The Outlaw published stories to promote the expansion of the movement for prisoners' unions, and address the issues that were affecting the lives of prisoners such as censorship of mail, indeterminate sentencing, the lack of opportunity for true rehabilitation, medical experiments and behavior modification techniques used on prisoners, and the issue of "Civil Death" as the loss of civil and human rights while imprisoned. Every issue includes contributions from prisoners. The Prisoners Union, which created The Outlaw, changed the name of the newspaper to Prisoners Union Journal in 1979. The six volumes in this collection are the first six volumes of the newspaper published between 1971 and 1977, including the last issue to be distributed for free.

The Prisoners Union was a San Francisco-based organization that originated from a strike at Folsom Prison in 1971, and sought to unify imprisoned people in demanding humane conditions including uniform and equitable sentencing laws, the restoration of civil and human rights, fair wages and safe working conditions for prison labor, and compensation for work-related injuries.