Prison News
Incarceration and justice reform’s ripple effects continue to be felt heavily in our society. Our prison news coverage delves into the complex issues surrounding the penal system, shedding light on the ongoing challenges and reforms that impact the lives of those behind bars and the communities they return to.
California Local News Fellowship
Prison journalist Steve Brooks was selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the California Local News Fellowship. A state-funded initiative based at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism to strengthen local public affairs reporting, Brooks will be a part-time contributing writer for Bay City News Foundation. He covers issues of incarceration, criminal justice and human rights.
Steve Brooks was selected as a California Local News Fellow, a competitive program designed to strengthen local news reporting in California, headed by UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is an award-winning journalist who has been recognized by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalism and the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has been a journalist since the COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin State Prison (since renamed San Quentin Rehabilitation Center) in the summer of 2020. He served as the editor-in-chief of San Quentin News in 2023. He won two honors at the 2025 Stillwater Awards, including third place as Prison Journalist of the Year and second place for a news story about the threat of a tsunami when trapped inside a prison perched at the edge of the Bay. Presented by the Society of Professional Journalists and Prison Journalism Project, the Stillwater Awards spotlight the powerful work of incarcerated writers bringing critical issues to light.
Brooks is also an inside producer for Ear Hustle and Uncuffed, podcasts that tell stories about incarceration, and he is a member of the People In Blue, a group of incarcerated people helping to facilitate the creation of the California Model, a new vision for prison rehabilitation, education, restorative justice and reentry implemented by the California Department of Corrections. He has helped produce video news broadcasts for “Criminal Justice News” and “The Pulse,” which can be seen on the Friends of San Quentin News YouTube channel. Brooks, who has been incarcerated for 29 years, joins 39 other fellows, selected through a competitive process to work in local newsrooms throughout the state. He has been admitted to UC Berkeley as an undergraduate to study sociology. A place awaits him when he is granted parole.
Brooks offered this personal statement about what journalism has meant to his journey:
I am honored to be selected as the first incarcerated person to participate in the California Local News Fellowship. Through this fellowship, I plan to continue to develop my reporting skills and fine tune my voice.
I hope to rebuild my image, continue to make amends to those I have harmed and contribute to society. My goal is to tell stories about a subset of human beings that rarely get told, those of the incarcerated.
When I first came to prison 30 years ago, I crawled into a corner, balled myself up in a knot and prepared to die. As a young person alone on the streets, I made some horrible choices. I moved through the world aimlessly. I foolishly sought power by using a gun, seeking out a fast buck and preying on vulnerable people. I had given up hope of a future, believing I would die young.
But something came alive inside of me in prison when I started reading and learning how to write. Reading the stories of others was transformative and as I began revisiting my own story as a source of healing, I found that I have a knack for using pencil and paper to capture powerful narratives.
Recent Stories from Steve Brooks
As a California Local News Fellow with Bay City News Foundation, Steve is writing stories from inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center every week. His perspective gives readers insight into issues and news from inside the prison.
More Work From Steve Brooks
UC Berkeley Journalism Professor Bill Drummond
Berkeley Journalism has a long history of supporting journalism at San Quentin. Professor Bill Drummond, who covered prison issues for the Los Angeles Times in the 1970s, has taught college courses for dozens of prisoners at San Quentin since 2012. He has also taught a UC Berkeley Journalism class, which received the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Award for Service to the Community in 2015, that brings Berkeley students into the prison on a weekly basis to help with research for the prison writers, editors and producers.
“Michelle Alexander wrote in The New Jim Crow: ‘The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.’ Nobody knows this better than Steve Brooks, who has the right judgment, experience and temperament for the job of illuminating issues of prison from the standpoint of the end user,” Drummond said.
Drummond has been recognized on over 20 occasions for his contributions to journalism and his commitment to the San Quentin News. His dedication to incarcerated journalists served as the inspiration for his book, Prison Truth: The Story of the San Quentin News.
The Media Center at San Quentin
Inside the confines of the country’s first prison newsroom, incarcerated journalists find voice in stories that break barriers and challenge perceptions from the inside out. Founded in 1940, San Quentin News’ storied history marks decades of dedication to uncovering truth behind bars.
San Quentin News staff members receive the prison’s monthly shipment of newspapers in the Media Center.
Every edition contains the fruits of staff writers’ labors: dozens of articles covering prisons and social justice nationwide, as well as original reporting on events and programs at San Quentin State Prison. (Vincent E. O’Bannon/San Quentin News via Bay City News)
A History of the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center
By The Numbers
In recent years, California has been working to reduce the number of inmates in its prisons. The prison population has been cut by about 50% in the last 2 decades. Despite these changes, the population of prisons across California, and San Quentin in particular, remain close to the designed capacity- sometimes surpassing it. Furthermore, the costs associated with incarceration have continued to increase. We use the data from San Quentin and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to analyze trends and key statistics related to incarceration.
Ear Hustle
Ear Hustle brings you the daily realities of life inside prison shared by those living it, and stories from the outside, post-incarceration. The podcast is a partnership between Nigel Poor, a Bay Area visual artist, and Earlonne Woods, formerly incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and was co-founded with former San Quentin resident Antwan Williams.
Ear Hustle Presents: Blood Will Tell – Ear Hustle
- Ear Hustle Presents: Blood Will Tell
- Songs of San Quentin
- Revisiting “Gold Coats and OGs”
- Revisiting “Saber-Toothed Cat”
- The Loop Ep. 6: Make Your Partner Look Good
- The Loop Ep. 5: Yes, And …
- The Loop Ep. 4: Where’s the Conflict?
- The Loop Ep. 3: No Violence
- The Loop Ep. 2: Who What Where
- The Loop Ep. 1: The Five Rules of Drama Club
Behind the scenes of Ted Koppel interviewing Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor for CBS in 2021. (San Quentin News via Bay City News) 
Antwan Williams, Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor on the 3 tier in SQ’s North Block. (San Quentin News via Bay City News) 
Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor interviewing Perry Simpson for an episode of Ear Hustle. (San Quentin News via Bay City News) 
Earlonne Woods, Nigel Poor and Antwan Williams on the Lower Yard. (San Quentin News via Bay City News)
Trans Life in Prison
The Prison Journalism Project shares perspectives from incarcerated writers on love, art and the politics of trans identity in prison. We are featuring select articles from the PJP to shed light on the often-overlooked stories and experiences within the prison system. Join us in our mission to bring these powerful stories to the forefront of public discourse and foster a more inclusive and informed society.
Misunderstood
by Shariff Taylor
How I Celebrate Pride in Prison
by Lexie Handling
Finding Love in Prison Is Possible, if Not Easy
by Chastyn “Nova” Hicks
Forward This Productions
Forward This uses the power of film to improve public safety and end mass incarceration. By providing a platform for incarcerated people to tell their own stories, as well as learn marketable film industry skills, the storytelling power of impacted communities transform negative social narratives about incarcerated people, and build new economic mobility to interrupt cycles of poverty and violence.
