‘All I need is a pen, paper and the First Amendment’
During the covid-19 pandemic, CJR received a submission, via the Empowerment Avenue Writer’s Cohort, from an incarcerated writer, Kevin D. Sawyer, who explained what it’s like to be a journalist in San Quentin State Prison, in Northern California. We felt it needed no editing, and that even the means of submission—typewritten, with corrections by hand—helped tell his tale. So we have reproduced it below as we received it.
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SAWYER – INCARCERATED JOURNALIST
daily email
By Kevin D. Sawyer
There’s something uniquely different about being a writer and journalist who is incarcerated, besides the obvious. Unlike freelance journalists and those who work for mainstream and corporate publications, we who are imprisoned get to bite the hand that feeds us. And we never miss a meal.