For this episode, we share the first part of a conversation between Micol Seigel and Amanda Hall. Hall talks to us about how her firsthand experience of incarceration led her to her current work in prisoner and re-entry support. We will air the second part of this conversation next week. You can find out more…
Read MoreShawn Sutton is from Greenville, North Carolina, and she participated in the George Floyd Uprising when it spread there in late May 2020. Shawn was imprisoned due to her participation and has been recently released. Today, she discusses the incident surrounding her arrest and the overall way recent years have shaped her politics. You can…
Read MoreThis 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,…
Read MoreFor the first part of this week’s episode- we hear from Onishona. In this interview, she tells us about her experiences with recidivism and problems with re-entry. She also talks about the role books, and specifically how books about mass incarceration, such as The New Jim Crow, shaped her prison experiences. After her interview we share…
Read MoreThis week, we finish our conversation with Anastazia Schmid. This time around, she talks about labels- and the media’s role in the stigmatization of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Schmid also talks to us about the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project, and other ways of presenting her historical research, especially outside of the academic setting,…
Read MoreThis week, we air part of a conversation with Brandon Ackerson, a 36-year-old survivor of an 18 year prison sentence in the Indiana prison system. Newly released, he talks about using the skills he learned and honed during life in the DOC, in which he became a successful writer while in the Indiana Prison Writers’…
Read MoreFirst, we have updates on the Vaughn 17 and hunger strikes and noise demonstrations from immigrant detention centers around the country. After the news, we share a conversation with Phillip Roberts and Debra Des Vignes. Des Vignes is the founder of the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop, and Roberts participated in the project for almost a…
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 MoreIn last week’s episode, we introduced Johdy Polk, who spoke to us about her time behind the prison walls, and urged audiences to see the other ways that people are confined by society. Now, we continue to hear more of Johdy’s story- about the relationships she built while on the inside, her transition to daily…
Read MoreThis week, we share a moving keynote speech recently given at the University of Michigan by Michelle Jones. Jones has been featured on multiple episodes of Kite Line, who shared some of her experiences at the Indiana Women’s Prison, particularly issues of mental and physical health on the inside. Now, she speaks of the extensive…
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