LETTERS FROM PRISON
Note: Population statistics were drawn from the UN World Population Dashboard at
All statistics related to incarceration were drawn from the World Prison Brief’s data at
With a population of approximately 341,000,000 and an incarcerated population of approximately 1,808,100, roughly 0.53% of the people in the United States currently reside in federal prison, state prison, or county jail. This gives the United States the fifth-highest incarceration rate in the world, behind only El Salvador (1.66%), Cuba (0.79%), Rwanda (0.62%), and Turkmenistan (0.58%), and well ahead of countries to which the United States is otherwise generally comparable such as England and Wales (#116 globally at 0.14%), France (#135 at 0.12%), Italy (#144 at 0.11%), Canada (tied with Nepal for #163 at 0.09%), and Japan (#216 at 0.03%). The United States’ incarcerated population is also the highest in the world. Despite having less than a quarter the population of either India or China (the first and second most populous countries, respectively), the United States incarcerates approximately 180,000 more people than China (#132 globally at 0.12% of its population), and approximately 1.2 million more people than India (#209 at 0.04%). While reasonable people will disagree as to the necessity, effectiveness, and morality of such a high level of incarceration, the fact remains that the United States, by virtue of its size and position in global politics, employs incarceration to an extent that is globally unmatched. When it comes to incarceration, the United States stands alone.
Despite this fact, incarceration remains a taboo topic in American society. There is a deep sense of shame tied to having been incarcerated personally, and being associated with a currently or formerly incarcerated individual can expose a person to the risk of distrust, judgment, and even social ostracization. The only people in our society who know much (if anything) about incarcerated life are people whom incarceration has touched personally, and these people form a very small portion of our total population. The end result is a society that incarcerates more people than any other society in the world at a rate that is almost unmatched, but that knows little to nothing about what incarceration entails or how incarcerated people actually live their lives.
The Letters From Prison Project believes that, given the extent to which the United States incarcerates its population, such ignorance as to the nature of incarcerated life is detrimental to the ongoing health of American democracy, which requires a well-informed public in order to function as designed. As such, the Letters From Prison Project aims to push back against public ignorance of incarcerated life by providing a space in which currently and formerly incarcerated individuals can share accounts of their experiences within America’s carceral system, and by making those accounts available to the public.
The accounts published by the Letters From Prison Project will take several forms, including descriptions of daily life, accounts of specific experiences, essays on various aspects of incarcerated life, transcripts of interviews on a variety of topics, and records of conversations between two or more currently or formerly incarcerated individuals. At this early stage in the Project’s history we will primarily publish essays by Bradley Mea, the Project Lead, as well as accounts provided by formerly incarcerated individuals, as it will take time to correspond with and gather accounts from currently incarcerated individuals. We currently publish one new entry per week, but hope to be able to publish more frequently in the future.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The Letters From Prison Project shall provide a space in which currently and formerly incarcerated individuals can share accounts of their experiences within America’s carceral system, and will raise public awareness of what life in America’s prisons and jails is like by making these accounts available to the public.
ABOUT THE PROJECT LEAD
Bradley Mea is the Project Lead and primary contributor to the Letters From Prison Project. He is himself a formerly incarcerated individual, having served one year in the South Carolina Department of Corrections in 2018 and 2019, followed by four years on probation. His passion for sharing the stories of currently and formerly incarcerated individuals and strong belief that these stories deserve to be heard led him to found the Letters From Prison Project in 2025.”