Chicago

309 | Captives with Jarrod Shanahan, Part One

This week, Bella Bravo speaks with Jarrod Shanahan, a writer, activist, and professor of Criminal Justice based in Chicago. Shanahan has been on previous episodes, discussing mass incarceration and the George Floyd rebellion. We are speaking today about his new book Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage. Captives recounts the last seventy years of…

Read More

161 | A History of Cook County Jail

For this week’s episode, we share a conversation between Melanie D. Newport and Anne Gray Fisher. They talk about the history of Cook County Jail- the largest facility in the country. Melanie D. Newport is an Assistant Professor of US History at the University of Connecticut-Hartford. Her work explores the criminal justice system in the…

Read More

56 | Kara Wild: From the Midwest to a French Prison

This week’s story is that of Kara Wild. An anarchist prisoner from Chicago, Kara is a trans woman who has been in a French prison for over a year and a half. We first give some background on her case, and then hear from her friends and loved ones, who share some stories about Kara….

Read More

39 | Dismantling Barriers to Life

This week features a variety of conversations that we are sharing with you through a partnership with StoryCorps. The event, Dismantling Barriers to Life, was about the impacts of mass incarceration. Dismantling Barriers to Life was hosted last month in Chicago, and these are some of the stories collected for the event. We hear people…

Read More