Kashawn Taylor

@kashawntaylor.bsky.social

Writer. Teacher. Student. Prison Journalism Project. Gotham Writers Workshop. book: subhuman. out now.

On Oct. 8, 2025, Lexie was placed on suicide watch after self-harm behaviors, strip-searched by a male guard, handed an itchy padded smock, and put in a small padded cell with the lights on 24 hours a day and nothing to read. Every meal was a peanut butter sandwich.

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

Sometimes I feel insane for doing graduate school a second time, but it’s all worth. Still 3 classes shy of an MFA but I got my graduate certificate in the online teaching of writing today in the mail.

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Sometimes I feel insane for doing graduate school a second time, but it’s all worth. Still 3 classes shy of an MFA but I got my graduate certificate in the online teaching of writing today in the mail.

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"I feel I cannot accurately express in writing the importance of prison journalism. There is not an athletic enough verb, a highly animated enough punctuation mark, or clever enough prose to accurately describe the impact of stories written from behind the razor wire." --Phillip Luna