In February 2004, Shaun Attwood began the blog, Jon’s Jail Journal, to expose the subhuman conditions in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail system to his family and friends. His early entries, written with a golf pencil sharpened on the cell wall, were smuggled out of the jail by his aunt during visitation in order to avoid retaliation by a jail staff notorious for killing inmates. In September 2004, Jon’s Jail Journal started to attract international media attention. 

Alleged to have reigned over a club-drug organisation rivalling that of the Mafia underboss, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, Shaun was sentenced to 9½ years for money laundering and drug offences. He served 26 months in Arpaio’s jail system, and 41 months in Arizona’s state prison system, including a stint at the super-maximum prison housing Arizona’s death row. 

Working as a stockbroker and day trader, Shaun had only read finance books prior to his arrest. While incarcerated, he submerged himself in literature – reading 268 books in 2006 alone, including many literary classics. By reading original texts in philosophy and psychology he sought to better understand himself and his past behaviour. He credits the likes of Plato, Epictetus and Jung for guiding him on the path of self-discovery and revolutionising his worldview. His sister, Karen, sent him a book on yoga, and he still practices yoga and vegetarianism.

Jon’s Jail Journal continues to expose injustice in America and to convey the prison stories of the friends – ranging from hit men to men who think they are women – Shaun made inside.