American Prison Newspapers, 1800s-present: Voices from the Inside
On March 24, 1800, Forlorn Hope was published within a prison in New York state, edited by an incarcerated person. In the intervening 200+ years, over 700 prison newspapers have been published from U.S. prisons in all fifty states. American Prison Newspapers will bring together hundreds of these periodicals from across the country into one collection that will represent penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women-only institutions.
In 2003 a dispute became public between the founders, Muller and Sirmakes. A prolonged quarrel, during which Muller was barred from entering Watchland, became increasingly embarrassing. Sirmakes accused Muller of confrontation, “perhaps under the proven effects of drugs and alcohol,” and being influenced by “lawyers seeking publicity, criminal records, drug traffickers, and pimps.” Muller alleged that Sirmakes was employing “black” (undocumented) Armenian workers and that he had purchased cheap Russian-made movements from Poljot or Japanese movements from Citizen to be used in expensive Muller-branded chronographs. Both parties denied the allegations.
