The Most Eloquent Dissents: Writ Writing at Parchman Penitentiary

This thesis evaluates the long history of self-advocacy on the part of incarcerated men at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Pro se prisoners at Parchman take to the courts to improve their conditions of confinement, defend their constitutional rights, and secure their freedom. Writ writers at the prison face pervasive obstacles and restrictions in their efforts to help themselves and their fellow prisoners, but they persist nonetheless