JoyBelle Phelan
JoyBelle Phelan is a writer relations manager at Prison Journalism Project.
Phelan was incarcerated twice for a total of seven years and passionately believes that no one should be remembered for their worst decisions. She is using her lived experience to challenge the perception of prisons for women and the reentry experience. JoyBelle is also a writer and was the first woman at La Vista Correctional Facility to be published in Colorado’s The Inside Report statewide prison newspaper. She was later appointed the managing editor of the paper at Denver University Prison Arts Initiative.
In prison, she held leadership and peer mentor positions and helped to develop and implement the facility’s re-entry program. She continues to work as a volunteer with incarcerated writers in Colorado prisons, providing a writing mentorship program. She is a graduate of the 2023 Dream Justice cohort and was a TEDx San Quentin speaker.