There Are No Monsters: A Poem for the Women in Solitary Confinement by Kwaneta Harris @solitarywatch.bsky.social

This post is clearly an indictment of Democrats. But it also deeply resonates with me as a spiritual call to action. MAGA Christians are ministering - in their way - to those in prisons. Where are the rest of us? @fcnl.bsky.social #Quakers #QuakerTruth #Quakerism #FaithInAction

Right-wing media groups like Turning Point USA and Daystar are reaching incarcerated people in Texas prisons every day. Why aren't the Democrats fighting back?

For the latest issue of Daughters magazine, Kwaneta wrote about how toxic masculinity affects the daily lives of women behind bars.

Sunlight is not a luxury. Sunlight is a basic building block of life. It nourishes us, signals our brains to create serotonin, dramatically affects our mental and physical wellbeing. And in the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit, it's blocked from both sides.

This was brought home to me when I worked out of the Butler county jail in Ohio. All of the immigrant women I defended against deportation were victims of intimate partner violence. Six women — not a large sample size of course, but not a coincidence either. DV is soooo common

In February, Kwaneta spoke to IWCSP about her work creating support and empowerment for incarcerated women who have experienced intimate partner violence. Here’s why it matters:

“Although there are still instances of transphobia, I no longer let it break me down,” writes Lexie Handlang. “I feel sorry for those people.”

"Outside, [the state] fails to provide vulnerable women with a strong social safety net to help build autonomous lives. Inside, we're forced to relive the same sexual traumas that we can't refuse or report." kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/when-priso...

During this Women’s History Month, we must remember to lift up women behind bars who are persisting despite inhumane treatment, such as journalist @kwanetaharris.bsky.social. Read one of her latest stories, “The True Harms of True Crime: Snapped,” at bit.ly/truecrimeharms.

Lawmakers tout "reforms" meant to make conditions safer for women in prison. More often than not, they actually make things worse. For Women's History Month, Kwaneta spoke to Unlock the Box about what it really means to be pregnant behind bars. www.instagram.com/reel/DWB_KXK...

"Two months ago, they put her in a cell with a woman in a full psychotic break. The woman didn't sleep, just paced and muttered and occasionally shrieked. On day four, Jelly (gentle, patient Jelly) snapped." kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/living-wit...

"In here, I no longer feel the wind blowing through my hair the way it did when I rode my bike along the Arkansas River in Tulsa. But if I run fast enough around the prison’s quarter-mile trail, the swishing of my ponytail triggers a faint recollection of that cherished routine."

From artists rapping over prison phones to those starting labels and nonprofits to release their work, prison music speaks to the resilience of people behind bars. Our limited-run newsletter Redemption Songs will send a new song by incarcerated artists to your inbox each Sunday — sign up now:

Directors Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman of ‘The Alabama Solution’ discuss their piercing Oscar-nominated documentary and what they hope people will take away from the film.

‘People will die,’ an advocate warns, as standard treatments for gender dysphoria are replaced with therapy and antidepressants after Trump’s February order affecting trans people in the federal prison system.

What happens when women take the fall for men's crimes? It's more common than you think. Read Kwaneta's latest article on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/easy-math

Congratulations to Kwaneta!

We’re excited to share that Kwaneta has been named a 2026 Galaxy Gives Leader Fellow! She’ll be joining a cohort of incredible systems-impacted leaders and changemakers. From Kwaneta and everyone on her team, thank you!

"My name is Kwaneta Harris, and I’m writing this from inside a cage. Not a cell. A cage." For the Incarcerated Womxn's Clemency & Solidarity Project, Kwaneta prepared this urgent speech about why incarcerated women need YOU to join the fight for abolition: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/we-cant-wa...

For The Culture We Deserve, Kwaneta contributed to an article about SNAPPED and how true-crime shows sensationalize real victims. theculturewedeserve.substack.com/p/the-true-h...

"The survivors exist only as props in someone else's story, unnamed shadows that flit across the screen just long enough to justify the voyeurism." Kwaneta interrogates how the media neglects victims in her latest piece on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/the-harm-w...

As part of our continuing series of articles on how true crime harms criminalized survivors, Kim Hricko, @kwanetaharris.bsky.social and I published this piece on Snapped on The Culture We Deserve: theculturewedeserve.substack.com/p/the-true-h...

“I was raised in Detroit, baptized in Black history. Entering a Texas prison was a cultural collision. The ignorance wasn’t accidental. It was manufactured, systemic, deliberate... Writing became my resistance.“ @kwanetaharris.bsky.social

"The chair where Lynne sits is both her watchtower and her cage... But the guards who are paid to do this work remain behind thick glass, their attention divided between gossip and cold coffee." The alarming reality of being a "life coach" behind bars, by @kwanetaharris.bsky.social:

Kim Hricko, @kwanetaharris.bsky.social, and I recently published an article on how true crime media harms criminalized survivors. Here's another facet of that harm: true crime exposes incarcerated women to men seeking to sexually exploit them. @truthout.org truthout.org/articles/inc...

"I’ve watched it play out day after day, how privilege walks these halls alongside oppression, how mercy and cruelty are doled out based on nothing more than the color of one’s skin." Read Kwaneta's latest on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/racial-dis...

"Why is an incarcerated woman with her own trauma and a life sentence being forced to perform crisis intervention without training, without support, without even basic compensation?" Read Kwaneta's latest for Scalawag: scalawagmagazine.org/2026/02/how-...

Speaking from a Texas prison, journalist @kwanetaharris.bsky.social reveals how menopause is neglected and punished for those living under state control. msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/w...

"When we accept that certain women can be abused because of their past actions, we fundamentally undermine the belief that gender-based violence is wrong." From @kwanetaharris.bsky.social @theflytrapmedia.com:

"[Y]our experience on the inside don’t stay behind at the prison gates. It burrows into your nervous system." Kwaneta interviewed formerly incarcerated writer Uhuru Rowe for Spectre Journal: spectrejournal.com/the-impossib...

"We stand in line outside for medication dispensing and commissary purchases, our breath crystallizing in front of our faces while our feet go numb." Read Kwaneta's latest on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/frozen-jus...

“For women in prison, one abuser is replaced with another. The U.S. calls this ‘justice.’” Read Kwaneta’s latest in @theflytrapmedia.com www.theflytrapmedia.com/aint-we-wome...

Read Kwaneta’s contribution to the latest edition of @prisonhealthnews.bsky.social titled “Toxic Shock Syndrome: Our Risks and Our Rights”.

They said it couldn't be done. When I told media outlets that TDCJ stripped us of all clothing in solitary, forcing us to wear only gowns like we were living the Handmaid's Tale, no one believed me. So I gathered documentation and reached out to Texas Public Radio. [🧵1/3]

Just read this one account from incarcerated writer @kwanetaharris.bsky.social. No one should have to suffer such cruel conditions. prismreports.org/2024/04/01/i...

What is extreme cold like in prison? "My cell was like a walk-in freezer... I taped cardboard across the vent using sanitary pads and propped my travel-sized blow dryer on the high setting in my toilet hole roll as a portable heater" By @kwanetaharris.bsky.social:

In recognition of MLK Day, EA writer @kwanetaharris.bsky.social imagines how Dr. King would react to the state of his legacy and the movement he helped lead.

A letter from Dr. King, written by Kwaneta Harris 🧵: "My Dearest America, Why are people allowing folks to co-opt my legacy? I write this letter with profound disappointment and righteous anger at how my words and work have been twisted to serve agendas that stand in direct opposition to [1/7]

"The system uses isolation as its ultimate weapon of control... they wield it against anyone who dares to maintain their dignity or fight for basic human rights" Incarcerated writers @kwanetaharris.bsky.social & @chriswblackwell.bsky.social on the torturous reality of solitary:

Read Kwaneta's latest, an ode to Assata Shakur and the many women who never see freedom. open.substack.com/pub/kwanetah...

It's official: Kwaneta has been named a Senior Writer for Solitary Watch! Congratulations to Kwaneta and thank you to @solitarywatch.bsky.social for amplifying her voice.

Kim Hricko, @kwanetaharris.bsky.social, and I discuss the impact of true crime on criminalized survivors (spoiler: it's devastating) in "The True Harms of True Crime." Find it here: wjlgs.law.wisc.edu/2026/volume-.... Special thanks to @rlopez.bsky.social, who is the godmother of this piece.

Kwaneta Harris writes about the daily humiliation rituals of life under incarceration. Read her latest article on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/what-priso...

In her latest essay on Substack, Kwaneta Harris speaks about Cassie Ventura, the culture of distrust around women who survive intimate partner violence, and what happens when there is no elevator footage. Read it here: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/when-silen...

This year, Kwaneta was: - profiled on This American Life - published in Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, and Film Comment - named Prison Journalist of the Year by the Prison Journalism Project - co-author of a bestselling book, Ending Isolation - named to the board of The Menopause Project And much more

PJP is a nonprofit. That means every story we publish and every writer we train is made possible because people like you choose to support this work. We rely on our community to keep this platform free and accessible to anyone behind the walls who wants to learn, write and be heard.

Thank you to @solitarywatch.bsky.social and Narratively for featuring Kwaneta's writing in their "Best of 2025" lists!

Kwaneta's latest essay is a true first-person narrative of paranoia, survival, and Texas-sized roaches. Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/kwanetah...

Read more from @kwanetaharris.bsky.social👇 prismreports.org/2024/04/01/i...