Next week, the United States of America will mark its 250th birthday.

No matter what you think about the state of the country, 250 years is a long time for the “land of the free” to exist.

But that term, “land of the free,” underscores one of our nation’s most enduring and painful paradoxes: The U.S. is also the land of mass incarceration.

Across America, nearly 2 million people are detained in jails and prisons.

Two million. That’s roughly equivalent to the population of Idaho or Nebraska or New Mexico. And it’s a figure that has earned the United States the singular distinction of incarcerating more of its citizens than any other advanced democracy on earth.

People in prison won’t be able to celebrate the nation’s milestone with family, cookouts and fireworks. But their voices — and their perspectives — might have something to offer the rest of us. So, 250 years after the founding of the United States, Prison Journalism Project asked incarcerated Americans what this big birthday means to them.

Here’s what they had to say.