[2]: 36–38 It was "carefully assembled not to include items that officials deemed to have a bad influence on the inmates" and was instead intended for rehabilitative purposes.
[3] The genre reached its height in the 1960s in the United States, at which point circulation was approximately 2 million readers across 250 publications.
[5] However, they faced issues around freedom of the press, as critiques of prison practices were met with institutional censorship.
[7]: 98 These pressures resulted in a quick and significant decline in the number of prison newspapers in publication between the 1970s and 1990s, with just six operating in 1998.
[3][1]: 87 However, more recently, "alongside a surge in bipartisan interest in criminal justice reform, prison journalism has reemerged and garnered the attention and support of funders, politicians, and the public".