He smuggled his art out of solitary confinement inside hollowed-out playing cards. Now, that work is wrapped around a luxury Napa Valley wine bottle — carrying a message about incarceration, resistance, and redemption into homes across the country.
For the second year in a row, the Prisoner Wine Company in Napa Valley released a limited-edition vintage featuring label artwork by Jesse Krimes, a Philadelphia native and formerly incarcerated artist with international recognition. The fine red wine, a 2022 Stag’s Leap Reserve, is part of the Prisoner’s Correction series, which uses wine and art to bring awareness to the need for prison reform in the United States.
“It’s become one of the most meaningful projects we work on,” says Prisoner’s Senior Director of Winemaking, Chrissy Wittmann. “From a winemaking perspective, Corrections gives us space to craft something that’s connected to something deeper than wine itself.”
This year’s label features artwork from Krimes’ soul-stirring Purgatory series (2009), created while he spent one year inside solitary confinement after his arrest for cocaine possession. Sitting in jail and waiting for trial, Krimes, who has an art degree, decided that his creativity was the one thing nobody could take from him.
By using only what he could get on commissary – soap, hair gel, toothpaste, and newspapers – the 43-year-old made a viscous substance that he used to transfer the images of newspaper portraits depicting other “offenders” onto 292 small bars of prison soap.
“This was my mental escape from the dehumanizing environment of prison,” Krimes says, adding that for him, secretly creating art inside solitary was an act of resistance and a way to fight off depression.
Needing a way to conceal his artwork from cell shakedowns, Krimes carved window-like structures into a stack of playing cards, placed the soap inside the cut-out, and smuggled the decks out through the mail over the course of a year.
"In a way, Purgatory portrays humanity behind bars,” Krimes says. “There are so many creative people inside the prison system, yet society just sees them as something to discard. Having justice-impacted artists design the Prisoner’s wine labels brings those people into a different conversation.”
Now part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Purgatory is the first work by a living, formerly incarcerated artist to be acquired by the venerable institution.
The Corrections series, launched in 2022, challenges perceptions of incarceration and supports finding ways to help people coming home from prison — especially artists. This year’s label is an image of one of the playing cards — a King of hearts with a small rectangle cut-out — that Krimes used to smuggle the bars of soap out of prison.
A portion of sales — 5% from each bottle — goes directly to The Center for Art & Advocacy, a first-of-its-kind nonprofit founded by Krimes to support justice-impacted artists. By awarding fellowships and providing access to professional resources, the center helps to further their careers and reshape the criminal justice narrative through art. In addition, The Prisoner has pledged a $75,000 direct donation to the center.
When asked about the partnership with The Prisoner, Krimes says that he and the center will join forces with any organization that has the same mission and belief system that they do. “If it helps get the message out to end mass incarceration, then it’s a win-win."
Using stories of crime and incarceration to market consumer goods — from books to luxury wine — could be criticized for turning punishment into a brand. However, The Prisoner has established a record of responsible advocacy, and Krimes’ credibility is grounded in lived experience.
Travel deep into the heart of Napa Valley, twist up Highway 29 past the oak groves and acorn woodpeckers, drive past legendary wineries and rows of violet grapes, and there lies the Prisoner Wine Company.
Known for its flagship Red Blend and its inaugural label inspired by Goya’s painting of a prisoner in chains, the popular winery debuted more than two decades ago and works with over 100 growers across Northern California. These collaborations make it easier to use wine as a vehicle for narrative change.
“Corrections continues to grow, not just in how we approach the wine, but in what the project stands for,” Wittmann says. “We recently launched a grant program in partnership with the Center for Art and Advocacy to continue supporting justice-impacted artists. Right now, we’re reviewing work from five past fellows in their Right of Return program to select the label for next year’s release.”
The winery will announce the chosen artist next year and plans to continue this annually, giving artists more visibility and access to a platform that reaches into homes across the country.
Wittmann adds that the wine speaks for itself, but it’s what it represents that makes Corrections different. “It’s incredibly rewarding to make a wine people love and knowing it has a purpose beyond the wine industry, uplifting stories that deserve to be heard.”
“Every creative act in prison is resistance,” adds Krimes. “Putting that work on bottles and sending it into the world is a way of saying we’re still here, and we still have something to give.”
