This week on Kite Line we air a discussion from 2021, in which we speak with prison abolitionist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law. We share the first part of our discussion on their recent book, Prison by Any Other Name: Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book is an in-depth look at the various “alternatives…
Read MoreThis week, we share the final part of a conversation about Rikers Island between Bella Bravo and Jarrod Shanahan. Shanahan is a writer, activist, and professor of Criminal Justice based in Chicago. He has previously appeared on Kite Line to discuss mass incarceration and the George Floyd rebellion. We are speaking again today about his…
Read MoreThis week, we share a conversation with Brian Dolinar. He has been on the show before, speaking about Parole Illinois. In this episode, he talks about Guardian RFID, a company that produces handheld devices that allow jail guards to do headcounts for inmates electronically via scanning. As he explains, various technologies are being used to expand…
Read MoreWe are sad to report that Russell Maroon Shoatz, who was recently granted compassionate release after his decades in prison, has passed away. This week, we return to the final part of our conversation about carceral non-profits with Zhandarka Kurti and Jarrod Shanahan. Kurti is a professor of criminology and Criminal Justice at Loyola University…
Read MoreThis week, we cover carceral non-profits in an interview with Drs. Zhandarka Kurti, a professor of criminology and Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago, and Jarrod Shanahan, professor of criminal justice at Governors State University in Chicago. Bella Bravo interviews Zhana and Jarrod, who are abolitionist scholars researching incarceration, and in recent years, their work…
Read MoreThis week, we hear from Kelly Grace Price, a co-creator of the Close Rosie’s campaign. Rosie’s refers to the Rose M. Singer Facility, an all-women’s jail on Rikers Island. On average, Rosie’s detains around 630 women, girls, transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex females while they await trial. Price deconstructs the reformist arguments made NYC Board…
Read MoreWe start off this week’s episode with an update on Marius Mason’s transfer to a men’s facility. Marius is an imprisoned environmentalist who, in addition to waging an Earth Liberation Front sabotage campaign, was an important aboveground organizer for social movements in Indiana and Michigan for decades. He came out as transgender while in prison,…
Read MoreIn 2008, Monroe County moved to build a new, expanded jail -framed as a “justice campus” using humanitarian rhetoric. In response, a diverse group of local residents founded an organization called Decarcerate Monroe County (DMC). Judah Schept, who returns as our guest alongside Micol Seigel, was an organizer in the successful DMC campaign to block…
Read MoreThis week on Kite Line, we continue our conversation with prison abolitionist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law. We share the second half of our discussion on their recent book, Prison by Any Other Name: Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book is an in-depth look at the various “alternatives to prison” that are held up…
Read MoreThis week on Kite Line, we speak with prison abolitionist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law. We share the first part of our discussion on their recent book, Prison by Any Other Name: Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book is an in-depth look at the various “alternatives to prison” that are held up as substitutes…
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