Harm and Punishment

Drawn from the American Prison Writing Archive, a pivotal anthology of essays by incarcerated writers about the prison’s role in perpetuating harm

Prison is neither the beginning of the inquiry nor the end. Thus, writers from across carceral institutions in the US unfold the multiple and intersecting ways that violence shapes and informs their lives, prior to, during, and after incarceration. They illuminate violence as a contextual phenomena shaped by historical trauma, cycles of deprivation, and systemic inequities. Harm and Punishment reveals the interconnectedness of personal and structural violence, tracing the way violence often emerges within the fabric of communities profoundly shaped by poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.

The stories, testimonies, and reflections collected here serve as bridges toward a new imagination. They expose the limitations of punishment and move us closer to a vision of collective care and mutual responsibility. In bearing witness to the experiences of incarcerated writers, readers become part of a profound shared endeavor to dismantle the barriers of misunderstanding and fear, opening pathways to action and change. 

Elizabeth Hinton is professor of history, African American studies, and law at Yale University and Yale Law School. Her research focuses on the persistence of poverty, racial inequality, and urban violence in the twentieth-century United States. Hinton is the author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America and America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s. Her articles and op-eds can be found in the pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The Boston Review, The Nation, Science, Nature, Time, and elsewhere.

Elsa Julien Lora is a writer, scholar, and collage artist whose work focuses on the history of American prisons and the texture and intimacy of family life. Her writing has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Aperture, and Public Books. She holds a JD from Yale Law School and is completing a PhD in African and African American Studies and History at Harvard University.

Ghostwrite Mike is the pen name of a carceral state resident, poet, literacy activist, and journalist, ghostinsideknowledge@gmail.com.

Publication date: July 21, 2026

Introduction
The coeditors offer framing remarks designed to orient the reader to the essays to come and help guide their interpretation.
Note to Readers
This essay, penned by the incarcerated journalist Ghostwrite Mike, introduces readers to the stakes of the volume and why the perspectives it contains matter
Part 1: Blighted Soil
The essays in this section ask us to trace violence to the pyramid’s foundation: the intimate spaces of childhood and the environments that cultivate harm.
Part 2: Razor Wires and Iron Bars
The essays in this section affirm prisons as spaces that cultivate, sustain, and perpetuate harm by design. Violence functions as an organizing principle of daily life, institutionalized both through passive neglect, psychological coercion, and flagrant brutality.
Part 3: Dancing in the Penitentiary
The essays in this section illuminate the resilience that persists against the prison’s spectacular violence and abuse. That people who live in prisons find ways to cope and experience moments of joy does not negate the brutality of the institution. Instead, it highlights the strength of those who endure it.
Part 4: Punishing the Symptom
The essays in this section reject the premise that punishment is a solution, challenging us to envision responses to violence that center healing, justice, and repair.