Today we issued the following press release. We are grateful for the generosity of the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, the Vital Projects Fund and readers like you, who make it possible for us to support the work of incarcerated journalists. We also are grateful for the courage and tenacity of these eight individuals, who must overcome myriad obstacles and risks to carry out investigative reporting behind bars. Finally, we are grateful to be able to contribute to the legacy of our late founder, James Ridgeway, for whom the Ridgeway Reporting Project is named.

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WASHINGTON, DC—Solitary Watch today announced the recipients of grants awarded by the Ridgeway Reporting Project for Incarcerated Journalists. 

The grants program, which is funded by the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation and the Vital Projects Fund, will support eight projects that expose prison policies and practices from the inside out, exploring their impact on incarcerated people, the criminal legal system, and the larger society that permits and pays for them.

The journalists, who have experienced firsthand the realities of solitary confinement, will report on various untold aspects of solitary, including its toll on families and children, the physical torture that takes place in solitary, the isolation of domestic violence survivors, the impact of Trump on people incarcerated in the federal system, and more.

The eight projects were chosen from more than 30 submissions by incarcerated journalist Juan Moreno Haines, editor-in-chief of Solitary Watch, in collaboration with Solitary Watch’s Jean Casella, Katie Rose Quandt, and Valerie Kiebala.

Haines, whose work has been published by the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and the UCLA Law Review, among others, received a Writing for Justice fellowship from PEN American Center and a Silver Heart Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his “fearless” reporting.

​​”The Ridgeway Reporting Project is coming at a critical time in journalism as people are currently getting more of their news from directly impacted reporters than ever before,” said Haines. “If we want to move toward a more just society, paying attention to people suffering from failed prison policies is vital. The RRP gives voice to incarcerated people, who are uniquely positioned to show where solitary confinement policies are failing us all. Listening to them will help us take the next steps toward betterment.” 

In addition to funding, the Ridgeway Reporting Project will provide assistance to incarcerated journalists in shaping their stories, conducting research, and placing their work with publications. 

Solitary Watch, which administers the grant program, is a nonprofit watchdog organization that works to uncover the truth about solitary confinement in the United States by producing high-quality investigative journalism, accurate information, and authentic storytelling from both sides of prison walls. Over the past 15 years, Solitary Watch has generated public debate and informed policy change on an underreported humanitarian crisis by promoting awareness, creating accountability, and shifting narratives.”

“While it contains nearly two million people—a population larger than all but four U.S. cities—the American carceral system has been kept largely off-limits to the public and the press,” said Solitary Watch Director Jean Casella.” Solitary confinement, which functions as a prison within a prison, has been particularly difficult to access. That’s why Solitary Watch has increased its commitment to publishing the work of incarcerated journalists like those supported by the Ridgeway Reporting Project, who are uniquely positioned to expose this world from the inside out.”

The Ridgeway Reporting Project honors the late James Ridgeway (1936-2021). After a 50-year career as an investigative journalist, Ridgeway founded Solitary Watch, and devoted the final decade of his life to exposing inhumane prison conditions. He was a pioneer in his commitment to incarcerated journalists. 

This is the third round of the project. A previous project judge, renowned prison journalist Wilbert Rideau, explained the fundamental need to support reporting that originates behind bars: “No matter how knowledgeable one is about the institution of prison, it is only the incarcerated or formerly imprisoned journalist who can take the public into the very heart of the prison experience,” he said. “No one else can provide this vital perspective—not scholars, not outside reporters, and not prison authorities. The voice of the experienced is absolutely necessary.”

2025 Ridgeway Reporting Project Grant Recipients

• Christopher Blackwell, in collaboration with Professor Deborah Zalesne and Dr. Terry Kupers, will investigate the brutal physical torture that people experience in solitary across the country, including the use of pepper spray, violent cell extractions, tasing, five-point restraint chairs, and sexual assault.
• Antoine Davis will explore the excruciating job of incarcerated hazmat workers in Washington Corrections Center, who clean blood, bodily fluids, and contaminated waste out of the cells on the solitary confinement block for little to no pay.
• Sara Kielly will write about the isolation of domestic violence survivors transferred to the Special Housing Unit (SHU) in Albion Correctional Facility in New York, while awaiting their resentencing hearing under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA).
• Lyle C. May, writing from death row in North Carolina, will report on the conditions and experiences of the 37 incarcerated men facing imminent transfer to the notorious federal supermax ADX, under the decree of President Donald Trump, after receiving clemency from former President Joe Biden.
• Kevin Light Roth will cover the impact of solitary confinement on family members, children, and loved ones, highlighting the emotional toll, the financial burden, and the personal trauma they endure.
• Dwayne Staats, writing from solitary confinement in Delaware, will investigate the devastating impacts of excessive body cavity and strip searches in solitary as an abuse of power and a violation of bodily integrity. 
• Joshua Strange will assess Governor Gavin Newsom’s “California Model” in comparison to its inspiration, the Scandinavian penal system, especially in regards to solitary confinement.
• Lanae Tipton will examine the denial of education and programming for people in solitary confinement and the detrimental impact this has on recidivism, healing, growth, and liberation.

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