The Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering criminal justice, announced Thursday that it has launched a print publication that will be distributed in prisons and jails across the U.S.

The publication, called "News Inside," was created by Marshall Project staffer Lawrence Bartley, who came up with the idea while he was in prison and awaiting parole, Bartley wrote in a post Thursday.

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A pilot edition was launched within the past month and is currently circulating in 30 facilities across 19 states. Bartley wrote that he hopes the publication eventually will be distributed across all 50 states.

The publication is a collection of The Marshall Project's "award-winning journalism that relates directly to incarcerated lives," Bartley wrote.

He added that he knows "the frustrations of a hungry mind in prison," writing that he took college courses and wrote research papers during his time in prison, but often couldn't access the library, forcing him to turn to "scavenging reading material from the trash."

"News Inside is my attempt to feed that hunger with credible information about the world of criminal justice—free of charge and free of hassles," he wrote.

Bartley added that gaining permission to distribute in some facilities "may prove to be difficult."

"Prison administrators’ first responsibility is the safety and security of their facilities, and they are careful to prohibit material they believe could be inflammatory or stir unrest. I respect that, and I have carefully curated a selection of articles that I hope will inspire thought and discussion without disturbing the peace," he added.