In light of the ongoing struggles across the country against deportations, family separations, and ICE detention centers, we are sharing an interview we did last year about struggles in Australia against refugee prison camps. In 2002, imprisoned refugees inside Australia’s remote Woomera immigration prison coordinated protests with 2500 supporters who had pitched a No Borders…
Read MoreFor this episode, we are returning to the conditions in immigrant detention centers. Alejandra spoke at the Fight Toxic Prisons conference in Pittsburgh, which was held earlier this month. Growing up in California, she was the only child in her family to be undocumented. As an adult in Arizona, she had a minor arrest that…
Read MoreThis week, we will focus on a specific story about an immigrant detention case in Pittsburgh- and hear firsthand from family impacted by these harsh repercussions for undocumented immigrants. Martin Esquivel-Hernandez was detained after a traffic stop, held by ICE, and eventually deported, leaving his family behind in Pennsylvania. Today, we will hear his story…
Read MoreFirst, we hear part of a panel from the recent Fight Toxic Prisons conference, which was held last week in Pittsburgh. Saleem Holbrook shares his experiences after doing nearly three decades inside, with a focus on what it’s like to organize behind the walls. Coming into the system when he was young, he describes the…
Read MoreThis week’s episode is packed with news of struggles and repression. We start with coverage of Indiana prisons and two prisoners who need outside support right now. Then we get updates and two statements from prisoners in Florida continuing to organize within the framework of Operation PUSH. These reflections are particularly vital as both prisoners…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read MoreIn this episode, we hear from Timothy Stewart-Winter, an Associate Professor at Rutgers University with a background studying sexuality and incarceration. Stewart-Winter wrote the book “Queer Clout: Chicago and the Rise of Gay Politics” and co-directs the Queer Newark Oral History Project. In this episode, they speak about the policing of sexuality and some of its consequences,…
Read MoreThis week, we share the first part of a conversation we had with “Joe”. After doing ten years in prison for a sex offense conviction, Joe is now outside and navigating the difficult tightrope that many people convicted of such crimes must walk. A difficult topic to even discuss, Joe expresses the way being on…
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…
Read MoreLast week, we began hearing the voices of prisoners on the topic of Angela Davis’s book, Are Prisons Obsolete? Up first, we have Anastazia Schmid’s response to the book, followed by Angaza Iman Bahar reading his response to us from Miami Correctional Facility.
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