It would be sheer understatement for me to praise Joe Grant’s prison bio as “groundbreaking,” “moving,” or “eye-opening.” It is all these things, but certainly much more.

It is history, as told by a talented raconteur, to be sure. But it is more.

It isjournalism.

Joseph W. Grant (or, the man formerly known as prisoner #84219, FCI Leavenworth) has completed a work of history, first-person, of the days when the imprisoned were known as “prisoners,” not “inmates.” Notably, the latter term rarely enters his narrative. He writes sparely, with a sense of humor that is both understated and delightful...

The courage that the four-volume Voices from the Underground Series celebrates is ancient. That it details the times of our lives is happenstance. The writers included in this series fought the Vietnam-era war machine with an assault of words and actions that weakened the walls of exclusion and secrecy our own government had erected, and exposed its military machinations.

My time in the military, the U.S. Navy, was during the Korean War. It was then, during the early fifties, that Cuban revolutionaries, when referring to me and everyone in the U.S. military, introduced me to the term “Uniformed Assassins.”

Many...

Penal Digest International.The PDI. A newspaper with two purposes: to provide prisoners with a voice that prison authorities could not silence, and to establish lines of communication between prisoners and people in the free world. At one point the staff chose to change “Penal” to “Prisoners” and we became thePrisoners’ Digest International.But,PenalorPrisoners,we were the PDI.

Over forty years have passed since the idea forPrisoners’ Digest Internationalbegan to take shape. I was a prisoner in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, at the time. You’ve heard of Leavenworth—one of the end-of-the-line...

Leaving the PDI, the commune, and the Georgeville Community Project to reenter the world of 9 to 5 was far more difficult than I imagined it would be.

It didn’t take long to learn about job openings. Bob Beecroft, with Mutual Radio in D.C., called me with a description of a job with an organization called Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR) in Charlottesville, Virginia. They flew me to D.C. to meet the board of directors. They knew everything about me. I knew nothing about them. Once again it seemed I had to live with a reputation that I knew what...

The United States has had prison publications almost as long as it has had prisons. There are two types of prison publications: the “in-house” prison press, which is published and supported by the state while prisoners are the nominal writers and editors, and which is often the de facto press office for the warden; and the independent prison magazines and newsletters written and published by prisoners with no government support, and which are sometimes critical of the prison and jail regime.

Some of the government-run prison magazines have achieved public acclaim beyond the prison walls, such as theAngolitein...