J. Michael Lyons is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. His teaching, research, and creative work focus on narratives related to social justice issues, particularly mass incarceration. He is the cofounder of The Redemption Project, a multimedia oral history website that records and shares the stories of men and women serving life-without-parole sentences in Pennsylvania and their families. He is also active in the criminal justice reform movement.