The correspondence from prisoners series of the Ray Hill Papers dates from 1980 to 2020. The series contains letters written from prisoners (mostly in Texas) to The Prison Show. The Prison Show was founded by Ray Hill and hosted by him for nearly three decades. The show discusses issues of interest to convicts and allows callers to send messages to loved ones listening in prison. In 1980, at the time of the show's founding, Texas prisoners were not allowed access to telephones until 2009. Texas was the last state to allow telephone privileges for prisoners.