Writing

John J. Lennon reviews Ben Austin's "Correction," a study of a system meant to promote rehabilitation — and reward prisoners who change — but that no longer seems to work the way it was intended.

If prison authorities had their way, John J. Lennon writes for Esquire, no one would be writing from the inside at all.

John J. Lennon replies to letters to the editor in response to “Peddling Darkness,” his review of Sarah Weinman’s book Scoundrel.

Thousands of people released from prison in New York go directly to homeless shelters.

True crime stories, like Sarah Weinman’s Scoundrel, make for suspenseful reading. But do they exploit the criminal, and deepen a thirst for punishment?

Working with Emily Bazelon on The New York Times Magazine's Prison Letters Project, John J. Lennon dives into letters from Ivié DeMolina, who was convicted for her part in the 1994 murders of one man…

I’ve been locked up in maximum-security prisons for two decades. My time on Rikers Island was worse.

In this feature for the Winter 2023 issue of Esquire, John J. Lennon writes about one of the last bastions of prisoner intimacy in America: the conjugal trailers of New York.

This book review by John J. Lennon of Keri Blakinger’s “Corrections in Ink” appears in New York Magazine/Vulture.

In 2017, I was sitting in on a Columbia University course at Sing Sing. I heard that Elias Alcantara, a former White House aide in the Obama administration, was supposed to talk to the class.

I’ve been incarcerated in New York State for 20 years straight, serving a 28-years-to-life sentence for murder and selling drugs. I’ve also been married twice, meeting both wives from ads I placed on prison pen-pal…

When I was on trial for murder almost twenty years ago, I remember moments of civility between my lawyer, the prosecutor, and the judge. I could tell that the prosecutor and the judge resented me…

In 2001, Reginald Dwayne Betts was about five years into a nine-year sentence in a Virginia prison for a carjacking he’d committed at age sixteen. That was the year that I shot and killed a…

In this essay for The New York Times, John J. Lennon writes to Gov. Hochul about how she can transform New York's clemency process.

In this essay for Esquire, John J. Lennon writes about an ultimatum he was handed at Sing Sing: pay up or get shivved (again). But John chose a third option.

In this essay for Quinnipiac Magazine, John J. Lennon writes about the need for an increase in educational offerings in our corrections system.

In this essay for The New York Times, John J. Lennon writes about how distrust for the American government may effect the vaccine rollout throughout our corrections system.

As one blockmate after another fell ill, John J. Lennon and his fellow prisoners tried to stay safe and care for one another. In this essay for the The New York Times Sunday Magazine, John…

For incarcerated people like John J. Lennon, access to communications comes at a steep price. In an op-ed for the New York Times, John discusses the impact JPay — a prison communications platform — has…

In this article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, John J. Lennon writes about the endless opportunities for people like himself, now that the ban on Pell Grants for prisoners has been lifted.

In a round-up article for The Morning News, John J. Lennon joins fellow journalists, writers and thinkers as they answer the question: What were the most important events of 2020, and what were the least?

In an article for Politico, John J. Lennon engages in a revealing Q&A conversation with former fellow inmate Lawrence Bartley about life after prison and his current work as the director of News Inside, a…

In this first-person account for New York Magazine, John J. Lennon recounts how an increasing number of his fellow prisoners tested positive for Covid. And then John himself was hit with a fever.

An advisor for the Prison Journalism Project, John J. Lennon shares his views on how to write well from behind bars with some key quotes from amazing people who have influenced his own work.

In an essay for Plough, John J. Lennon writes about a personal impasse: He's built a career as a journalist and writer, and it may look like redemption on the outside, but it doesn’t feel…

In collaboration with The Marshall Project and The Atlantic, John J. Lennon writes from the point of view of Dino Caroselli, an elderly prisoner at Sing Sing.

In an article for Esquire, John describes how Sing Sing prepared — and how it didn't — and the impact the novel coronavirus is having on the day-to-day life of the prisoners.

In his latest piece for Esquire, John J. Lennon explores the way inmates define their own personal style — wearing brands like Polo Ralph Lauren, Cartier, and Lacoste — in the joint. It's a look…

In an article for Sports Illustrated John J. Lennon explores our shared humanity — our drive to escape, to get knocked down, stand back up, and win – through an exploration of sports betting behind…

In his essay published by The Poetry Foundation, John J. Lennon offers his thoughts on Reginald Dwayne Betts's collection of poems, Felon. After reading John's piece Betts tweeted, "I’m certain no one has written anything…

As John J. Lennon begins the 215th month of his prison sentence, he ponders where he might be in 2029 in an essay for New York Magazine's "The Future Issue."

In an article for The Atlantic, John J. Lennon explores how Joe Biden's 1994 crime bill affected prison education through the tale of Twist, a fellow inmate at Sing Sing.

In an essay for the Washington Post Magazine, John reflects on difficult it is to say sorry to victims and their families, and how those words may mean everything and still not be enough.

In an essay for Esquire, John J. Lennon writes of the suicides behind bars that we never hear about, and why they're much more common than we think.

In an essay for New York Review, John J. Lennon considers the legacy of the bestselling author and twice-convicted killer Jack Abbott and its relevance to his own career as an incarcerated writer.

As John J. Lennon writes in an article for Men's Health, he is one of roughly two million men doing hard time around the country for whom strength is both physical and mental, survival and…

In a piece for Pacific Standard, John J. Lennon writes how he has seen firsthand how music can restore what's missing in prison: a respect for humanity.

In a piece written with The Marshall Project co-founder Bill Keller for New York Magazine, John describes how Andrew Goldstein's crime set in motion a dramatic shift in how we care for the violent mentally…

In an essay for NiemanStoryboard, John J. Lennon — a convicted murderer — shares what he learned about writing, and what writing taught him about himself and about the power of true stories.

In an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, John profiles three fellow prisoners at Sing Sing who chose to educate themselves — and pay it forward as a sort of healing.

Our mental-health-care system is broken. Ten of every eleven psychiatric patients housed by the government are incarcerated. Here’s what this crisis looks like from the inside — a series of lost lives and a few…

In a story produced in partnership with The Marshall Project and Vice, John J. Lennon explains how surveillance cameras drastically reduced assault by correctional officers in Attica, one of America's most notorious prisons.

Prisoners' families should be allowed to order them books, John J. Lennon writes in his piece for The Guardian, as long as they don’t promote violence or radical ideologies. Current restrictions are self-defeating.

In an article for OPERA America, John J. Lennon covers American opera singer Joyce DiDonato's visit to Sing Sing Correctional Facility and her collaboration with fellow prisoner — and composer — Joseph Wilson.

John J. Lennon conducts a Q&A with Bianca Tylek, director of a new initiative at the Urban Justice Center called the Corrections Accountability Project for The Harvard Law Record.

John J. Lennon reviews Blood in the Water: The Attica Uprising of 1971 by Heather Ann Thompson for the Fall 2017 issue of The Hedgehog Review.

In too many American prisons, John J. Lennon writes in an essay for Pacific Standard, fathers and sons live just a cell block apart. Here’s one way lifers are joining correctional workers to break the…

In a commentary originally published in the Albany Times Union, John J. Lennon argues that the resources that prisoners receive while incarcerated — or don't — will have a huge effect on society, especially once…

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, John argues that college programs help American prisoners become more educated and connected, and that alumni of these programs rarely return to prison.

In an article for The Atlantic, John J. Lennon — a man serving 28 years to life at the Attica Correctional Facility — explains why believes a few simple laws could significantly affect criminal behavior.…