It doesn’t feel like it’s already been eight years since I was in prison myself, wishing there was any way that people in custody could express themselves and feel heard. I asked around if there was any kind of prison newsletter or magazine, but nobody had even heard of one. So I resolved to create one myself after my release in late 2016, but thankfully there were two newsletters that started around that time. The first was Inside Out, a quarterly newsletter aimed at LGBTQ prisoners, though open to everyone, which still runs today.
The other magazine was Paper Chained — a quarterly journal for art and writing. I became peripherally involved in the magazine before the first issue was released in early 2017, and was offered the opportunity to take over as editor in 2021.
Not long after taking over as editor, however, I drifted back to thinking how there’d been no newsletter, or even the memory of one, when I’d been inside. It occurred to me that myself, the previous editor of Paper Chained, and the amazing women who put together Inside Out, couldn’t be the only people in Australia who thought a publication might be helpful for those in custody. And as it turns out, we weren’t. Researching the history of prison literature in this country has turned into somewhat of an obsession, and I’m now using what I’ve discovered to write a PhD and also a book about the subject. So far, I’ve located more than 900 unique issues of over 80 prison newsletters and magazines, the first of which was The Compendium, created in 1912.
Tracking all these issues has been no easy task.
It's difficult to find information about prison magazines. Many did not last long. The Graduate, a publication released at Pentridge prison in Victoria in 1973, lasted only one issue before it was banned.
All but one of the original copies were confiscated and destroyed. Rogues, a newsletter created at Long Bay, NSW, in 1989, managed three editions before being shut down. A fourth was put together in secret, though the magazine’s run ended soon afterwards when its editor, Phillip Player, was released. Such is the fate of many prison newsletters. Often, nobody is willing to keep a publication running once an editor is moved or released. And eventually the editions that were published fade into obscurity. Many never make it outside the prison walls, and are lost forever.
There have been some long-running prison publications. Framed, a quarterly magazine created outside prison for people inside, managed an impressive run from 1989 until 2004. The magazine’s fate was sealed when it was banned in NSW prisons in 2002, and its eventual closure saw Australia without a regular nationwide prison publication until the launch of Inside Out and Paper Chained.
There’s been some interesting titles over the years, and also some repetition in publication names. The founders of About Time approached me for advice before starting up this newspaper, saying at the time they were thinking of calling it The Insider. They changed their minds after I informed them that The Insider is the name of the longest still-running prison newsletter in the country. The Insider is the newsletter of Risdon Prison Complex in Tasmania. It has been running since at least 1990, and over 600 issues have been produced. The Insider also happens to be the name of a newsletter produced in the mid 2000s at Bunbury Regional Prison in Western Australia. As most prison publications don’t travel far outside the walls of their respective institutions, it’s highly likely the two publications were unaware of each other. Indeed, alongside the current Inside Out publication, there are at least six other historical magazines which were given the name Inside Out, which simply seems to be a title many people thought was witty and original. To the best of my knowledge, no two of these seven publications, which spanned over seven decades and across four states, were even active at the same time.
Australia’s history of prison publications is not well known. My research intends to change that. There’s currently an online resource in the US titled American Prison Newspapers, which hosts over 15,000 issues of prison newspapers and publications, free of charge, for researchers, historians and the general public. Once I’ve finished my research, assuming I can get the funding and ethics approval, I intend to build an Australian equivalent of this, making everything I’ve found freely available.
While I’ve found many publications in libraries and archives, many have also been discovered through word of mouth and personal connections. So if you have access to any prison magazines or newsletters, historical or current, or know someone who might, please reach out and let me know so that I can help grow this collection. And if your prison has a current publication, please post a copy of it to the Paper Chained address:
Paper Chained
PO Box 2073
Dangar, NSW 2309
It doesn’t feel like it’s already been eight years since I was in prison myself, wishing there was any way that people in custody could express themselves and feel heard. I asked around if there was any kind of prison newsletter or magazine, but nobody had even heard of one. So I resolved to create one myself after my release in late 2016, but thankfully there were two newsletters that started around that time. The first was Inside Out, a quarterly newsletter aimed at LGBTQ prisoners, though open to everyone, which still runs today.
The other magazine was Paper Chained — a quarterly journal for art and writing. I became peripherally involved in the magazine before the first issue was released in early 2017, and was offered the opportunity to take over as editor in 2021.
Not long after taking over as editor, however, I drifted back to thinking how there’d been no newsletter, or even the memory of one, when I’d been inside. It occurred to me that myself, the previous editor of Paper Chained, and the amazing women who put together Inside Out, couldn’t be the only people in Australia who thought a publication might be helpful for those in custody. And as it turns out, we weren’t. Researching the history of prison literature in this country has turned into somewhat of an obsession, and I’m now using what I’ve discovered to write a PhD and also a book about the subject. So far, I’ve located more than 900 unique issues of over 80 prison newsletters and magazines, the first of which was The Compendium, created in 1912.
Tracking all these issues has been no easy task.
It's difficult to find information about prison magazines. Many did not last long. The Graduate, a publication released at Pentridge prison in Victoria in 1973, lasted only one issue before it was banned.
All but one of the original copies were confiscated and destroyed. Rogues, a newsletter created at Long Bay, NSW, in 1989, managed three editions before being shut down. A fourth was put together in secret, though the magazine’s run ended soon afterwards when its editor, Phillip Player, was released. Such is the fate of many prison newsletters. Often, nobody is willing to keep a publication running once an editor is moved or released. And eventually the editions that were published fade into obscurity. Many never make it outside the prison walls, and are lost forever.
There have been some long-running prison publications. Framed, a quarterly magazine created outside prison for people inside, managed an impressive run from 1989 until 2004. The magazine’s fate was sealed when it was banned in NSW prisons in 2002, and its eventual closure saw Australia without a regular nationwide prison publication until the launch of Inside Out and Paper Chained.
There’s been some interesting titles over the years, and also some repetition in publication names. The founders of About Time approached me for advice before starting up this newspaper, saying at the time they were thinking of calling it The Insider. They changed their minds after I informed them that The Insider is the name of the longest still-running prison newsletter in the country. The Insider is the newsletter of Risdon Prison Complex in Tasmania. It has been running since at least 1990, and over 600 issues have been produced. The Insider also happens to be the name of a newsletter produced in the mid 2000s at Bunbury Regional Prison in Western Australia. As most prison publications don’t travel far outside the walls of their respective institutions, it’s highly likely the two publications were unaware of each other. Indeed, alongside the current Inside Out publication, there are at least six other historical magazines which were given the name Inside Out, which simply seems to be a title many people thought was witty and original. To the best of my knowledge, no two of these seven publications, which spanned over seven decades and across four states, were even active at the same time.
Australia’s history of prison publications is not well known. My research intends to change that. There’s currently an online resource in the US titled American Prison Newspapers, which hosts over 15,000 issues of prison newspapers and publications, free of charge, for researchers, historians and the general public. Once I’ve finished my research, assuming I can get the funding and ethics approval, I intend to build an Australian equivalent of this, making everything I’ve found freely available.
While I’ve found many publications in libraries and archives, many have also been discovered through word of mouth and personal connections. So if you have access to any prison magazines or newsletters, historical or current, or know someone who might, please reach out and let me know so that I can help grow this collection. And if your prison has a current publication, please post a copy of it to the Paper Chained address:
Paper Chained
PO Box 2073
Dangar, NSW 2309
