Dear Reader,

A couple days ago, The Xylom published my story on prison medical care. It was co-published by The Nation.

This story came about after I attended The Aging Beat, a training at the CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, last June. Christian Gonzalez-Rivera, then a researcher at the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, spoke about what it looks like to get sick and age inside the carceral system. This set me on a nine-month reporting journey into Washington state prisons.

Through my reporting, I met Chris Blackwell, an award-winning incarcerated journalist who has published a book about his experiences in solitary confinement. He connected me with Don Snook, a 73-year-old man who has spent more than five decades in prison. I spoke with Don and several other incarcerated men, learning about their experiences of being denied medically necessary care, misdiagnoses and chronic staffing shortages.

Reporting on prisons is exceptionally challenging. You often can't record phone calls (and can barely hear them over the echoing within the facility), messages can take days to get through as staff review each one, and people are understandably hesitant to speak freely when all communication is monitored. The costs of communicating with incarcerated people also add up, as every message and phone call incurs a fee. And because HIPAA prevents state departments of corrections from confirming or denying medical information, much of what you learn is difficult to independently verify.

It’s worth it, though, in more ways than one. Beyond the obvious journalistic role of shining a light on a system of medical neglect and abuse that states often seek to keep hidden, writing to people in prison can save lives. Letting wardens and prison staff know that someone on the outside is watching can reduce the likelihood of people being thrown into solitary confinement and put pressure on prisons to follow their own rules when it comes to providing medical care and protecting incarcerated people's lives.

The Innocence Project provides some great tips on how to contact incarcerated people. You might also consider writing to political prisoners abroad: for example, here’s how you can write to ones in Ukraine or Russia.

Warmly,
Zoe Beketova
Editorial Intern

🌞 NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS

• ⚡ Our contributor Karin Kirk has penned a story for Yale Climate Connections exploring how New Mexico became an unlikely clean energy success story. The piece examines how bipartisan policies, abundant renewable resources and sustained investment have transformed the state's energy landscape. Read it here.

• 🔔 Get text updates as soon as our next story drops by following our WhatsApp channel!

🐆 ICYMI: Living With Leopards in the Himalayas

Conflicts with Nepalese residents are growing as expanded forest land and climate change push leopards into human settlements. There are solutions to try.

This story by Saugat Bolakhe was first published by Knowable Magazine. Read more here.

LOVE this newsletter? The best way you can support our independent reporting is to share it with a friend. Join our community now: