Prison conditions in the United States—where inmates routinely face sexual violence, torturous isolation, and warehousing that leaves them vulnerable to things like extreme heat—have galvanized prisoners into using whatever means at their disposal to prevent the state from gaining access to their labor. That is why …

This is the sound of a prison strike rally: a crowd in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn making as much noise as possible so that prisoners participating in a national strike could hear them inside.

I won’t ever forget the photo of the minutes-old murder a prisoner at Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina sent me. It wasn’t a high-quality picture. But I could clearly see the blood, which covered the white clothes of a bearded inmate looking in the direction of the camera. I could see the desperation in…