Beyond Prisons

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Hope Is A Discipline feat. Mariame Kaba Jan 05, 2018

Show notes

In Episode 19 of Beyond Prisons, hosts Brian Sonenstein and Kim Wilson catch up with activist, writer, and educator Mariame Kaba.

Mariame shares her experiences advocating on behalf of Bresha Meadows, a teenage girl who killed her abusive father and was detained while facing the possibility of trial as an adult and a lifetime of incarceration. She recount's Bresha's story and explains how activists worked to make sure the family's needs were met and help them navigate the collateral consequences of detention, including an enormous financial burden and the shame and stigma that makes people internalize their struggle.

Mariame explains how children who are abused face limited options and harsh punishment for trying to escape their abusers and even harsher punishment for defending themselves. She talks about the racialized aspect of this arrangement, and how black children are dehumanized and not seen as children but as criminals in training.

She discusses the work that Survived and Punished put into assembling a tool kit to help people who are victims of abuse and are criminalized for survival actions. The tool kit has information on what the group thinks works for supporting immigrant survivors, trans survivors, how to engage with the media and legal teams, how to raise money and build a base of support, and more. Their website also has interviews and videos that provide more information.

Mariame reacts to a common question asked of abolitionists, which is what to do about people who have caused serious harm to others. She talks about the fear of criminals in society and the severe misperceptions among the public of who is incarcerated and what it means to be in prison. The effectiveness of prison as a tool to fight sexual violence, murder, and other serious crimes is questioned.

The conversation continues with Mariame's view of abolition as a collective project that embraces people who sense there is a problem with American institutions and are interested in figuring out what to do about it. She explains what she means when she says hope is a discipline, not an emotion or sense of optimism, and how this informs her organizing. Self care is examined as a community project. Finally, Mariame shares what books are on her shelf and what she's reading right now.

Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, and curator. Her work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, transformative justice, and supporting youth leadership development. She is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization with a vision to end youth incarceration. She was a member of the editorial board for Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal from January 2003 to December 2008. She was a founding advisory board member of the Chicago Community Bond Fund and she's a member of the Critical Resistance community advisory board. Kaba currently organizes with the Survived and Punished collective and, in addition to organizing and serving many other organizations, she is an educator and also runs the blog Prison Culture.

Follow Mariame Kaba on Twitter: @prisonculture

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

The End Of Policing feat. Alex Vitale Dec 12, 2017

Show notes

Professor Alex S. Vitale joins the Beyond Prisons podcast to discuss his book, "The End Of Policing," which provides a historical analysis of law enforcement and police reform in the United States and argues for alternatives.

Vitale tells us about how he came to write this book and walks us through the early history of police in the United States. He discusses the popular myths surrounding policing, underscoring their conflicts with the roles police have played as managers of inequality from colonialism, to the emergence of a mass industrial working class, to slavery.

Vitale discusses the litany of problems inherent to the most popular police reforms touted by liberals in recent decades. He discusses how these reforms fall short and why they distract and fail to address root causes. He also talks about how these reform approaches lack a critical analysis of the legal frameworks police use and how the strategy of professionalizing police forces has been more about restoring public confidence than addressing issues of safety and justice.

We discuss how police don't make schools make schools safer, don't deter gang activity, how they perpetuate homelessness, and more, and examine the enormous investments we make in law enforcement that could be put to much better use empowering communities in ways that reduce harm.

Alex S. Vitale is Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project there. He has spent the last 25 years writing about policing and consults both police departments and human rights organizations internationally. He is also a frequent essayist, whose writings have appeared in the New York Daily News, New York Times, Nation, Gotham Gazette, and New Inquiry.

Follow Alex Vitale on Twitter: @avitale

Get a copy of "The End Of Policing" from Verso Books—50% off for entire month of December 2017.

Support our show and join us on Patreon. Special thanks to Andrew Dilts for his support and shout out to listener Malik Raymond for volunteering to transcribe our episodes.

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

Prison Workshops feat. Dr. Breea Willingham Nov 30, 2017

Show notes

Dr. Breea Willingham joins the Beyond Prisons podcast to discuss her prison research, her writing workshops with incarcerated women, and her experiences as someone with family directly impacted by the system.

Dr. Willingham talks about how her experiences inform her work despite the traditional resistance of the academy to approaches that are not considered "objective"—even if it is highly relevant to the research. We talk about the farce of objectivity in both academia and journalism, and the need to put forward the perspective of people directly impacted by a particular subject.

We also examine Dr. Willingham's work regarding writing programs for incarcerated women. She talks about her research, in which educated, white, middle and upper-middle class women instructors were forced to negotiate their race and class privilege in their workshops, and their reactions upon finding that their students were human beings, too.

We also touch on how some activism and scholarship approaches incarceration voyeuristically, treating other people's misery as a curiosity or source of inspiration.

She discusses how writing workshops are liberating for incarcerated women and provide a way for them to resist their confinement, providing one of the few therapeutic opportunities for women to share and work through the trauma that so often paves their paths to prison.

Dr. Breea Willingham is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Plattsburgh State University of New York. She worked as a newspaper reporter covering crime and education for 10 years before entering academia. Dr. Willingham's research areas/interests include: Black women's prison writings, higher education in prison, Black women and police violence, the impact of incarceration on Black families and children, and women in the criminal justice system. She is currently writing a book about teaching and writing in women's prisons.

Visit Dr. Willingham's website: breeacwillingham.weebly.com

Follow Dr. Willingham on Twitter: @drbreewill

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

Racial Violence Syllabus feat. Dr. Walter Greason Nov 17, 2017

Show notes

Dr. Walter Greason joins the podcast to discuss his Racial Violence Syllabus, which attracted worldwide attention following the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dr. Greason's syllabus was translated into seven languages and reached millions of people, driving the public debate surrounding the removal of Confederate memorials across the United States.

Dr. Greason tells us what motivated him to share the syllabus as well as his experiences in the early 2000's teaching it in a class on the legacy of white terrorism. He walks us through some of the history of racial violence chronicled in the syllabus, including incidents in Cincinnati in 1829 and Philadelphia in 1834. He feels these particular examples are important because they show white supremacy is a national phenomenon and not restricted to the American south. We also discuss how Black communities have organized against acts of racial violence and in self defense.

We talk about how police brutality and other forms of state violencereplaced mob violence after the passage of civil rights laws in the 1960s and the emergence of the prison industrial complex.

"The rate of police killings in the 21st century [has] exceeded the rate per year of lynchings at the peak lynching period of the late 19th century," Dr. Greason said. "When I came across that data point, I just realized we were seeing things on television and through our media generally, even newspapers and now digital outlets, that were just tolerant of morass—an abyss of organized violence that just kills thousands and thousands of people with no real attention or outrage and in really unjustified ways that violate their fundamental human rights."

Our conversation touches on the role of Black churches as spaces for safety and collective action that have been targeted throughout history for white nationalist violence. We also discuss how free speech and assembly rights have been used to defend white supremacist incitements to violence.

Finally, Dr. Greason tells us about his new book, "Planning Future Cities," which explores how the places in which we live are created through the evolution of institutions.

Dr. Walter Greason is the dean of the Honors School at Monmouth University. His research focuses on the comparative, economic analysis of slavery, industrialization, and suburbanization. Dr. Greason serves as the Treasurer for the Society for American City and Regional Planning History, and with a variety of co-editors, he has published Planning Future Cities (2017) - an innovative look at architecture, urbanism, and municipal design - as well as The American Economy (2016) - a provocative examination of race, property, and wealth in the United States since 1750. His scholarly monograph, Suburban Erasure , won the Best Work of Non-Fiction award from the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance in 2014. He also won grants from the Mellon Foundation (2011) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (2016).

Follow Dr. Greason on Twitter: @WorldProfessor

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

Hip Hop Scholarship feat. Devyn Springer (Part 2) Nov 09, 2017

Show notes

Artist, writer, and organizer Devyn Springer joins the Beyond Prisons podcast for a special two-part episode.

In part two, Devyn speaks with hosts Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein about hip hop scholarship and pedagogy as liberatory approaches to education. We also discuss his photography, writing, and poetry.

Devyn explains his scholarship focuses on hip hop as a means of resistance. He talks about how, as one of most influential art forms of the past century, hip hop has always been about race, class, and gender, and that it tells stories and histories. He discusses the importance of having students see themselves in the material he teaches, explaining how the work of Walter Rodney has influenced his own practice.

We also discuss Devyn's photography and writing, including a piece he wrote about the Pulse Nightclub shooting. He sees his art as a way to combat the normalization of oppression and the idea that oppression is an essential part of human existence and human nature.

We explore a piece Devyn wrote on writers block as a socioeconomic condition. He talks about the struggle to create art that exists for beauty itself when he's only given a platform to discuss his identity and trauma. He explains how marginalized artists and writers are only called upon to appease someone else's diversity quota, and how white artists are primarily the only ones permitted to create art simply for its beauty, while artists of color must make a statement about their identity in order to be given a platform. He raises the class aspect of this dynamic, explaining that staff writing positions are rarely available and that when opportunities are available, they are low paying and exclusively for him to write from the perspective of his identity as someone who is Black, Muslim and queer. The anxiety this creates hinders the writing process itself.

Finally, we discuss the concept of self-care with Devyn, which he sees as "being an adult" and "doing what you need to do to secure your livelihood." He argues self-care should be done to "alleviate your conditions temporarily so you can continue doing your organizing and your work."

Devyn Springer is an Atlanta-based artist, writer, organizer, and educator with a background in African & African Diaspora studies and a concentration in Art History. He has worked with various organizing groups in Atlanta such as Rise UP, It's Bigger Than You, Black Lives Matter, and is a member of Workers World Party. He is the assistant editor of two peer-reviewed academic journals, South and ATL. His first book of poetry & art is titled "Grayish-Black," and you can follow him on Twitter @HalfAtlanta, and see some of his visual art at Urbansoulatlanta.com

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

Mental Health And The Community feat. Devyn Springer (Part 1) Nov 02, 2017

Show notes

Artist, writer, and organizer Devyn Springer joins the Beyond Prisons podcast for a special two-part episode.

In part one, Devyn speaks with hosts Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein about his work with mental health response networks in Atlanta. Through Rise UP, Black Lives Matter, and other groups, Devyn has worked to confront mental health emergencies through deescalation and by building relationships in the community.

We discuss how the presence of police, and threat of violence that accompanies them, exacerbates manic episodes. We also talk about the dangers of making police the first responders in times of crisis, as well as the defunding and dissolution of mental health services in the community, which have shifted to prisons and jails.

We talk about how these facilities do not and cannot provide an adequate therapeutic environment, and how situating treatment in the justice system has encouraged a defensive posture, in which we are dealing with crises more than providing ongoing support and treatment before they happen. Finally, we examine the recent killing of Scout Schultz, a student at Georgia Tech who had a history of mental illness, as well as the response to Scout's death by other students.

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

The Crisis At McCormick Correctional Institution Oct 30, 2017

Show notes

Journalist Jared Ware interviewed people incarcerated at McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina regarding the ongoing crisis there for a special edition of Beyond Prisons.

McCormick has been on lockdown for weeks. At the end of September, incarcerated people reported officials were withholding drinking water and engaging in excessive force after a water main broke outside the facility. For three days, people on the inside reported they did not have drinkable water. This caused tensions in the facility to boil over into multiple incidents, which were met with more repression by prison staff.

Incarcerated people feel staff are intentionally trying to provoke them to justify worsening brutality and repressive conditions.

One man was reportedly shot with rubber bullets multiple times after leaving the shower. He has been transferred to another facility after he was taken the prison's medical center.

On Monday, October 30, advocates reported people had briefly taken over the restrictive housing unit and set fires before returning to their cells.

Few news outlets have covered the crisis from the perspective of people on the inside, instead relying exclusively on reports from corrections officials, who claim the violence was a product of unruly prisoners and staff shortages. This claim has been used to justify the lockdown as well as the presence of riot squads and officers from nearby prisons.

Prison staff are said to be violating multiple department policies. Under the lockdown, people are being held in their cells 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They say medical attention is being denied, which has been particularly dangerous for those with diabetes. The prison is not providing adequate meals and unpalatable food is being served "with guns drawn and pointed in the direction of each cell they open to pass the food."

"To add another degree of psychological torture, steel plates are being used to cover all windows," members of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak reported on Twitter. "Natural sunlight is being eliminated in the cells at McCormick Prison."

Incarcerated people are reporting the facility is only allowing one cell at a time to bathe, limiting showers to once a week. Hygiene products have not been delivered to cells. Living conditions are becoming increasingly unsanitary as well, as cells and showers have not been cleaned.

Another prison in the South Carolina system, Broad River Correctional Institution, is reportedly on lockdown as well.

Advocates are asking the public to call the following officials on behalf of those incarcerated at McCormick:

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED): 803-737-9000
Assistant Attorney General, John M. Gore DOJ Civil Rights Division 202-514-4609
South Carolina Senator Karl Allen Corrections and Penology Oversight subcommittee member 602 Gressette Bldg.Columbia 29201 Business Phone: (803) 212-6008
SCDC Office of the Director Bryan P. Stirling: 803-896- 8555.

They are requesting a formal investigation relating to water rationing and the use of excessive force at the facility. Incarcerated people are also asking for normal operations to resume "without delay" and for inhumane living conditions to be "rectified immediately."

Advocates have put out the following script for those who wish to make phone calls:

My name is (YOUR NAME) and I am calling to request that McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina be returned to normal operations as there are adequate staff at the prison, including staff from other prisons who are doing over time shifts there, and members of the burgundy team who are present.

I understand that the conditions there have been deplorable and in violation of SCDC policies and basic fundamentals of human decency. Beyond asking for the prison to be returned to normal operations, I am asking for a full investigation into the leadership of the prison and into all of the decisions, actions, abuses, and violations which have occurred there since the Boiling Water notice was put in effect there back on September 30th.

Listen to the episode to get the perspectives of incarcerated people on what's going on inside McCormick.

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

Incarcerated Women Resist feat. Victoria Law Sep 14, 2017

Show notes

Journalist Victoria Law joins the Beyond Prisons podcast to discuss her work with imprisoned women and her book, "Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women."

Law talks about how and why she wrote the book, which centers women's struggles against incarceration and describes women's resistance and organizing in prison. From this perspective, she also discusses the challenges and importance of compiling testimony from women on the inside, as well as the risks women have to take to speak out.

She gives examples of the different kinds of resistance women engage in, and how their struggles to obtain education and access to programming and treatment are often overlooked examples of resisting the conditions of their confinement.

We also discuss how criminal justice journalism traditionally relies on narratives provided by law enforcement and how incarcerated women are often perceived as untrustworthy. Law provides insight on the history of women's imprisonment and explains how reform has evolved systems of surveillance and control for women over time.

Victoria Law is a freelance journalist. She is a co-founder of Books Through Bars--NYC, which sends free books to incarcerated people nationwide and the editor of Tenacious, a zine of art & writings by women in prison. She is the author of "Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women" and the co-author of the upcoming "Your Home is Your Prison," which explores how proposed "alternatives" to incarceration expand the carceral system.

Follow Victoria Law on Twitter at @LVikkiml

Find her work at victorialaw.net

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak Aug 10, 2017

Show notes

Beyond Prisons is on a brief hiatus until the end of August, when we'll return with a great episode featuring journalist Victoria Law.

But before we go, we wanted to share our conversation with members of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak ahead of the historic Millions For Prisoners Human Rights March in Washington, DC on August 19.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is a national collective of incarcerated people who fight for human rights by providing other incarcerated people with access to legal education, resources, and assistance. They inform people of their human rights under the United Nations charter and provide guidance on prison policies and lawsuits. Their advocacy work often makes them targets for retaliation and repression from corrections officers within prisons, which is why they chose to remain anonymous for our conversation.

In general, jailhouse lawyers provide support primarily to poor incarcerated people and their families who cannot afford proper legal representation. They are largely incarcerated people who have taught themselves, or been informally mentored by other jailhouse lawyers, and don't have law degrees. They describe their work and some ways that people outside prisons can support it.

We also discuss Black August and the fundamental teachings of black revolutionary George Jackson, whose life and work provides a major influence for JLS. Finally, JLS members share their perspective on the 13th Amendment and the upcoming Millions For Prisoners March - which they called for in collaboration with the IAMWE prison advocacy network - and give their ideas for how people can support the demonstration from around the country.

Follow Jailhouse Lawyers Speak on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaillawspeak

Follow JLS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlkJailhouselawyer/

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

Demanding Human Rights At Vaughn feat. Emily Abendroth Jul 21, 2017

Show notes

On episode 10 of Beyond Prisons, we talk about Thomas Gordon, who is incarcerated at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, a state prison in Delaware.

Vaughn was the site of what has been called the Vaughn Rebellion, an uprising last February in response to horrendous living conditions that was met with brutal repression by corrections officers.

Thomas wrote an open letter after the rebellion, which described their demands for human rights, including a proper diet, an adequate grievance process, and access to programs and education.

Thomas's friend Emily Abendroth joins hosts Brian Sonenstein and Kim Wilson to talk about her friendship with Thomas, the open letter, and what she's learned from their correspondence. We discuss the risks and dangers Thomas faces in doing this work, the response from state officials and the media to the rebellion, and how officials have sought to increase their power in the aftermath by blaming staffing and security issues instead of addressing the root causes outlined by those incarcerated at Vaughn.

Emily Abendroth is a poet, teacher and anti-prison activist living in Philadelphia. She is an active organizer with the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (a grassroots campaign working to end life without parole sentencing in Pennsylvania) and is co-founder of Address This! (an education and empowerment project that provides innovative, social justice correspondence courses to individuals incarcerated in Pennsylvania) and LifeLines: Voices Against the Other Death Penalty (a media project conducted across the prison walls to highlight the voices and analysis of those serving death by incarceration sentences). Her published works include the poetry book ]Exclosures[ and The Instead, a collaborative book with fiction writer Miranda Mellis, as well as numerous poetry chapbooks. Follow Emily's work at: Lifelines-project.org, Decarceratepa.info/cadbi, and https://www.facebook.com/DecarceratePA

Full Disclosure: Kim has two sons incarcerated at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.

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Music & Production: Jared Ware

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