Jeff Hillard is an author, poet, and professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio. He also helps inmates find their way back into society through a number of courses he teaches at prisons. This work led Jeff to create RED! webzine which features "Stories of transformation in lives of prisoners and individuals re-entering society, and innovations inside prisons internationally." Jeff discusses RED! and his vision for this new magazine.
What inspired you to create RED! the breakthrough ‘zine?
I conceived the webzine publication while actually trying to get work done toward a big book project in 2005. However, I stayed with the book project, which has not proven to work out as yet. In 2007, I got very serious about RED! and knew that it would take considerable time for me to utilize my far-reaching background skills in journalism, editing, publishing, and some leadership.
Other than that, my increasing experience teaching and ministering to and mentoring inmates in prisons and jails, as well as working with formerly incarcerated persons over the past seven years, gave me added incentive to put together an eclectic professional publication that told positive stories.
See, I also realized that no other online publication was showcasing, in a deep and unique way, stories of transformation in these inmates’ or former inmates’ lives in the way I envisioned. It was a culmination of my mentoring and publishing experiences that paved the way for RED!. Thus, we’ve also turned it into a nonprofit organization.
What kinds of stories appear in RED!?
Like our subtitle suggests, these are stories, news, and informative articles dealing with positive and healthy life changes in the lives of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. We also profile innovations and innovative programs and people who help make these changes a reality.
In our most recent issue, we have a wide range of stories; for instance, one of my columnists writes about her extraordinary gang intervention work, and there’s a feature story on perhaps the oldest living (former) mentor to prison inmates. There are multimedia, columns, book reviews, hard news, and a section called “The Zone,” which is a wonderful listing of important programs, agencies, or ministries across the country focused on worthy prison and jail work.
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