This article was first published by Mule Creek Post, a newspaper at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California. The article has been lightly edited to add clarity and conform with PJP style rules.
Community resource manager Lance Eshelman threw a curveball to the editors of the Mule Creek Post in October when he asked, “Can you guys do a journalism training course?”
As the Post embarked on its fifth year of publishing this year with more than 48 editions published, the answer was simple: “Uh, I guess so. When do you need it?”
Eshelman and other Mule Creek administrators like Warden Patrick Covello had been discussing ways to better incorporate stories from other yards at Mule Creek State Prison and recruit and train reporters.
The intent is to be able to provide journalism training to prospective reporters and writers, and potentially distribute recorded lessons to the other yards at Mule Creek, as well as other institutions.
Mule Creek Post editors have been working on a lesson plan since its October meeting, developing the Incarcerated Journalists Training (IJT) course. The curriculum consists of 10 lessons and Rehabilitative Achievement Credits toward sentences are awarded to those who participate in the training.
“IJT grads will learn everything they need to know to become qualified journalists,” said Post reporter Christopher Bryson. “They’ll even be able to submit material to outside newspapers and other mainstream media. Prison journalism is taking off right now. Stories from inside are just as worthy as anything out there. And who better to report on prison issues than prisoners?”
Classes will be limited to 10 to 12 participants, and candidates must be discipline-free for at least 12 months to be eligible.
“I believe this training is going to open up a whole new aspect to personal rehabilitation,” said Correctional Counselor E. Albertson, the class sponsor. “It builds self-esteem and shows what participants are capable of. There’s already been a lot of interest; I’ve got a list of prospective candidates two pages long.”
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Here are our ground rules:
- You must credit Prison Journalism Project. In the byline, we prefer “[Author Name], Prison Journalism Project.” At the top of the text of your story, please include a line that says: “This story was originally published by Prison Journalism Project” and include a link to the article.
- No republishing of photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No editing the content, including the headline, except to reflect changes in time, location and editorial style. For example, changing, “today” to “last week,” or San Quentin to San Quentin, California. You can also make minor revisions for style or headline size, and you can trim stories for space. You must also retain all original hyperlinks, including links to the Prison Journalism Project newsletters.
- No translation of our stories into another language without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No selling ads against our stories, but you can publish it on a page with ads that you’ve already sold.
- No reselling or syndicating our stories, including on platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. You also can’t republish our work automatically or all at once. Please select them individually.
- No scraping our website or using our stories to populate websites designed to improve search rankings or gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
- Any site our stories appear on must have a prominent and effective way to contact you.
- If we send you a request to remove our story, you must do so immediately.
- If you share republished stories on social media, please tag Prison Journalism Project. We have official accounts on Twitter (@prisonjourn), Facebook (@prisonjournalism), Instagram (@prisonjournalism) and Linked In.
- Let us know when you share the story. Send us a note, so we can keep track.