Our Mission
The mission of Stateville Speaks newsletter is to provide a creative outlet — a voice for the voiceless — for those incarcerated in Illinois prisons. It also serves to disseminate policies, legislative and legal information that might be useful or enlightening to prisoners, families, friends, activists and advocates affected by prison conditions.
Our goal is to continue to produce and disseminate the newsletter quarterly in order to give a platform to those incarcerated, oftentimes marginalized, oftentimes living on the periphery and all too often ending up and remaining within the prison system.
Read an oral history of Stateville Speaks collected by Brian Dolinar.
Who We Are
Stateville Speaks was founded in Stateville prison in 2004 by Renaldo Hudson and Bill Ryan. The newsletter is now a collaboration between people inside and outside prison, and NEIU Justice Studies has been our administrative home since 2009.
Many community members have contributed to the newsletter over the years. Our current editorial team includes:
Renaldo Hudson, Editor
Brian Dolinar, Orion Meadows, Erica Meiners, Editorial Committee
Maya Schenwar (Truthout), Editorial Advisor
Arkee Chaney, Cartoonist
River Ian Kerstetter, Designer
Nancy Matthews, Maria De La Torre, Stefan Yamamoto, NEIU Administrative Team