Opening in Jackson, Michigan in 1839, the State Prison of Southern Michigan (SPSM) was once known as the largest walled prison in the world. During the first half of the twentieth century, SPSM created sports teams, secular and religious musical groups, and several art programs that produced locally and nationally know athletes and artists, placing them at the forefront of the movement to make prisons sites of education and rehabilitation.

Leisure activities, such as pencil drawing, oil painting, and writing workshops fostered a sense of pleasure and creativity, collective and individual empowerment, ingenuity, self-discovery, and education. In spite of this, culture and leisure have been absent from current conversations about the prison's nearly 200-year history.

The work of incarcerated artists was featured in local and national newspapers magazines, at prestigious New York City art exhibits, and in The Spectator, a newspaper operated by detainees from the inside. This project reconsiders the history of SPSM through the lens of the art and writing of its incarcerated artists.