PENDLETON — Phillip Luna, like other editors-in-chief of news outlets, spends his days researching topics, interviewing people, writing articles and editing his staff writers’ stories.

Unlike other editors, though, he does all of that from prison.

Luna is incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton and runs the Echo, the monthly prison newsletter for other adults in custody. Stories range from profiles of other men in prison and correctional officers to how the fentanyl crisis has made its way into prisons.

The Echo started as a way to keep people up to date with upcoming events or opportunities around the prison, but it has expanded since being established in 2018.

Today, the Echo also reports on topics such as sports, clubs, educational programs and rehabilitative initiatives. It’s one of only a few dozen known prison newspapers across the country.

Writing news stories

Each month, the team of writers — which reached a new peak of five this spring — produces enough content for a 25- to 40-page newsletter, which also features a few press releases, job notices, a recipe and a crossword at the end of each edition. But for Luna, it’s as much about the content as it is about who’s making it.

“I want more writers because there are different voices than mine, and that’s important,” he said.

Different people are tuned into different parts of prison life, Luna said, so having more staff members helps broaden the coverage and highlight stories that might otherwise be overlooked.

Ray Peters, who runs EOCI’s institutional work programs, added that news in prison spreads quickly despite the newsletter only coming out once a month.

“The name was a little bit tongue-in-cheek because we report on things that everybody already knows about because it’s such a small place,” Peters said.

Because the staff members live alongside everyone else, Luna said, they hear the rumors and it makes it a little easier to chase a story down. However, despite a small population possibly making it easier to be aware of what’s going on around the prison, it has its drawbacks.

Luna said his reporters have to be aware of the impact of their roles and how they fit into the community there, which is true of journalists everywhere, but especially in a place where there’s so much rigidity and hierarchy involved in daily life.

“You have to be careful because whatever you say, at the end of the day you have to live here,” he said. “And if you say something that offends people or you say something that labels you a certain way, it could be a really negative thing.”

Picturing better dynamics

After about six years of publishing some form of the newsletter, Luna and Peters decided to expand their efforts to include a quarterly magazine, 1664. The name refers to the 1,664 state and federal prisons nationwide that were open when they started the magazine.

1664 will focus less on news and more on arts and culture, human interest and feature stories that emphasize the humanity of people who are incarcerated, Luna and Peters said.

For example, the magazine’s first edition, “Gray Prisons,” includes a profile about the only hospice care volunteer left at EOCI, despite there being a desperate need for more help since prisons nationwide have aging populations.

The stories capture humanity and question basic assumptions about what it means to be someone who is incarcerated.

“It’s humanizing the environment,” Peters said. “This is a way to say, ‘Hey, maybe he’s wearing blue, but he’s got this whole life story. He’s a person, he has dreams, he has hopes, he has things he wants to do, he has things that made him the way he is. He’s trying to overcome his struggles.'”

Highlighting the good

EOCI has 1,682 beds and housed 1,297 people as of Aug. 1. People inside can access the Echo in PDF format on their tablets or can pick up printed, black-and-white copies. Staff members also receive digital copies. Outside the prison, people can sign up for digital copies of the newsletter.

Luna said he’s been getting more feedback on the newsletter, especially from staff members, even though it’s intended for an incarcerated audience. They’ll ask questions about a story he wrote or say they enjoyed reading it. Having that positive feedback boosts his self-esteem, he said. Knowing that it came from work he did makes him feel proud.

When he started with the newsletter, he didn’t know how much he liked to write, he said, adding that he writes outside of work now, too.

“Also, I have found that I really care about the people here,” he said. “I want their stories in the newsletter. I want people to know the people that I’m seeing.”

Before he came to prison, he said, he would have assumed prison was for bad people who’ve done bad things.

“But that’s not all they are,” he said, “and I think that’s really important.”