This week, we share two different reflections on time inside, focusing on how prison interrupts life, education, and development. The first is the conclusion of Chantal’s account of her weeks inside a French immigrant retention center after her arrest during Yellow Vest clashes in Paris. She describes her and other prisoners’ efforts to pass the…
Read MoreThis week, we hear more from Chantal, who tells us about her time detained in France in December. We also cover breaking news on hunger strikes in immigrant detention centers across the US, as well as the victory of hundreds of hunger strikers in Corcoran prison in California. Medical malfeasance by prison officials, and the…
Read MoreThis week,we hear a statement regarding a hunger strike that took place in France this month. On January 8th, detainees at the same immigration retention center that Chantal, the subject of this week’s Kite Line, was held in released a statement announcing that they had begun a hunger strike, and calling on detainees in other…
Read MoreIn this episode, we read a statement by Keith Lamar, also known as Bomani Shakur, who just had his execution date set. In his statement, Keith wrangles with the violent death the state of Ohio is seeking to inflict on him, but also with the vast challenges and ruptures that we as a whole face…
Read MoreSince the Ferguson uprising in 2014, the Black Lives Matter movement has shone a light on a range of American institutions, revealing their white supremacist origins and functions. In addition to police and the discriminatory mortgage market, cash bail is one of the most important of these institutions to be revealed and resisted. Community bail…
Read MoreWe are completing our series on Brazilian prisons by airing an interview between Beny and Rosângela, who wanted to discuss her experiences with health care there. Her account of deprivation of care, along with the over application of psychiatric drugs, will be familiar to anyone who has spent time inside an American prison. She likewise…
Read MoreThis week, we have the first of several interviews that were conducted this fall in São Paulo, Brazil. Kite Line contributor Micol Seigel was there to teach a course on American prison history at the state university. Seigel’s academic host introduced her to an activist civil servant at the Secretariat of Penal Administration, who connected…
Read MoreThis week, we speak more with Leon Benson, who calls us from inside the Pendleton Correctional Facility here in Indiana. Benson shared his story with us in the past several Kite Line episodes, and now he talks to us about the conditions inside the prison. Benson demonstrates the importance of prisoners being ableto form bonds…
Read MoreA new movement of refugees fleeing violence and starvation in Central America began to reach Tijuana last month, in the hopes of applying for asylum in the United States. Comprised of multiple, self-organized caravans, the refugees passed through incredible hardship and risk before thousands were temporarily settled in the Benito Juarez shelter – a sports…
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