The History of the Nash News

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North Carolina has a rich history of prison publications. The first one started in the early 1900s and it was called the prison news. Charlotte Walco started working on the Nash news in 2015. She acts as the go between the newspaper staff and the prison administration. "Our message is not combative to the institution," she says.

A little over sixty years ago, there were 250 prison newspapers being published on a regular basis. Today, there are 26. We visit Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina to meet Phillip Vance Smith, II, the editor of The Nash News.

Learn more about the American Prison Newspapers digitization project here. Listen to more of Fresh Air’s interview with Angolite editor Wilbert Rideau here. Special thanks to Terry Gross and Fresh Air, which is produced at NPR member station WHYY and distributed by NPR.

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