A number of obstacles needed to be cleared.
Ellen Stackable recalled the moment in April 2024 when she was introduced to the CEO of Prison Journalism Project so she could discuss an ambitious plan to launch inmate-run newspapers at Oklahoma’s two women’s prisons, Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud and Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft.
Stackable was the founder of Tulsa’s Poetic Justice, which for more than a decade has been offering writing classes in women’s prisons in Oklahoma and beyond. Until last year, the courses focused on creative forms of writing. The first hurdle to clear was that some of Stackable’s own board members worried that a shift into journalism might represent mission creep…