Seventy Years Ago, Johnny Cash Recorded ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and Became a Folk Hero for the Ignored and Downtrodden; Smithsonian Magazine, July 30, 2025

Raj Tawney, Smithsonian Magazine; Seventy Years Ago, Johnny Cash Recorded ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and Became a Folk Hero for the Ignored and Downtrodden

"Throughout his five-decade career, Cash performed for thousands of incarcerated people across the country, appearing in-concert at over 30 prisons, where he’d always include “Folsom Prison Blues” in his set. By showing them his respect, the inmates often felt he was one of their own and treated him in kind. Though he’d been arrested seven times for minor offenses, some due to his struggles with substance abuse, he never served prison time. Yet somehow, he found a way to relate to and empathize with prisoners while the rest of society turned their backs on them. He even testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on prison reform in 1972 and continued to advocate for prison conditions with six sitting presidents."

Activists ‘fight against censorship’ in the largest US book bans: prisons; The Guardian, September 27, 2024

Olivia Empson, The Guardian; Activists ‘fight against censorship’ in the largest US book bans: prisons

 "In recent years the issue of book bans has become a major story in the US, often driven by socially conservative pressure groups, but nowhere has the impact of bans been felt more acutely than in America’s enormous prison population, activists and campaigners say.

Books can serve as vital connections to the outside world for incarcerated individuals, yet they are frequently censored in US prisons. Campaigners are advocating for public library catalogs to be accessible on carceral tablets.

“We are adults in these prisons, and we’re told that we can’t read this, we can’t read that, we can’t read this book, we can’t see that article, and we’re like, ‘For what reason?’” Stevie Wilson, who is currently incarcerated in Pennsylvania, told the Guardian.

“We need people out there to know that, and we need them to join us in our fight against censorship.”

Prison Banned Books Week – which has just ended – is one of many initiatives in the past few years that have sought to raise awareness about the rise of literary censorship in the US. While book bans in schools and public libraries are frequently reported on and widely acknowledged, relatively less is known about the extent to which literary censorship affects those imprisoned.

A Marshall Project report originally published in 2022 found that about half of states said they had book policies and lists of banned publications containing over 50,000 titles. Other states don’t keep lists, meaning books can only enter facilities on a case-by-case basis with inconsistent rules and little oversight."

Prison Is a Dangerous Place for LGBTQ+ People. I Made a Safe Space in the Library.; The Marshall Project, November 3, 2023

MICHAEL SHANE HALE, The Marshall Project; Prison Is a Dangerous Place for LGBTQ+ People. I Made a Safe Space in the Library.

"And because queer people have a way of finding spaces that resonate with us, word has spread. Everyone knows that our library has a spot off by itself, waiting to hug the next LGBTQ+ person with stories of acceptance and belonging.

Michael Shane Hale has served nearly 30 years of a 50-years-to-life sentence and is working through the trauma he has experienced and created. Inspired by the many kindnesses that people in his life have afforded him, he hopes to continue his education. This includes pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience and machine learning."