Capitalism

123 | Leon Benson in His Own Words, Part Two

This week, we are continuing our talk with Leon Benson, who speaks to us from inside Pendleton Correctional Facility here in Indiana. He’s been inside since 1998, for a murder conviction and he has been trying to clear his name and win his freedom ever since. Benson was incarcerated at 23 years old, and talks…

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96 | Carceral Capitalism, Part 3: The Prison Abolitionist Imagination

This week, we are returning to the topic of Carceral Capitalism. We interviewed the poet and author Jackie Wang in previous episodes of Kite Line. You can access those by clicking her name in the tag links below. There, Wang discussed the relationship between the growth of municipal debt and the emergence of fine farming…

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90 | Carceral Capitalism Continued and Operation Push Updates

This week, we start by finishing the discussion between Micol Seigel and Jackie Wang. You can hear more of their conversation on carceral capitalism in last week’s episode. After that segment, we share a series of letters and updates from Operation PUSH, which is still ongoing in some parts of the Florida prison system, and…

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89 | Carceral Capitalism, Part One

For this week’s episode we share the first part of a conversation between Micol Seigel and Jackie Wang. Wang is the author of the recent book, Carceral Capitalism. Today, she shares what led her to carceral studies, and the themes in her new book. She speaks about how having an incarcerated sibling shaped the trajectory…

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64 | The Rise of Mass Incarceration, Part Two

Our news this week focuses on the prisoners who are fighting California’s wildfires for as little as a dollar an hour while actually fighting fires. In total, about thirty-eight hundred male and female inmates are fighting fires in California. They constitute around thirteen percent of the state’s firefighters. Their low salaries save taxpayers a hundred…

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63 | The Rise of Mass Incarceration, Part One

This week we share the first part of a lecture by Elizabeth Hinton delivered at IU on October 12.  In her talk, she traces the creation and rise of mass incarceration as a strategy of America’s ruling class.  Her historical research, which culminated in a book last year called “From the War on Poverty to…

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61 | Prison Imperialism

The phenomenon of mass incarceration has made the United States the world leader in carceral punishment. With only four percent of the world’s population, the United States accounts for 20% of the world’s incarcerated persons. In fact, the U.S. Is the pioneer of mass incarceration and the attendant police militarization and prison industry that are…

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