💫 This Saturday! Join us for the next installment of our workshop series: Personal Archives as Community Archives. Register: bit.ly/TVRP-WORKSHOP-3

“I built the library with the thought of books that would add to the life and to the needs of women who are in prison. You know, like grief… Because someone needs to be there for those people.” Read Beasy's story of life during and after incarceration in our newsletter: mailchi.mp/visitingroom...

Music is a lifeline for people serving long sentences, connecting you to a memory, a place, or someone you love beyond prison walls. Today, we’re introducing our Freedom Mixtape – a playlist featuring songs selected by TVRP Ambassadors that embody liberation. 🎶 Listen here: bit.ly/FREEDOMMIXTAPE

Extreme sentencing laws have led to a generation of elders, many of whom are Black, being trapped behind prison walls. This report from @aclu.org highlights the silent crisis of elderly incarceration: www.aclu.org/publications...

⌛ 2 more days to apply for our Roux Storytelling Fellowship! Open to Louisiana-based individuals impacted by incarceration. Participants will engage in skill-building focused on developing personal storytelling projects with dedicated space + mentorship. Learn more: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Our Forget Me Not letter-writing event this past weekend was so special! Over 50 letters were mailed to Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) to bring some joy and fellowship to our incarcerated sisters. 💟 Thank you to our co-hosts @louisianajsa.bsky.social + ThurmanPerryFoundation.org

Last night, my nonprofit ThurmanPerryFoundation.org & The Visiting Room Project hosted a community event for survivors of SA, DV, & incarceration We stretched, laughed, shared, ate, & healed through sound baths, meditation, & conversation about the potential passage of the Justice for Survivors Act

🌱 TVRP is proud to launch our inaugural Roux Storytelling Fellowship! This 6-month program is designed to support Louisiana-based individuals with lived experience of incarceration as they document their stories. Applications due March 20: bit.ly/47hD0VB

📩 Keep an eye on your inboxes as our monthly newsletter is dropping this morning. Sign up to receive monthly news and updates from TVRP: mailchi.mp/visitingroom...

"Through support, through gifts of time, service, food, homemade items, and a number of other creative ideas." This Valentine's Day, we asked TVRP Ambassadors to reflect on ways they experienced and witnessed love during incarceration. ❤️ Their stories:

“Whatever fire you have in you to help people, keep that fire.” Thank you to The Visiting Room Project, The Parole Project, LSU Law Clinics, and the LSU Law Pugh Institute for Justice for hosting such an insightful and inspiring event! #lsulaw #vistingroomproject

🦋 Today, we're sharing powerful artwork created by members of our TVRP community. TVRP Ambassadors designed original pieces that will be turned into postcards and mailed to fellow Ambassadors on their "freedomversaries" — because liberation is something worth celebrating!

Research by @fwd.us highlights systemic barriers contributing to a nationwide decline in parole. "Between 2019 and 2022, the number of people released on parole fell by 41% and it’s estimated that over 210,000 people remain in prison past their parole eligibility date.” www.fwd.us/news/they-ju...

“They Just Denied Me”: Parole Stories and Case Studies - FWD.us

New policy brief and video series show how parole systems fail to give incarcerated people a fair chance at release and highlight needed reforms.

fwd.us

🌟Resource Spotlight🌟 New resource from @wilsoncsj at @dukelaw helps to illuminate the scale and impact of life without parole sentences – also known as death by incarceration.

Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law @wilsoncsj.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Announcing our latest resource: Our Life Sentences Dashboard, a comprehensive, interactive platform bringing together decades of national data on life imprisonment in the U.S. This data collection was led by Ashley Nellis, PhD, @au-spa.bsky.social. Learn more: wcsj.law.duke.edu/news/new-res....

💌 SAVE THE DATE + RSVP: bit.ly/3LbHV2Q Letter-writing helps dismantle the isolation of prison by building connection, preserving memories, + interrupting cycles of harm. We won't let incarcerated women + survivors be forgotten. ✨ Co-hosted w/ ThurmanPerryFoundation.org + @louisianajsa.bsky.social

🎥 Wondering how to access The Visiting Room Project archive? Visit our website (visitingroomproject.org) and click "Archive." You will then be prompted to fill out a short form agreeing to adhere to the project's standards when engaging with archival content.

On Nov. 6th, join us in St. Francisville for an evening of community dialogue around the impacts of incarceration. 📅 Thursday, Nov. 6th at 6:30pm 📍 Fellowship Hall / 4744 Fidelity St, St. Francisville LA 📩 Questions? Reach out to daryl@visitingroomproject.org

✨ Idosia came home in 2022 after over 24 years of incarceration. While in prison, she trained in culinary arts and worked as head cook - A skill she learned from her grandmother. Today, Idosia finds joy in cooking for the people she loves most: her 4 children, 14 grandchildren, and fiancé, Robert.

Did you know that in Louisiana, incarcerated workers make as little as 2 cents per hour for their labor? Hear directly from TVRP narrators as they reflect on work at the plantation-turned-prison known as Angola.

“I find it somewhat ironic that a person can learn to live life in a place where they were sent to die.”

In the Depths of Death Row, a Light

I find it ironic that a person can learn to live life in a place where they were sent to die. This is what living on death row is like.

prisonjournalismproject.org

#TheLensNola🔍 A buzzed-about spelling bee returns to the United States’ biggest maximum security prison. ✍️ Lawson Strickland Read More: buff.ly/oTaRzxf

🌷Scenes from our recent zine workshop exploring girlhood! Together, narrators reflected on the radical history of zines as a tool for reclaiming agency and self-identification, shared how we might incorporate play into our daily life, and honored the parts of our youth we're ready to release. 🦋

Join Invisible Histories for a one hour virtual workshop on activities and events that you and your community can do to preserve the memory and tell the story of someone you loved who has passed.  October 11, 2025 11am Central / Noon Eastern Register: https://givebutter.com/maw2025

Our Emmy-nominated NYT Opinion video sheds light on the lived experiences of those serving death by incarceration sentences Louisiana. Watch here: www.nytimes.com/video/opinio... 🎥 @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Video: Opinion | They Know What They Did. They’d Like You to Know Who They’ve Become.

These men have spent their entire adult lives in prison. How much punishment is enough?

nytimes.com

This law threatens the very process that has helped many TVRP narrators come home. Through post-conviction relief, they have reconnected with family, started careers, joined advocacy efforts, and been active members of their communities. 📝 @psfrench.bsky.social #lalege #lagov

Bolts@boltsmag.org · last yr.

On June 20, Louisiana’s ultra-conservative governor, Jeff Landry, signed House Bill 675, which dramatically restricts prisoners’ ability to claim their innocence after a conviction. boltsmag.org/louisia...

Stay in the loop with TVRP! Our monthly newsletter includes updates and storytelling from narrators, news highlights, event announcements, and opportunities for community-building and action. 💫 Sign up here: mailchi.mp/visitingroom...

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Rooted in a tradition of oral storytelling, The Visiting Room Project archive features over 100 interviews with people sentenced to life without parole – also known as death by incarceration – in Louisiana. Learn more about TVRP and explore the archive: www.visitingroomproject.org

The Visiting Room

Nearly 5,000 people are sentenced to die in Louisiana prisons without any possibility of parole. This is the largest collection of first-person testimonials ever gathered from people servi...

visitingroomproject.org