A number of obstacles needed to be cleared.
Ellen Stackable recalled the moment in April 2024 when she was introduced to the CEO of Prison Journalism Project so she could discuss an ambitious plan to launch inmate-run newspapers at Oklahoma’s two women’s prisons, Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud and Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft.
Stackable was the founder of Tulsa’s Poetic Justice, which for more than a decade has been offering writing classes in women’s prisons in Oklahoma and beyond. Until last year, the courses focused on creative forms of writing. The first hurdle to clear was that some of Stackable’s own board members worried that a shift into journalism might represent mission creep.
She won that one: newspapers fit with Poetic Justice’s mission of rewriting narratives to transform the story of incarceration.
Prison Journalism Project, which since 2020 has been working to create a national network of prison journalists, signed on to the effort without hesitation.
The next hurdle was the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
“Anytime you want to do anything new in a prison, their go-to is always no,” Stackable said. “So you have to figure out how to ask in a way to get a yes.”
For that, she had an ace up her sleeve: Kay Thompson, the DOC Chief of Public Relations, worked as a reporter for the Okemah News-Leader for 10 years, covering the school board, city council meetings and local politics before moving into government positions and eventually corrections.
The top brass of DOC gathered at a gallery show of artwork created through Poetic Justice’s efforts. Stackable seized the moment to approach Thompson about the newspapers; if she was worried, she needn’t have been.
“When they brought this to me, I was super excited,” Thompson said. “I was like, yes, I’ll do whatever I can to make this happen.”
It got easier from there. Twenty women from each prison applied for ten staff positions on what would become the Mabel Basset Balance and the Warrior Standard. Applicants saw a flyer announcing the newspapers, or heard a rumor, or peeked over the shoulder of someone scribbling out a sample essay.
PJP arranged three visits to Oklahoma in the summer of 2024 to offer crash courses in best journalistic practices.
The first issues appeared 13 weeks after the effort was launched. Inaugural editorials acknowledged the challenges faced and established ambitious goals.
“These past few years have been chaotic, and we understand that change is scary,” the Balance editors wrote. “We promise to do our very best to promote and highlight issues you care about.”
The Standard editors spoke even more directly to the question of whether a prison publication could function as a true newspaper, asking tough questions and holding officials to account.
“Our goal is to set a new standard,” the editors wrote. “This doesn’t mean we don’t look for answers to questions that concern us, but it does mean we address our issues responsibly and with integrity, mindful of the fact that we are all, one way or another, in this together.”
As the publications’ third issues make their way into the world, the Balance and the Standard have been named finalists for a coveted Stillwater Award from the Society for Professional Journalists.
Not Only Good for Rehabilitation
The crimes committed by the editors and writers who run the Balance and the Standard are a sobering gut punch that stands in stark contrast to the happy camaraderie of the women as a group, a joyfulness that would surprise and delight any newsroom reporter.
The Balance meets for two hours every other Thursday; the Standard meets every other Friday. On top of researching, writing, and editing stories, staff members work full-time prison jobs.
The benefits of prison journalism stretch well beyond the traditional role of the Fourth Estate.
In a 2023 piece about journalism and recidivism rates for the San Quentin News, Steve Brooks said that journalism provided a sense of purpose for inmates serving life sentences and taught hard and soft skills that would be useful after an inmate was released.
“Journalism is not only good for rehabilitation; it can be a viable career choice after prison,” Brooks wrote.
Shaheen Pasha, writing in 2018 for Nieman Reports from Harvard’s Neiman Foundation, described the bridge that journalism education can build between the incarcerated and the outside world.
“For those incarcerated, the study of journalism can provide tangible skills, such as writing, critical thinking, social skills and a foundation in ethics that are invaluable on the outside, regardless of profession,” Pasha said.
Staff members of the Balance and the Standard went even further.
Reporters at both papers said journalism skills helped them come to a better understanding of other people and of themselves. They had learned the power of leaving things unsaid.
Some writers reflected on how journalism skills might have affected their ability to participate in their own legal defense.
Michelle McCutchan, a Standard co-editor who was released shortly after her last Forgotten History feature was published, recalled her attempts to over-explain her case when she went before a judge.
“I think now I have a tool,” McCutchan said. “If I’m needing to be persuasive in a way, whatever it is in the future, I really know how to focus my thoughts on a singular idea, and not jumping around to everything else.”
Kelsey Dodson, also a Standard reporter, agreed that a journalist’s skills would have been handy when she struggled, at 20, to understand the questions detectives asked her. Regardless, moving forward, the skills would prove invaluable.
“In the future, I’m going to be teaching in the R.I.S.E. program,” Dodson said, referring to an onsite cosmetology school. “Journalism will help me in becoming a teacher of anatomy and chemistry.”
The Censor
Thompson, of the DOC, was in a unique position. On the one hand, she knew that it was a reporter’s job to hold the government accountable.
“Reporters asking questions, digging into things, that’s to be expected,” Thompson said.
On the other hand, she had a peculiar role when it came to the Balance and the Standard: it was her job to put the kibosh on stories that crossed the line.
It happened once. Thompson killed a piece of satire that included details of illegal activities on the yard; she was promptly criticized for it.
Thompson’s objectivity — as either a former journalist or a DOC official — evaporated when it came to the Balance and the Warrior; her support for the newspapers’ efforts was personal and emotional.
And she blurred traditional lines. Like volunteers for Poetic Justice, and Stackable herself, who perform logistical editorial duties or arrange interviews or gather sources for reporters, Thompson had been given a photo credit in a recent issue.
Questions linger about what prison newspapers are permitted to say.
In a 2024 opinion piece for PJP, Kevin Sawyer, reflecting on 27 years as a prison journalist in San Quentin, described the risks of prison journalism and took note of the many ways California had attempted to silence prisoners’ free expression.
Sawyer cited a Supreme Court case, Turner v. Safley, which established that inmate speech could be censored only when there was a valid connection to security or rehabilitation.
“The public’s right to know does not exclude what prisoners have to say or write,” Sawyer said.
The staffs of the Balance and the Standard said that concerns over censorship troubled them right from the start.
Balance Editor Deborah “Jax” Frank said their stories needed to be carefully crafted and solutions-based.
“How we feel about something, we have to work hard to get the emotion out of it,” Frank said. “These are our days, our lives.”
Despite fears, the newspapers’ early issues called attention to the difficulty of obtaining materials to renovate living spaces and took oblique notice of dilapidated buildings by celebrating efforts to refurbish them.
Apprehension for the third issues ran higher.
They were pleasantly surprised. Thompson approved stories that called out the punishing, callous nature of prison; that offered unflinching criticism of Oklahoma’s 85% rule; that documented the persecution of rural communities with outsized criminal fines that amounted to a second round of punishment; and more.
Warrior Editor Geneva Phillips pointed to even loftier ambitions.
“Our goal is not to push the envelope,” Phillips said. “Our goal is to represent the people we are incarcerated with. Our goal is to give honest, thoughtful, conscientious voice to the issues that impact our lives.”
The Eye Opener
In the late 1930s, a newsletter called the Eye Opener was launched at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
The Eye Opener quickly morphed into a full-fledged newspaper.
In 1941, the paper provided coverage of the death of warden Jess Dunn, who was killed in an OSP prison break; an opinion piece memorializing Dunn ran alongside an account of the uprising.
In 1964, the Eye Opener printed an earnest letter to the editor that called for improvements to the paper itself.
In 1972, editor Verdell Sexton penned a plaintive opinion piece about the futility of prison reform.
“Virtually every adult in this nation has read or heard over television and radio, of the failure of the United States prisons to render any sort of rehabilitative effect to the prisoners,” Sexton wrote. “Still, there is nothing being done to change the ‘system’ of corrections!!!”
The Eye Opener ceased publication a short time later, likely due to the infamous 1973 McAlester Prison Riot.
Apart from the Balance and the Standard — and excluding the stray newsletter — Thompson was unaware of efforts to launch a newspaper at any other Oklahoma prison.
“I would love to have a newspaper stand up at every facility, because what brings communities together more than a newspaper?” Thompson said. “To have volunteers stand up at a men’s prison would be great.”
The communities of their yards were front of mind as the staffs of the Balance and the Standard awaited notification of the Stillwater Award; so was the broader society to which some of them would eventually return.
“I think the newspaper has offered us a sense of community that did not exist before,” Standard editor Phillips said. “I think that it is very empowering to have a group of women investing their time and their effort and their hopes in a positive outlet. That goes beyond the yard, to the entire world.”
Balance reporter Michelle Walker expressed the same sentiment, more succinctly.
“We’re not a prison publication; we’re a publication,” Walker said.
The Society for Professional Journalists’ award ceremony will be held May 8.
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
