JoinJeremy
@joinjeremy.org
Founded by incarcerated journalist Jeremy Busby, JoinJeremy is dedicated to advancing the work of incarcerated journalists and writers nationwide. JoinJeremy.org
What will a Pentagon-controlled Stars & Stripes look like? Look no further than what happened to once-independent prison newspapers transformed into propaganda outlets. FPF contributor Jeremy Busby explains.
The Stars and Stripes firings look familiar to those behind bars
What censorship of prison newspapers can tell us of where the military news outlet may be headed
freedom.press
On July 25, EA artist Orlando Smith, better known as O. Smith, will become the first currently incarcerated visual artist to headline a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art! Celebrate Orlando by coming to SFMOMA and witnessing his stunning work from July 25 to June 20, 2027.
O. Smith: Artivist
A self-described “artivist” — both artist and activist — Orlando Smith uses pencil and paper to chronicle the senselessness of the criminal legal system and to indict abuses of power in the United Sta...
sfmoma.org
"The worst part of suicide watch is the isolation. You are given no books to read, nothing to curb boredom. I found myself reliving past mistakes and past memories, both good and bad."
Surviving Suicide Watch in a Missouri Prison
All I had was a smock. It was padded and itchy, and rubbed my skin raw. For months, desperate for a blanket, I had no way to keep warm.
prisonjournalismproject.org
Stay tuned through July and August for new and re-released episodes of Inmate Tea with A&P, now available on all major podcast streaming platforms, featuring incarcerated writers from Texas. Check out the first interview in the series with Jeremy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Iq...
The Voices Texas Prisons Tried to Silence | Jeremy Busby
YouTube video by Inmate Tea with A&P
youtube.com
Blocking reading materials and censoring writing are both ways that prisons erase expression before it can reach an audience. Story via @inquest.bsky.social.
Destroying the Conditions that Make Speech Possible - Stevie Wilson - Inquest
Blocking reading materials and censoring writing are both ways that prisons erase expression before it can reach an audience.
inquest.org
"Brutality by law enforcement... has become so unchecked that officers increasingly commit acts of violence even when they know they are being recorded, because they do not fear consequences," writes Jeremy Busby with Deborah Zalesne for The Collective:
"Absolute Immunity": The Decriminalization of Violent Crimes Committed by Law Enforcement
by Jeremy Busby with Deborah Zalesne
joinjeremy.substack.com
"Lifting the media ban is the only dignified thing Indiana can do, not only for the condemned but also for the people being asked to fund irreversible punishments," writes incarcerated journalist and FPF columnist @joinjeremy.org. Read more in @theintercept.com:
Indiana Banned Press From Executions for “Dignity.” It Actually Serves Repression.
Reporters create records when the death penalty goes wrong. Indiana's ban on press at executions seeks to prevent that.
theintercept.com
If you think criminalizing mere possession of disfavored information will stop with so-called Antifa, ask yourself why the admin sought warrants to learn who subscribed to Don Lemon on YouTube. Read more from FPF’s Seth Stern and @joinjeremy.org in @theintercept.com.
30-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech
Daniel Sanchez Estrada’s 30-year sentence for moving a box of pamphlets is likely just the start for criminalizing possession of information.
theintercept.com
"We’ve reached the point in the erosion of the First Amendment where the government considers possession of anarchist zines and membership in a terrorist cell to be more or less the same," @seth-stern.bsky.social and @joinjeremy.org's Jeremy Busby write in @theintercept.com.
30-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech
Daniel Sanchez Estrada’s 30-year sentence for moving a box of pamphlets is likely just the start for criminalizing possession of information.
theintercept.com
A court upheld Indiana's censorial ban on media attending executions. FPF columnist @joinjeremy.org explained in @theintercept.com that the ban has nothing to do with the "dignity" of the condemned and everything to do with obstructing accountability and oversight. theintercept.com/2026/06/13/i...
Indiana Banned Press From Executions for “Dignity.” It Actually Serves Repression.
Reporters create records when the death penalty goes wrong. Indiana's ban on press at executions seeks to prevent that.
theintercept.com
People reading report after report of ICE detainees getting violently ill from the food keep asking "how is it even possible to make food so rancid?" Jeremy explains how. prisonwriters.com/prison-food-...
Prison Food Illness: Jeremy Busby on Why Incarceration Makes People Sick | Prison Writers
Jeremy Busby writes about prison food illness and why meals served inside jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers routinely make people sick.
prisonwriters.com
ICE didn't know who it was messing with when it locked up gifted storytellers like Sami Hamdi and Rümeysa Öztürk. They're exposing abuses in ICE jails that are also prevalent throughout the rest of the carceral system. Jeremy has more in @truthout.org and @theappeal.org
Journalists Jailed by ICE Are Revealing the Horrors of Incarceration
The Trump administration’s attacks on journalists have a side effect: further exposing the violence of prisons.
truthout.org
"While this censorship might seem brazenly anti-constitutional to most Americans, it has been the reality faced by incarcerated individuals for decades. In the name of 'security,' prison officials have punished and even killed people for possessing literature they deemed suspect." @theintercept.com
Prison-Style Free Speech Censorship Is Coming for the Rest of Us
The outcome of a court case could decide whether the Trump administration can criminalize simply possessing political literature.
theintercept.com
Incarcerated people have long faced discipline for reading literature that guards don't like. Now Daniel Sanchez Estrada is facing federal trial tomorrow for possessing anarchist zines. Jeremy wrote for @theintercept.com about how the case could bring prison style censorship to the outside world.
Prison-Style Free Speech Censorship Is Coming for the Rest of Us
The outcome of a court case could decide whether the Trump administration can criminalize simply possessing political literature.
theintercept.com
The Alabama Solution got an Oscar nod this week for showcasing abuses exposed by incarcerated people recording guards with contraband cell phones. But as the Academy deliberates, the FCC is muzzling the next exposé. Read Jeremy’s article in partnership with @freedom.press and @theintercept.com
The Latest FCC Censorship Push No One Is Talking About Targets Incarcerated People
Brendan Carr is advancing a plan to choke communications for people who use cellphones to expose abuses in prison.
theintercept.com
Jeremy joined the Kill Switch podcast to talk about how prisons block social media to stop incarcerated people from exposing abuses. Listen to the episode here.
social media shows us life behind bars. prisons want to block it.
YouTube video by Kaleidoscope Content
youtube.com
To learn more about Vijandre's case and ICE's targeting of pro-Palestinian journalists, check out the webinar below:
ICE's targeting of pro-Palestinian journalists
YouTube video by Freedom of the Press Foundation
youtube.com
Journalists’ arrests chill their rights and abruptly end their reporting, removing them from newsworthy events. The public is left less informed as a result.
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker@pressfreedomtracker.us · 9mo agoIn 2025, @pressfreedomtracker.us documented at least 32 instances in which journalists were detained or charged — just for doing their jobs. Nearly 90% of them occurred while journalists were covering demonstrations. Read our annual arrest report:
Thanks to our friends @empowermentave.bsky.social for bringing attention to this article from @inquest.bsky.social about the retaliationJeremy and other incarcerated journalists face for speaking the truth.
Empowerment Avenue@empowermentave.bsky.social · 10mo agoOne of our writers, @joinjeremy.org, spoke to @inquest.bsky.social, about the obstacles he and other incarcerated journalists encounter when trying to share what is really happening inside our prisons, jails, and detention centers—the most secluded public institutions in the United States.
A lot of our work is about incarcerated journalists' rights and the retaliation they endure to get the truth out. That struggle is very real, but it's not the only story they have to tell. Read about how fatherhood in prison gave Jeremy renewed purpose despite devastating obstacles.
Finding Purpose Through Fatherhood in Prison | Prison Writers
Jeremy Busby shares how fatherhood in prison transformed his life and gave him renewed purpose despite devastating obstacles.
prisonwriters.com
Jeremy wrote for @chicagotribune.com about why freeing Larry Hoover is not only the right thing for @govpritzker.illinois.gov to do, it's good politics. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/07/o...
Jeremy Busby: Gov. JB Pritzker should take a page out of Donald Trump’s book by freeing Larry Hoover
Larry Hoover remains locked up in Illinois, handing Donald Trump an opportunity to one-up his Democratic rivals.
chicagotribune.com
Jeremy wrote for the Austin American-Statesman about how a punitive and cruel drug crackdown in Texas prisons are putting lives at risk while failing to address the root causes of substance abuse. www.statesman.com/opinion/colu...
Texas’ new prison crackdown puts incarcerated lives at risk | Opinion
Suicides and homicides are already rising in Texas prisons. Restricting visits and communication will only deepen despair, not stop drugs, Texas inmate Jeremy Busby writes.
statesman.com
''Prison journalism should not be illegal. It should not be starved, stifled, or silenced ... laws need to change." Read @inquest.bsky.social's article featuring Jeremy's account of how his own journalism, and that of outside reporters wanting to tell his story, is stifled by prison authorities.
Inquest@inquest.bsky.social · 10mo ago"Journalists behind bars, describing endless forms of payback, told us that retaliation was the greatest constraint on their work." Andrew Crespo & Corinne Shanahan of @endmassinc.bsky.social break down the ways prisons stop reporting of what goes on behind their walls.
" ... Since my brother was deported, I have been terrified. I find myself waking up in the middle of the night, tapping the side of my bunk to check if I’m still in my prison bed."
To Avoid Deportation, People Want to Stay Longer at My Prison
The thought of ending up in El Salvador’s CECOT, like my brother, makes many people at San Quentin nervous.
prisonjournalismproject.org
It can take an incarcerated person weeks of strenuous work to afford even just a stick of deodorant. Story via @vera.org.
Prison Pay and Commissary Prices: Too Little for Too Much
It can take an incarcerated person weeks of strenuous work to afford even just a stick of deodorant.
vera.org
#DayoftheImprisonedWriter is nearly here! From 15 Nov–10 Dec, we’ll highlight four writers jailed for speaking out: Rory Branker, Yalqun Rozi, Mohamed Tadjadit and Mzia Amaglobeli. Join us to call for their release! #DayoftheImprisonedWriter #RoryBranker #YalqunRozi #MohamedTadjadit #MziaAmaglobeli
In his Life Inside essay, Bobby Bostic discusses his writing workshops in juvenile detention centers. “These kids are full of potential,” he writes. “Giving them guidance is my way of giving back.”
Here’s How I Use My Story to Teach Incarcerated Kids That Writing Matters
At 18, Bobby Bostic was sentenced to 241 years in prison. Now out on parole, he’s sharing the healing power of writing in juvenile detention centers.
themarshallproject.org
The Alabama Solution couldn’t have been made without incarcerated people having access to cell phones. Think that has to do with why the Trump administration now wants to jam cell phones in prisons? Read more from @joinjeremy.org in collaboration with @freedom.press and @theintercept.com
The Latest FCC Censorship Push No One Is Talking About Targets Incarcerated People
Brendan Carr is advancing a plan to choke communications for people who use cellphones to expose abuses in prison.
theintercept.com
Sherrilyn Ifill@sifill.bsky.social · 10mo agoAnd now, if you read the devastating piece about what Venezuelan deportees endured at the El Salvador torture prison, read what incarcerated U.S. citizens endure in Alabama prisons. State prisons in the U.S. that are massive systems of human rights violations. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
Thomas Koskovich writes that it's stressful when anyone dies in your prison, especially when no one ever tells you what happened.
In Prison, Every Death Creates a Ripple Effect
It’s stressful when anyone dies on your wing, especially when no one ever tells you what happened.
themarshallproject.org
