Justice-in-Education and Covid-19, a new issue of the health humanities journal Synapsis, collects auto-ethnographies of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated writers—the Justice-in-Education scholars—as they respond to the initial Covid-19 lockdown in NYC. This is a landmark issue that presents marginalized voices reporting on their experience of the Covid-19 crisis through the theoretical lens of the health humanities.

The collection was inspired by a notion that had gained traction in the media, comparing “lockdown” to prison and solitary confinement. Someone posted on social media a note saying “the lockdown is my Attica,” referring to the maximum-security prison in upstate New York. The writers took particular exception to this notion and wanted to address it.

The special issue includes 10 auto-ethnographic contributions, framed with a critical introduction and conclusion and interspersed with a botanical photo essay by the guest editor, Neni Panourgiá. Professor Panourgiá is an anthropologist, Academic Advisor for the Justice-in-Education Initiative, and Faculty at the Prison Education Program at Columbia University.