Chaffey College student journalists Miranda Morgan (left) and Andre Manzo at the 2026 Associated Collegiate Press annual conference in San Francisco. (Courtesy)
Thanks to a grant from the Scripps Howard Fund, students at a community college in California are creating a prison-to-newsroom pipeline where incarcerated people get bylines in the student newspaper.
You can read more about it in this week's Student Press Report: Miranda Morgan, editor-in-chief of Chaffey College’s The Breeze, writes about how this project gave her a passion for carceral reporting.
But what if you have a student who wants to interview an incarcerated person outside of a formal arrangement like the one at Chaffey College? How does a student get started? Here are some tips to share with them:
This process takes time. Do not decide you want to interview someone who's incarcerated and expect to be sitting across from them tomorrow. It can take months.
Every state's rules are different, but a general good starting point is with your state Department of Corrections public information office, or with a media representative from the prison in which your incarcerated person is housed. Be patient and polite but persistent.
You'll need to find the incarcerated person's prison ID number, and more than likely, you will have to write them for permission to begin the process. Keep in mind that prison officials more than likely will read your correspondence in its entirety.
The Prison Journalism Project has excellent resources and explainers on how to make contact with incarcerated people and potentially interview them over the phone, in person or via mail.
And think how impressed a potential employer will be by a student's tenacity in landing such an interview!
Headlines
There are two new magazines at the University of Alabama, designed to replace those shut down by the administration last year over concerns that their existence conflicted with federal rules around gender and race.
Here’s an adorable video of former NBA star Boban Marjanović getting credentialed to cover a UConn women's basketball presser — on assignment from UConn's independent student newspaper, The Daily Campus.
College Watch interviewed three student editors (Purdue, Cornell, Maryland) about how they navigate newsroom life and make tough editorial decisions during the Trump administration's attacks on higher ed.
Howard University’s journalism program is partnering with Forbes to create a formal pipeline to establish more Black business journalists.
I'm a big fan of the Extra Points newsletter, and I thought this might be really informative for your sports reporters: How college basketball schedules actually get made.
Two gambling stories of note in the last week: I’m a College Student. Gen Z Sports Betting Is Wrecking My Friends’ Lives (Wall Street Journal gift article) and My year as a degenerate gambler (McKay Coppins, The Atlantic). I'm so curious how you are handling gambling — both from an ethics and coverage perspective — at your schools.
I hope you don't need this, but if you do: How can small and local newsrooms protect journalists from online abuse? (PEN America)
Resources
SPJ’s free, virtual SkillsFest26 is March 26-27, and some of these topics seem perfect for collegiate journalists: Covering the difficult story: Suicide; FOIA 101: Getting the records you’re entitled to; Pitching, reporting and finishing the investigation; Headless body in topless bar: The art of headline writing; Backgrounding 101: How to research a public official’s past; Building resilient news teams and self care for journalists; How to use AI and still be an ethical journalist … lots of great stuff for your students! Learn more and register.
The Solutions Journalism Network is accepting applications for the 2026-27 Student Media Challenge, which awards grants and provides training for eight college media organizations annually. Over the course of nine months, SJN will help student newsrooms complete reporting projects focused on the ways people and organizations are addressing troubling mental health issues on their campuses and in their communities. The last info session is tomorrow, Monday, March 16, at 1 p.m. Eastern — apply by March 20.
There's still time to apply for the Scripps Howard Fund’s Student Media Sustainability Project. Four to five college newsrooms will get a year’s worth of coaching and training across their entire enterprise, from audience to revenue to management. Here’s an FAQ and the application — deadline is April 12.
This week’s Journalism Salute podcast featured four student journalists at the College Media Association National Convention in New York City.
Feedback
I was super flattered to be asked to appear on the podcast “What Works — The Future of Local News,” hosted by Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg at Northeastern University in Boston.
If you want to hear me talk about things that I love and might potentially know something about, you don't even have to book me for your podcast! You can simply grab some time on my calendar for a free 30-minute consultation.
Hey, is it spring break yet?
