This week, we share part of a conversation between Focus Initiatives’ Jok Huerta and Sincere. Sincere, who spent 13 years in Indiana prisons, and now organizes in Indianapolis with other formerly incarcerated people. Sincere speaks to the experience of arriving and getting settled into prison. She also movingly addresses the frequent abuses she witnessed and…
Read MoreThis 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. …
Read MoreOn 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…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read MoreThis week, we share the voices of three prisoners in Florida. Choosing to speak anonymously due to repression, they told us about horrible conditions inside the Florida prison system. They explain the racial injustice in the prison system, the importance of letting lifers out, the prevalence of moldy, rancid food, poor hygiene in the face…
Read MoreThis week, we share a phone conversation between Kijana Tashiri Askari and C, one of their outside supporters. Askari is incarcerated in the California Medical Facility- a male-only state carceral medical institution.The recorded this conversation earlier this week, about the conditions Kijana and others are facing, including improper COVID-19 protocol on the part of the…
Read MoreOn May 20th, Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez became the fifth child to die in border patrol custody since December. He was 16, and had been held for a week in a border patrol outpost that lacked proper provisioning. He had fled Guatemala, currently wracked with drought and violence, and reached the U.S. on May 13-…
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 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 are sharing the words from a prisoner who contacted us from inside the South Carolina prison system. In addition to his thoughts on the recent National Prison Strike, of which news still continues to trickle in, he talks about what prisoners are experiencing every day. From severe medical neglect, inedible food, and…
Read More