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The supposedly modern reformers who conceived New York state's Auburn Penitentiary forbade writing by inmates. But as the formerly incarcerated writer John Maroney made clear in his autobiography, there are other ways literacy could inform life in prison -- and there was a lot the literacy of the imprisoned could do.
Download entire essay as PDFJodi Schorb discusses the literacies of the imprisoned in this episode of our podcast series, Listening to Hidden Literacies.