they are offered opportunities in which they recognize their own voice? Power? Agency? This report centers the voices and experiences of Black and Brown youth who’ve been part of Telling It, an organization offering marginalized youth opportunities to tell their own stories, take ownership over their own learning, and claim narratives about themselves that they haven’t yet been offered by limited systems of power and influence.
“Silenced Voices: Surviving and Resisting Youth Incarceration in Michigan” (by CSP researcher Adler Fritz), spotlights the problematic conditions of youth confinement and pervasive cruelty within Michigan’s juvenile justice system, which has the 17th highest youth incarceration rate in the United States (2024 data). This report further aims to inspire important dialogue and action by examining the transformative powers of self expression and community collaboration in creative arts programs.
Covid-19 In Prison
“I Don’t Want To Die in Prison”: Prison Conditions, Decarceration, and Mutual Aid in the Age of COVID-19 is a white paper by the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team in partnership with the Michigan Criminal Justice Program of the American Friends Service Committee. The report presents an evidence-based case for decarceration as the only humane and meaningful response to the COVID-19 pandemic in prisons, based on extensive documentation of current conditions by people incarcerated in the state of Michigan. Co-written by Nora Krinitsky, Pete Martel, and Megan Wilson. Published July 2020.
Incarceration in the Age of COVID-19. Michigan Department of Corrections facilities closed to visitation in March 2020 in an attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19 in prison. Since then, DCC researchers have corresponded with incarcerated people to learn more about their conditions of confinement during COVID-19. This series of rapid response reports features the voices of incarcerated people who have shared their experiences and provided their own recommendations about what actions must be taken. The first two reports are below. View all reports in the series here.
“We Live 24/7 in Hell” is a multimedia report that chronicles the inhumane conditions and racist oppression in Detroit’s Wayne County Jail from 1968-1976. Then as now, a large majority of those incarcerated were poor African Americans in pretrial detention and convicted of no crime. The report reproduces dozens of documents about the experiences of incarcerated people, including affidavits and testimony from the lawsuit filed by a radical coalition. Researched and created by Dominic Coschino for the DCC’s “Detroit as a Carceral Space” initiative. Published May 2020.
Life Without Parole
Living on LOP: What We Learned in Prison is a video series, initiated by formerly incarcerated artists Patrick Bates and Cozine Welch, that features the stories of formerly incarcerated people who share the lessons they have learned in prison that can now help us all adjust to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 12-part weekly series premiered June 12, 2020, and elevates the voices of those who have been most impacted by purposeful systemic oppression in our society. Created by the Documenting Prison Education and Arts team. View all episodes here.
Profiles and Publications
“The End of Rage: A Black Panther in Prison Makes a Reckoning: The Story of Russell Maroon Shoatz” by Ashley Lucas. A deeply reported account of the impact of almost a half-century of incarceration, including 22 consecutive years of solitary confinement, on Russell Maroon Shoatz and his family members, based on interviews and other correspondence and documents. Russell Shoatz, a Black radical convicted in 1972 for the politically motivated shooting of two white police officers in Philadelphia, tells his story of confronting racism and state violence on the streets and in prison, narrated by Lucas as a haunting and moving saga of rage and reconciliation.