Works by Phillip Vance Smith, II
@phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social
Volunteer-run account sharing work by incarcerated journalist & writer Phillip Vance Smith, II. All content produced independently, not by PVSII. Find Phill at https://phillipvancesmith2.com and https://prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com/
Here's @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social, a journalist incarcerated in North Carolina, talking about his recent story in @boltsmag.org about three-strikes laws—featuring the voices of a man serving life, and the victim he shot who’s been pushing for his release full story boltsmag.org/north-caroli...
"If I can forgive him, why can't everyone else? I am the one who got shot." Bolts telling the stories others ignore, again boltsmag.org/north-caroli...
In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - Bolts
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.
boltsmag.org
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life in prison without parole under North Carolina’s three-strikes law 30 years ago. “I was the first person to get life under that new law,” he says. “Some people may not want me out, just to prove a point.”
In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - Bolts
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.
boltsmag.org
This is a really important story for NC -- the state has been slowly and steadily becoming more more and carceral, rolling back whatever modest reforms there were. Thanks to @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social
Taniel@taniel.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW: North Carolina’s harsh three strikes law was adopted right before Ramulus Mason was sentenced in the 1990s, so was sentenced to life in prison. Now the man he shot decades ago has become his loud advocate, demanding that the state free him. A fascinating and complex story:
we've been lucky enough to work w/ @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social for a couple years, and I think he's truly doing some of the best reporting and writing behind bars right now. follow and read his other work boltsmag.org/north-caroli... boltsmag.org/north-caroli... boltsmag.org/north-caroli...
In North Carolina, Juvenile Lifers See a Pathway to Freedom - Bolts
After North Carolina's previous governor granted clemency to people sentenced to life in prison as minors, others with juvenile life sentences are hoping for a new administration that also believes in...
boltsmag.org
Taniel@taniel.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW: North Carolina’s harsh three strikes law was adopted right before Ramulus Mason was sentenced in the 1990s, so was sentenced to life in prison. Now the man he shot decades ago has become his loud advocate, demanding that the state free him. A fascinating and complex story:
NEW: North Carolina’s harsh three strikes law was adopted right before Ramulus Mason was sentenced in the 1990s, so was sentenced to life in prison. Now the man he shot decades ago has become his loud advocate, demanding that the state free him. A fascinating and complex story:
In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - Bolts
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.
boltsmag.org
NEW in Bolts: Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison. By @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social:
In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - Bolts
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.
boltsmag.org
“The man has done 30 years. Shit. What else do they want? If I can forgive him, why can’t everybody else? I’m the one he shot.” boltsmag.org/north-caroli...
In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - Bolts
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.
boltsmag.org
The latest from @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social, a phenomenal journalist incarcerated in North Carolina, is this striking piece about three-strikes laws, how they condemned someone to prison for life, and the man he shot who's trying to get him out "If I can forgive him, why can’t everybody else?"
In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - Bolts
Ramulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.
boltsmag.org
In 1995, Ramulus Mason became the first person sentenced to life without parole under #NorthCarolina 3-strikes law, even though he had only shot a man in the arm. Read Phillip's latest Bolts piece to find out how he unravels the tangled web that has a man unfairly trapped in prison for life. 1/3
Works by Phillip Vance Smith, II@phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social · 2mo ago"When a crime victim advocates for his assailant to be set free, we should all pay attention. In this video, hear Ricky Wilson ask the world to have mercy on Ramulus Mason, the man who has spent 30 years in prison under...NC's version of the three-strikes law for shooting Wilson in the arm." — PVS
Phill published his first memoir, “A Weekend in the Hills” with the American Prison Writing Archive in 2018 when he was just starting his writing career while incarcerated at Nash Correctional. 1/ prisonwitness.org/apwa-essay/a...
A weekend in the hills - American Prison Writing Archive
prisonwitness.org
Congratulations to Phill, @deborahmw.bsky.social , and Marsha Weissman for this well-deserved honor! prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com/p/phill-rece...
Phill Receives an Award from Temple University's Participatory Law Fund
In August of 2025, Phillip Vance Smith, II became an award recipient of the Participatory Law Fund from Temple University, alongside Professors Deborah and Marsha Weissman, for coauthoring a law journ...
prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com
In Part 3, the final segment of the series "Did Drugs Make Him Do It," Phill explores how antidepressants may cause sleepwalking and violent behavior, telling Amber Douthitt's story, a mother who experienced eerie behavior while on psychotropic meds. 1/
Temple Law School selected Phillip Smith II as an award recipient in recognition of his contributions to the field of Participatory Law Scholarship with Deborah Weissman and Marsha Weissman, Petitioning for Mercy: Clemency and Mitigation in Theory. ssrn.com/abstract=65776
ssrn.com
"When a crime victim advocates for his assailant to be set free, we should all pay attention. In this video, hear Ricky Wilson ask the world to have mercy on Ramulus Mason, the man who has spent 30 years in prison under...NC's version of the three-strikes law for shooting Wilson in the arm." — PVS
In Part two of his crime narrative "Did Drugs Make Him Do It?" Phillip digs deep into his investigation about how antidepressants have induced homicidal thoughts and sleepwalking, simultaneously, a dangerous combination.
In Chicago and free tomorrow? You could attend the first-ever journalism conference dedicated to strengthening U.S. prison journalism, led by systems-impacted journalists like @chriswblackwell.bsky.social and supported by @haymarketbooks.org, @truthout.org, @empowermentave.bsky.social, and more.
Incarcerated journalists lead first-ever conference on U.S. prison journalism
Bridging the Gap, a conference focused on improving journalism in and on U.S. prisons and jails, will take place in Chicago on May 29 and 30.
buff.ly
In Part One of his true crime first-person narrative, "Did Drugs Make Him Do It?", Phillip takes us into the bowels of North Carolina prisons, where he met Geoff Martin, a man who claims that the psychotropic medication Paxil caused him to kīll his wife.
“I made the front page of the biggest newspaper in NC!...Josh Shaffer wrote about me winning the Stillwater Journalist of the Year award! It's a great moment because the last time I made the front page of that paper, I was on trial. It is a testament to changing the narrative.” - PVS2
The News & Observer@newsobserver.com · 3mo agoPhillip Vance Smith II is serving a life sentence at Neuse Correctional in Goldsboro, but he has published stories in Slate and Huffpost.
A wonderful story about #NorthCarolina journalist & writer @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social is on the front page of the @newsobserver.com today 🎉 www.newsobserver.com/news/local/a...
NC inmate wins prison journalist of the year for stories that tell gritty truth
Phillip Vance Smith II is serving a life sentence at Neuse Correctional in Goldsboro, but he has published stories in Slate and Huffpost.
newsobserver.com
Phillip Vance Smith II is serving a life sentence at Neuse Correctional in Goldsboro, but he has published stories in Slate and Huffpost.
NC inmate wins prison journalist of the year for stories that tell gritty truth
Phillip Vance Smith II is serving a life sentence at Neuse Correctional in Goldsboro, but he has published stories in Slate and Huffpost.
bit.ly
“Every blue moon I might buy a bag of chips or a soda. I can’t afford much anymore because inflation has decreased the amount of food and supplies I can buy. I spend more to get less,” says Colell Steele, who is incarcerated in a North Carolina prison.
North Carolina Prison Officials Raise Prices for Those Who Can Least Afford It - Bolts
An increased markup on canteen goods adds to the financial burden on incarcerated people and their families, highlighting how prison systems squeeze them for revenue.
boltsmag.org
1/ In a recent episode of the @wunc.org Politics podcast, "Why NC Prison's Can't Pay Bills or Keep Staff," hosted by @raleighreporter.bsky.social, NCDAC secretary Leslie Dismukes argued that NC prisons are dangerously understaffed. play.prx.org/listen?ge=pr...
WUNC Politics
North Carolina’s prison system is struggling with hundreds of vacant positions as the starting pay remains stuck around $18 an hour. Correctional officers are leaving in droves for better pay elsewher...
play.prx.org
Prison Policy Initiative@prisonpolicy.org · 3mo agoThis Correctional Officers Week is a good time to examine the "staffing crisis" across the US Prisons & jails are complaining that they can't hire & retain enough staff — why? The simplest, most obvious answer: There are way too many people locked up🧵
"As an incarcerated person, the food that prisons serve directly impacts my quality of life. Decades of research proves how processed meat can cause cancer and excessive sugar can lead to diabetes, yet we are served these foods in excess because they are cheap.” - PVS2 www.cspi.org/page/private...
Private Food, Public Harm: Privatized Food Service in Prisons and Jails
cspi.org
Join @freedom.press's Seth Stern in Chicago for "Bridging the Gap: Amplifying Incarcerated Voices," a conference about supporting incarcerated storytellers in the face of rising censorship. 🗓️ May 29-30 📍1901 W Carroll Ave, Chicago, IL 60612 RSVP: events.haymarketbooks.org/events/hayma...
