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"...allowing our experiences and analysis to be added to the forum that will constitute public opinion could help halt the disastrous trend toward building more fortresses of fear which will become in the 21st century this generation's monuments to failure."
-Jo-Ann Mayhew, from JPP Vol. 1:1 (1988)
General Information
The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons (JPP) is a prisoner written, academically oriented and peer reviewed, non-profit journal, based on the tradition of the penal press. It brings the knowledge produced by prison writers together with academic arguments to enlighten public discourse about the current state of carceral institutions. This is particularly important because with few exceptions, definitions of deviance and constructions of those participating in these defined acts are incompletely created by social scientists, media representatives, politicians and those in the legal community. These analyses most often promote self-serving interests, omit the voices of those most affected, and facilitate repressive and reactionary penal policies and practices. As a result, the JPP attempts to acknowledge the accounts, experiences, and criticisms of the criminalized by providing an educational forum that allows women and men to participate in the development of research that concerns them directly. In an age where `crime` has become lucrative and exploitable, the JPP exists as an important alternate source of information that competes with popularly held stereotypes and misconceptions about those who are currently, or those who have in the past, faced the deprivation of liberty.
Current Issues


Volume 20, Number 1 is edited by Jennifer M. Kilty (University of Ottawa). The issue is devoted to exploring the myriad of concerns related to women's experiences of incarceration. Article and poetry topics include: self-injurious behaviour; mothering in prison; substance use and overcoming addiction through the healing journey; criminalized women, labour and employment/ability; the ongoing failures of Canadian corrections for women; institutional practices of segregation; women's place in the larger prison industrial complex; and experiences of reintegration. The Prisoners' Struggles section includes material from CFAD (Continuité-Famille Auprès des Détenues/ Family Continuity for Female Inmates) and the Crossing Communities Art Project - two community-based organizations that strive to work with at-risk and criminalized women and girls. The issue also contains a Book Review of the Mean Girl Motive by Nicole E. R. Landry. This important and special issue is beautifully book ended with paintings by Ojibway artist Jackie Traverse.

Table of Contents for Volume 20, Number 1

Volume 20, Number 2 is dedicated to the life and contributions of Liz Elliott, who was an active member of the JPP Editorial Board in the formative years of the Journal, and a passionate advocate for prisoners' rights, restorative and social justice. The general section includes a number of articles that highlight the socio-politics and experiences of incarceration in the United States. It also includes two short special sections - one based on the discussions arising from the June 2010 13th International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and one on 'summit detention' and the mass arrests that occurred during the June 2010 G-20 protests in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Table of Contents for Volume 20, Number 2

Forthcoming Issues

Volume 21, Number 1 & 2 is a special double issue commemorating the 15th anniversary of Convict Criminology, which "represents the work of convicts or ex-convicts, in possession of a Ph.D. or on their way to completing one, or enlightened academics and practitioners, who contribute to a new conversation about crime and corrections" (see www.convictcriminology.org). Dedicated to John Irwin and Thomas Bernard, who were actively involved in the Convict Criminology Group since its inception in 1997, the issue contains three main sections: 1) Defining Convict Criminology; 2) Prisoners in the Community; and 3) Convict Criminology Beyond Borders. The volume also contains three Response pieces that assess the past and contemplate the future of Convict Criminology.

Table of Contents for Volume 21, Number 1 & 2

In 2013, the JPP will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of its inaugural issue published in 1988. Volume 22 will feature two general issues. The table of contents for these collections will be available this fall.