This month, we are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, a high point of the cycle of prisoners’ struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. We share experiences from former Attica prisoners Joseph Hayden and Carlos Roche, and attorney Elizabeth Fink, who all describe the events of that day and the days leading up to the event. Afterwards, we return to Frank Smith, known as Big Black, a prisoner at Attica who participated in the uprising and successfully organized the security for outside negotiators who entered the prison.  He was ferociously tortured by guards in retaliation for his participation in the rebellion, and gave the interview we are
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Three years ago on Kite Line, we aired an episode about the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971. This week, September 9th to September 13th, will mark fifty years between us and the event. We share this piece again today, with updated contributions from its author, analyzing the growing challenges to our collective survival, both inside and outside the prisons.  What the author calls the commune – the enduring forms of collectivity and care developed through rebellion – is the best chance we have for survival.  This dimension of the Attica Uprising, such as the prisoners’ experiments with peacemaking and sharing tasks even while facing terrifying constraints, offers rich lessons for us today, as we navigate a
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This month, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, a high point of the prisoners’ movement of the 1960s and 70s.  On September 9th, 1971, prisoners revolted, building on their own organizing and local grievances, as well as responding to the assassination of George Jackson by guards at Soledad Prison in California.  Right now, marking both events and continuing a long tradition of struggle, prisoners and their allies across the US are conducting a Shut ‘Em Down campaign against prison slavery. Frank Smith, known as Big Black, was a prisoner at Attica who participated in the uprising and successfully organized the security for outside negotiators who entered the prison.  He
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For our episode this week, we share the second of a two-part conversation between Nicole Fleetwood and Micol Seigel. Fleetwood’s recent book, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, is a wide-ranging exploration of visual art made by people in prison. Fleetwood explains “I started working on this book as a way to deal with the grief about so many of my relatives, neighbors, and childhood friends who were spending years, decades, or life sentences in prison. It was also an effort to connect with others who are separated from their loved ones by prisons, parole, policed streets, and other forms of institutional and quotidian violence.” In their conversation,
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We start out by sharing a statement from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak about the Shut ‘Em Down campaign, scheduled for August 21st and September 9th, historic days for Black struggle inside and against prison. Afterwards, we share the first of a two-part conversation between Nicole Fleetwood and Micol Seigel. Fleetwood’s recent book, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, is an exploration of visual art made by people in prison. Fleetwood says, “I started working on this book as a way to deal with the grief about so many of my relatives, neighbors, and childhood friends who were spending years, decades, or life sentences in prison. It was also an
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This week, we share urgent messages – kites – sent by a range of people caught up in the prison system.  It’s important to listen for the voices of prisoners, whether it’s the hunger strike declaration by a longterm inside organizer like Shaka Shakur, Jessica Reznicek’s reflections as she is about to enter prison as an unrepentant water protector, or Flexxboi Diggy’s creatively writing raps from inside an Indiana county jail.  If one of the ways prison functions is by isolating people and silencing their voices, we can instead work to amplify those voices, and link the struggles they are speaking from. We are also sharing the monthly round-up on prisoner resistance generously
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This week, we return to our conversation with David Campbell, a former antifascist political prisoner from New York. In this episode, Campbell continues to talk about his time on Rikers Island, this time focusing on jobs and other ways that people pass the time inside- sleeping, video games, visits, and how the tedium of incarceration can fuel addiction. Campbell ends by talking about his experiences with relationship building during and after incarceration. You can check out previous episodes with David
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This week, we are highlighting two experiences of outside solidarity with prisoners.  First, we share audio from last week’s rally in Indianapolis for clemency, including a recorded statement by Leon Benson, a longtime imprisoned organizer, as well as a speech by his son, Leon Bluitt, about the impact of growing up with an incarcerated parent. After that, we feature an interview with Danielle Chanzes, one of three people arrested on felony charges after a solidarity demo outside Florida State Prison last December.  The protest was responding to prisoners demanding improved COVID safety measures amid miserable conditions and was also a memorial for Karen Smith, a dynamic abolitionist organizer and previous Kite Line contributor
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This week on Kite Line, we continue our conversation with prison abolitionist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law. We share the second half of our discussion on their recent book, Prison by Any Other Name: Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book is an in-depth look at the various “alternatives to prison” that are held up as substitutes for incarceration, but which, in many cases, bring surveillance into our homes and communities. The alternatives mentioned in our discussion last week – electronic monitoring, probation, court mandated psychiatric confinement or Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOTS), and the sex offender registry – are just a few of the methods they analyze. For instance, “community policing” often means
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This week on Kite Line, we speak with prison abolitionist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law. We share the first part of our discussion on their recent book, Prison by Any Other Name: Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book is an in-depth look at the various “alternatives to prison” that are held up as substitutes for incarceration, but which, in many cases, bring surveillance into our homes and communities. The alternatives mentioned in our discussion today – electronic monitoring, probation, court mandated psychiatric confinement or Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOTS), and the sex offender registry – are just a few of the methods critiques in their book. Law has been on the show before,
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This week, amid a spate of prisoners’ strikes, we share our monthly round up of prison disturbances for June 2021, compiled by Perilous Chronicle.  Prisoners are hunger striking across the continent, agitating for safer conditions, and pushing back against labor exploitation.  We share an excerpt of the story entitled Prisoners Strike Against Racism and Colonialism in Canada’s “New Residential Schools” written by Abby Stadnyk.  This agitation is particularly striking as we approach Black August and the broad calls for “Shut ‘Em Down” protests on August 21st and September 9th. Afterwards, we have more from David Campbell, former anitfacist political prisoner, who recently did a year on Rikers Island. In this segment, he
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This week, we continue talking to David Campbell, former anti-fascist political prisoner who recently did a year on Rikers Island. In our last conversation with David, he discussed the circumstances of how he ended up in the Rikers facility- the short of it being that he was sentenced to his time after a fight with some Trump supporters in NYC. In our segment today, he spells out some of the ways doing a long stint in jail is different than one in prison, and also about what it was like to organize in prison during COVID-19. We will continue to air our conversation with David next week. David wrote an article with the
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Our episode this week is a memorial to Cory Cardinal. Regular listeners will remember Cory as the organizer of the recent hunger strikes in Saskatoon Correctional and as a past contributor to Kite Line. An inspiration to many and a tireless advocate on behalf of incarcerated people, Cory passed away earlier this month. Written and read by Abby Stadnyk, with contributions from Cory in his own words, this episode focuses on both his life and organizing, and how the system he struggled within ultimately killed him. Thanks to Abby, Perilous Chronicle, and to all who contributed their words to the show. You can find previous episodes with Cory here, here, here, here and here,
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This week, Kite Line shares hard-earned lessons based on experiences of struggle on both sides of the prison walls.  Perilous Chronicle’s Ryan Fatica returns with Lauren Regan from the Civil Liberties Defense Center, who has guidelines for protestors.  IDOC Watch discuss their campaign for mass clemency in Indiana. Malik Washington talks about getting off paper and self-care post-prison. You can get updates on the CLDC here. Find out about IDOC Watch’s Freedom Now campaign here. You can find out about more about Perilous Chronicle here. Follow the San Francisco Bay View’s new
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Our show this week returns to June 11th, the international day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners. The focus of June 11th is overcoming the isolation that these long-term prisoners face, as the movements they participated in years ago give way to new struggles and new generations of radicals.  The day of solidarity works to connect these prisoners with struggles currently underway, especially those struggles with the potential to abolish the prison system, freeing them and all prisoners. We begin with Letha, who gives us an update on Marius Mason, who alongside most prisoners, has faced an excruciating year of COVID isolation and vulnerability within the Danbury federal prison in Connecticut.  Marius organized
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We start off this week’s show with a roundup of prison disturbances compiled by Perilous Chronicle.  Afterwards, we speak with Lauren Regan, the Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. Regan has been on the show before to discuss state repression and her efforts to support people facing political charges.  She returns today to talk about the CLDC and specifically Eric King, an anarchist prisoner housed at FCI Englewood in Colorado. King was arrested in 2014 after he carried out an attack against a politician’s office in solidarity with the Ferguson uprising.  As an anti-racist prisoner, he has been subjected to repeated assaults by white supremacists. Regan describes his case, the struggle
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This week, we hear from Koby Bluitt, daughter of Leon Benson, a long time Indiana prisoner and organizer. She tells us about Leon, their relationship, and her current efforts to help him get free. We’ve covered Leon’s case on Kite Line before: a case of poor eyewitness testimony that helped convict the man of a crime he adamantly maintains he did not commit. Koby tells us about how Leon has been spending his 23 years inside, and what it was like having a parent in prison. She closes with advice for those who have a loved one inside. You can hear our previous episodes with and about Leon Benson here, here  here and here.Links
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This week, we share two stories from people reflecting on their time inside and on re-entry. Both have wise words about surviving incarceration, and the overall political context of prisons. First is David Campbell, a former political prisoner at Rikers Island in New York. We will hear more from David later, but in this episode, he discusses his case and sentencing, the rigors of cell searches, and how he organized his time inside. Next, we hear from Spirit Mike, who endured a decade in the Florida prison system. In particular, Mike thinks about the broader systems prison is embedded in, and how he is fighting back against disempowerment and exclusion through urban
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Last week, we heard from Kim, Shari, Lauren, Pablo and Brian about Parole Illinois, a group fighting to reinstate, as they put it, “earned discretionary reentry”. This is the last of a two-part conversation with them. In 1978, Illinois abolished discretionary parole system. Today, it remains one of just sixteen states (plus the District of Columbia) without any means for incarcerated people to earn parole. In the previous episode, they introduced themselves and their own connections to incarceration- a couple of them have loved ones locked inside, or have been inside themselves. They spoke to how these inside-outside relationships have impacted their lives. In this week’s show, they speak
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We start this episode with our monthly list of prison disturbances compiled by Perilous Chronicle, an journalistic collective that tracks prisoner protests across the US and Canada. Afterwards, we share the first part of a conversation with people working with Parole Illinois, a group campaigning for a fair and inclusive parole system. In 1978, Illinois abolished discretionary parole system. Today, it remains one of just sixteen states (plus the District of Columbia) without any means for incarcerated people to earn parole. In this episode, we will hear first hand about the impacts of this lack of parole on people inside, and those who have a loved one inside. You can
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On today’s episode, we share two perspectives on the role of study, as practiced in the face of repression and directly against repression.  First, we complete our interview with Garrett Felber, with a focus on his termination by the University of Mississippi in retaliation for his outspoken criticism of its white supremacist structure and how he and others have worked to ensure that the  anti-prison work of Study and Struggle can continue despite his firing.  Just as Garrett must also study and navigate these academic power structures, our next guest, Mwalimu describes carefully tracking the changing dynamics at the California prison where he is caged.  Mwalimu discusses the careful measures he and his New Afrikan comrades
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This week, we share the second part of a conversation between Garrett Felber and Micol Seigel. Felber has been on the show before, discussing the Nation of Islam and its relationship to the origins of the modern prisoners’ movement. His new book, Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State, is an important contribution to this history. In this episode, Micol and Garrett introduces the role of the “scholar-activist” and its tenuous relationship with the university. Garrett organizes with the Study and Struggle program to fight against criminalization and incarceration in Mississippi, understanding that study is a moment of political struggle. You can listen to
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This week, we share the first part of a conversation between Garrett Felber and Micol Seigel. Felber has been on the show before, discussing the Nation of Islam and its relationship to the origins of the modern prisoners’ movement. His recently released book, Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State, is an important contribution to this history. In this episode, Micol and Garrett talk about the dialectics of discipline- a term Garrett coined to describe the relationship between disciplined, collective Black protest and escalating punitive state discipline. You can listen to previous episodes with Garrett
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In this episode, we share information about the recent disturbances in St. Louis. Afterwards, we have the second part of a conversation with Balagoon, an Indiana political prisoner who has been locked up for almost 43 years, 31 of those in isolation. In this episode, he first describes the context of the 1985 uprising in the Indiana reformatory, now called Pendleton Correctional Facility. He describes the lockup units as “our schools of thought and consciousness” prior to the uprising. He tells of guards beating his dear comrade with an illegal baton so hard that it cracked. The guards then dragged his comrade in front of the other inmates, telling them that quote “they
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Up first, we have a comprehensive overview of prisoner protests compiled by Perilous Chronicle, who are collecting information about the many prison uprisings and disturbances now occurring regularly. They will be sharing these updates with us each month. For our feature this week, we share the first part of a conversation with Balagoon, an Indiana political prisoner who has been locked up for almost 43 years, 31 of those years in isolation. Now, at age 61, he is seeking a sentence modification due to his worsening health conditions, as well as the fact that – as he puts it- after 43 years inside he simply isn’t the person he used to be. Balagoon
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Our show this week returns with the second part of a conversation between Kite Line’s Micol Seigel and three members of the Carbondale, Illinois community:  Chastity, Kim, and Nick. They speak about the ongoing struggle for the use of the Eurma C Hayes Community center. Originally opened by the city as a space for youth, the city later defunded the Eurma C Hayes center and put the responsibility on community groups to steward the building.   Now Carbondale politicians are proposing converting it to a police substation. This sequence is familiar to Bloomington residents, where a community environmental hub was replaced with the police substation now looming over Switchyard Park. These Carbondale residents speak
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For our show this week, we have the first part of a conversation between Kite Line’s Micol Seigel and three members of the Carbondale, Illinois community:  Chastity, Kim, and Nick. They speak about the ongoing struggle for the use of the Eurma C Hayes Community Center Originally opened by the city as a space for youth, the city later defunded the Eurma C Hayes Center and put the responsibility on community groups to steward the building.   Now Carbondale politicians are proposing converting it to a police substation. In this first of two parts, three Carbondale residents speak about why they oppose police being put there, and the conflation of an idea of “security”
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This week, we are trying something new so that we can cover the full range of increased prisoner struggles. We will be teaming up with Perilous Chronicle at the beginning of each month to give you headlines tracking disturbances in prisons, jails, and detention centers. Perilous is a project seeking to gather and track information on prison uprisings, riots, protests, strikes, and other disturbances within public and private jails, prisons, and detention centers in the US and Canada since 2010. In this process, they rely on crowdsourced information in addition to local news outlets and our own reporting. In this segment, we share the events that Perilous tracked for January and February 2021. After
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This week, we return to an important conversation about grand juries and state repression. Recently, Steve Martinez, an Indigenous and Chicano Water Protector who opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on the Standing Rock reservation in 2016, was held on charges of civil contempt of court for his refusal to cooperate with a federal grand jury. In order to learn more about Steve’s situation, Perilous Chronicle editor Ryan Fatica spoke with Lauren Regan, lead attorney and executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Oregon, who has dedicated her life to defending those facing charges for their participation in social movements. Last week, she laid out the fundamentals of Steve’s case by
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This week, we brought together three segments that focus on ways the system attempts to repress participants in collective struggles and those who fight for a better world. In a segment that originally aired on KPFA, we hear about the punitive measures Malik Washington is facing after speaking out about the COVID-19 outbreak in a Geo Group run halfway house. We air audio from Cory Cardinal, an Indigenous activist imprisoned at the Saskatoon Correctional Center in Saskatchewan, Canada. Cory spoke with Perilous Chronicle editor Ryan Fatica earlier this week, and says that this week he was sent to solitary confinement after he organized a protest at the prison. The protest
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Mwalimu Shakur, who spoke in last week’s episode about COVID-19 protocols in his facility, returns this week to share more reflections. He shares first-hand experiences of gladiator fights and organizing against the SHU (Secure Housing Unit) from the inside. Corcoran State Prison was the first prison to develop the ultra-repressive SHU.  He also talks about using his time inside to educate other, younger prisoners through reading groups on classics like George Jackson and lessons in language, Marxist theory, and
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This week, we followup on the COVID-19 conditions at Corcoran Prison in California and share news from the uprising in the St. Louis Jail. Afterwards, we finish a conversation between Dr. Jeffrey Ian Ross and Dr. Micol Seigel. Ross is a Professor at the University of Baltimore, and has researched, written, and lectured extensively on policing, political crime, state crime, and crimes of the powerful for over two decades. Last week, they discussed the concept of “convict criminology”. Convict criminology is the study of crime and prisons by formerly imprisoned academics and associated critical and radical scholars. Now, their conversation moves into a vital discussion of police violence and use of
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On January 30th, guards attacked Robert Earl Council, and beat him until he was unconscious.  Council, also known as Kinetik Justice, is a longtime imprisoned organizer and cofounder of the Free Alabama Movement.   Outside supporters have urged as many people as possible to call the Donaldson Correctional Facility and express concern for Council’s welfare.  The prison’s phone number is (205) 436-3681. This week, we sit in on a conversation between Dr. Jeffrey Ian Ross and Dr. Micol Seigel. Ross is a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, College of Public Affairs, and a Research Fellow in the Center for International and Comparative Law, and the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the
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This week, we share audio in support of Dan Baker and Loren Reed, and from Panagioti Tsolkas, who tells us about the important #CagingCOVID campaign and their upcoming February 1st day of action. As we’ve previously documented on Kite Line, facilities across the country have systematically failed to protect prisoners from COVID-19 and its uncontrolled spread.  We are sharing two testimonies on this horrific failure, both collected by the #CagingCOVID campaign, one from Kevin Rashid Johnson in Indiana and the other by Ricardo Pena III in Texas. You can find out more about Dan Baker here, and Loren Reed here. You can hear more audio from the #CagingCOVID
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On Kite Line this week, we share two interviews with advocates working on the physical well-being of those locked inside. The first conversation we hear is with Olivia, who is part of a group trying to get the word out about unsafe conditions at the California Medical Facility, or CMF, a prison for inmates with medical conditions. This facility has been overrun by the coronavirus, as a result of carelessness by the administrators. Our second call is with Peter, who talks to us about his advocacy for a friend in the DuPage County Jail. His friend, Strawberry Hampton, who was recently featured on the show, suffered abuse at the hands of prison staff
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This week on Kite Line, we have a wide variety of ongoing prison news- ranging from the recent executions of prisoners in Terre Haute to a prison disturbance in St. Louis. Afterwards, we share a conversation that was sent to us from an outside supporter of the ongoing Saskatoon Correctional Facility hunger strike. In this conversation, Cardinal explains what led to the hunger strike, and how outside support has been helpful to those
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This week, we share an urgent statement from the Free Alabama Movement about their ongoing hunger strike and economic blackout. Afterwards, we speak with David Pellow, Fabiana Lake, and Camber Wilson, who recently coauthored a report on ‘Environmental Justice Struggles in Prisons and Jails Around the World,’  via the Prison Environmental Justice Project.  Environmental justice is an even more important question now, as toxicity and health deficits render prisoners even more vulnerable to the ravages of the pandemic. You can find their report here. You can find more information about the Free Alabama Movement
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Happy New Year! This week, we broadcast kites from Strawberry Hampton in Illinois and Daniel Dawson in Saskatchewan, who both called in this week to update us on their conditions. Strawberry Hampton, a Black transgender woman and niece of Fred Hampton, shares the horrific abuses she has suffered inside. Hampton received a rare transfer to an all-women’s facility after she was abused in a men’s unit. She is back inside, and continuing to face verbal and physical abuse. Content warning for descriptions of assault. In our second conversation Daniel Dawson gives important updates on their hunger strike in Saskatchewan. It was originally called last month as COVID-19 spread uncontrollably inside the facility.  Prisoners
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Today, we broadcast Part 2 of our series on Compassionate Release. Compassionate Release is the principle that sentences should be adjusted given “particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the court at the time of sentencing”. We now continue to hear from Alison Guernsey, who tells us about the barriers thrown up against this form of sentence reduction, such as excessively long sentences due to mandatory minimums. While it is usually considered from the perspective of individual prisoners suffering, for example, from a terminal illness, compassionate release has become an urgent, collective demand in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it spreads within
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We begin this week with a follow-up conversation with Cory Cardinal, who has spoken with us on our past two episodes regarding a hunger strike at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre in Saskatchewan, Canada. Previously, Cory detailed his experiences during and after the hunger strike. And now, he gives us some updates and tells Perilous about the inmates’ rights issues that led up to the hunger strike, and how these changes in the system have been impacting prisoners. Afterwards, we talk about compassionate release, as Alison Guernsey tells us about the history and barriers involved in this form of sentence reduction. Compassionate Release is the principle that sentences should be adjusted given “particularly
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This week, we hear from two people who explain the rapidly deteriorating COVID-19 situation in facilities in both Saskatchewan and Indiana. As we reported last week, prisoners at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre in Saskatchewan, Canada organized a hunger strike last week to protest the rapidly-spreading COVID-19 outbreak at the facility. The hunger strike lasted several days and ended Monday, November 30th. Cory Cardinal, an Indigenous prisoner and a leader in the hunger strike, spoke with us again about the facilities response to the hunger strike. Afterwards, we speak with Kelsey Kauffman, who details how the various IDOC protocols are seeding COVID-19 outbreaks in facilities across Indiana. In addition, Kauffman
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This week, we share two interviews with prisoners confronting rampant COVID-19 infections in their facilities. Cory Cardinal, imprisoned at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre in Saskatchewan, Canada speaks about the hunger strike they organized last weekend to protest the rapidly-spreading COVID-19 outbreak at the facility. Prisoners at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center (RGC) in Jackson, Michigan protested “deplorable” conditions and the Michigan Dept. of Corrections’ dangerously inadequate response to the COIVD-19 pandemic. In an interview with H.H. Gonzales, a prisoner at RGC, he speaks on the protest and the current conditions inside the facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Special thanks to Perilous Chronicle, you can see links
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For our episode this week, we share more from Florida Prisoner Solidarity. Recently, they told us about the drastic retaliatory measures prisoners were being subjected to in the Florida Department of Corrections. These punishments were often given as a response for prisoners advocating for themselves in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. This week, they continue to shine a light on the conditions, including how prisoners are targeted and punished for speaking out. You can find out more about their work at
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This week, share an update sent to us from Michelle Freeman about her husband, Vernell. Michelle’s impassioned plea on behalf of her partner is both urgent and inspiring, and we will continue to air messages from her in the future, as Vernell’s situation evolves. You can hear our episode about Vernell here. Afterwards, we speak to two people from Florida Prisoner Solidarity, who detail the methods of retaliation and silencing that the Florida Department of Corrections has been deploying against prisoners and outside supporters. This includes the disappearance of several inmates in the Florida prison system, new laws directed against outside advocates, the implementation of new and brutal “pandemic safe” weapons that
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This week, we return to stories of electronic monitoring also known as e-carceration. Micol Seigel talks to Cody, who says he spent about half his life locked up. He’s 26 now, and spent time in Pendleton Correctional Facility and Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, both in Indiana. He tells Seigel first hand about e-carcerations disruptions to work, financial, and family life. He talks about the new ankle bracelet he has to wear, which he describes as the size of a soda can, and also the traps used by the system to return people to incarceration based on technical violations, and the consistent confusion on both sides of  e-carceration regarding how the process actually
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After news, we share a conversation between Christina and Leslie about their experiences obtaining an education while in prison. Both women reflect on the barriers to getting a degree on the inside, and how effective the degree was in helping them once they got out. They also talk about some of the differences in educational options between male and female facilities. These interviews with formerly incarcerated people on the barriers they face in obtaining an education was made possible by a grant from the Lumina
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This week, we are airing two kites- the first from a woman advocating for her brother, Billie Allen, who is on death row here in Indiana, despite his fight to prove his innocence. We will talk to Yvette more in the coming weeks, but in this conversation, she introduces us to her brother’s case, and talks more generally about death row’s impending executions. We then follow with a piece, recorded from the inside, from Shaka Shakur. A former Indiana prisoner, Shaka was recently moved to Virginia, an example of interstate transfer, which is a problem you might recall from Malik Washington’s recent interview. We’ve shared Shaka’s story in a previous episode of Kite
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This week, we are talking about youth in detention. We are laying the groundwork to continue to talk to current prisoners who were placed in facilities while young, including people who are still locked up to this day, about how the impact of incarceration since childhood has shaped them into adulthood. We start with an impassioned piece reflecting on the recent deaths of adolescents in two different states- Cornelius Frederick’s death at a youth facility in Michigan, and Gynnya McMillen in Kentucky. Following that, we share a conversation we had with Heather D’Aoust, who is incarcerated in California. She’s been inside since she was a teen and talks about navigating this difficult terrain
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This week on Kite Line, we share a call from a prisoner located in Seattle, who exposes his facility’s careless treatment of prisoners in the face of COVID-19, and how medical isolation and punitive isolation function similarly. Afterwards, we finish our conversation with Keith Malik Washington. Malik was recently released from prison after many years, and has been telling us about life on the outside- and the importance of supporting those still behind prison walls. He talks about his comrade, Kevin Rashid Johnson, and the way that the prison system has used the interstate compact agreement to transfer Rashid to many facilities in several states as a form retaliation for exposing inhumane prison
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We begin this week with a short piece by WFHB reporter Aaron Comforty, who reports on an alleged instance of attempted suicide in the local jail, and one mother’s attempts to find out the status of her son. We also speak with Ted Smith, an Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Louisville who tells us about a new study his time is working on- testing wastewater from prisons in an effort to track potential coronavirus outbreaks. Lastly, we return to our conversation with Malik Washington, recently released from prison after many years. In last week’s episode, he spoke about his own experiences inside, but began talking about the current plight
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After this week’s news and updates, Kite Line sits down with Keith Malik Washington, who was released from prison last month. We’ve shared many of Washington’s essays and audio dispatches over the years, as he exposed the ongoing injustices and hazards he faced alongside others behind the prison walls.  Even though Washington is now on the outside, he spends much of his time advocating for his comrades who are still inside, such as Kwame Shakur and Kevin Rashid Johnson. You can see Washington’s post on FB about Kevin Rashid Johnson here. You can see more from the folks at Perilous
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This week, we hear from Michelle Freeman, who describes the horrifying conditions in which her husband, Vernell Freeman, is being held in Miami Correctional Facility, here in Indiana. Speaking on behalf of her partner, Michelle tells Kite Line about the repeated incidents of medical neglect and retaliatory violence Vernell has been subjected to within the prison. We also have updates on the situation of west coast prisoners, who are suffering from their own crises of medical and housing neglect amid the wildfires and evacuations in Oregon and elsewhere. You can see more about the call-in campaign for
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