At the end of the nineteenth century, inmates at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater began publishing a newsletter written and edited by fellow prisoners. For the first time in US history, inmates at a state institution created a regular periodical that was fully their own at every level of production. They used it to discuss news, share their literary and artistic works, and organize for institutional change. Called the Prison Mirror, the newsletter served as a model for similar publications produced by inmates at nearly all of Minnesota’s state hospitals, correctional facilities, and state schools.
In 1876, three members of the infamous James–Younger Gang pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a failed bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota. They each received life sentences of hard labor at Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater. A former newspaper editor named Lew P. Shoonmaker, who was also incarcerated at Stillwater, later approached one of the gang members (Cole Younger) who was working as a librarian and convinced him to help start a publication for prisoners.
Thanks to donations from the rest of the gang, and months of pleading with the warden, the first issue of the Prison Mirror was published in August 1887. In their opening remarks, members of the editorial team declared that the newsletter would serve as an outlet for prisoner writing and journalism. It featured poetry, advice, and news columns. They also promised that all profits from subscription fees would go towards either keeping the paper running or funding the prison library.
This publication became the model for dozens of newsletters and journals produced by inmates (all inhabitants of state institutions were called “inmates” until the 1970s) of nearly every state prison, hospital, and school. Like the Prison Mirror, these publications set out to create a vehicle for inmates to communicate with one another; to build up writing, editorial, design, and printing skills; or simply to express themselves. Almost all included some mixture of the elements included in the Prison Mirror: news, art, poetry, stories, jokes, puzzles, and advice.
As time progressed, the various publications diverged from the model set by the Prison Mirror and forged their own path. The Reformatory Pillar, of St. Cloud’s Minnesota State Reformatory, was generally more literary and religious, with the longest sections reserved for short stories, poetry, and Christian moral tales. Some institutions had two or more publications, each with their own style and character. At Rochester State Hospital, the newsletter R.U.S.H. was the outlet for journalistic writing, while the Elm Leaf published more creative works, such as poetry and stories.
These newsletters are a window into the routines and intimate lives of people living in Minnesota’s state institutions. Faribault State Hospital’s Voice of the Women and Men, for instance, published personal recollections of interesting events, like a circus that performed for residents. The poems and stories provide insight into the experience of being institutionalized, while the journalism helps to articulate the main concerns of inmates at the time.
The newsletters also served as a platform for inmates to share their artistic work. Usually, the cover art was designed by inmates. In some publications, a section was reserved for drawings. More often, drawings were incorporated into the margins of the texts, used as a frame, or even printed lightly as the background.
Censorship has always been present. Every publication required approval from the warden or the superintendent. In some cases, the content or style of a newsletter suddenly changed after a head editor or a superintendent stepped down. At first, the Elm Leaf published many articles on Christianity. After its first editor stepped down in 1958, it featured more journalistic columns. Some inmates expressed hope that their writing would help to move them closer to their release, which could have also resulted in self-censorship.
Some editorial groups were more exclusive and required writers to attend meetings before being allowed to publish. Hastings State Hospital’s Hospitality required writers to join the Hospitality Club in order to participate. Faribault State Hospital’s publications were produced by specific writing and recreation classes. Others accepted submissions from anyone interested. It is impossible to know in each case what role censorship or favoritism played.
The newsletters reflect the racial and gendered attitudes or prejudices of their editors and writers. Hospitality published cover art and featured stories with stereotyped images of Native American, Asian, and Black people on multiple occasions. The Reformatory Pillar published an article in 1905 arguing for the benefits of slavery. In contrast, newsletters that more often had Black and Native American authors and editors, like Shakopee’s Reflector, Red Wing’s Winged’ition, and Stillwater’s Prison Mirror regularly featured author submissions discussing experiences of racism in confinement.
Many publications helped facilitate political or legal organizing campaigns, however small they may have been. Flight Deck, a patient newsletter produced at Hastings State Hospital, successfully advocated for creating new patient organizing groups to stake more of a claim in their treatment and conditions. Sometimes, demands for more space or new types of entertainment were printed. The Prison Mirror and the Reflector, the newsletter produced by inmates of the Women’s State Reformatory in Shakopee, informed (and continues to inform) prisoners about their rights while incarcerated. The publications also help keep them and their struggles visible to both other prisoners and the outside world.
In addition to providing entertainment and informative content, the publications also allowed inmates to communicate with one another. These exchanges were so widespread by the 1930s that letters came into the bigger Minnesotan inmate publications from as far away as Australia and China. The most common forms of communication were reviews of other institutional publications, which often involved comparing works about daily life to those at their own facilities. Sometimes, an article from another institution would be republished.
The first issue of the inmate publication from Fergus Falls State Hospital, published in 1933, was without a title. Within a month, readers from the Prison Mirror suggested the title the Weekly Pulse, which was adopted for the second issue. The speed of the acceptance demonstrates the network’s wide reach. These communications sometimes resulted in the spread of shared concepts. “Joy-flinging” (a term meaning “to spread positivity even in difficult circumstances”) originated in East Coast sanitariums and, by the 1920s, was used regularly in the Pine Knot, the newsletter for residents of the Minnesota State Sanatorium in Cass County.
The publications exchange had another effect: showing people living in different state institutions that they shared common experiences. Numerous writers in prisons attest to the feeling that they are perceived as “insane,” while others in psychiatric facilities refer to their confinement as “prison.”