Beyond Prisons

In the first episode of 2019, hosts Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein begin a conversation on transformative justice by discussing the concept of "Pods" and the process of "Pod-mapping." These exercises involve developing skills and identifying relationships that are key to intervening in harm and providing the kind of support that accountability can demand. Listeners can learn more and follow this...

Nabil Hassein joins the Beyond Prisons podcast to give an update on the campaign to close Rikers Island and the fight to oppose new jail construction in New York City. Nabil is a technologist, organizer and educator based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He has worked professionally as a software developer and a teacher in both public schools and private settings. Nabil also works with grassroots polic...

Kim and Brian share their thoughts and best practices for journalists looking to improve their reporting on incarceration and related issues. Even if you're not a journalist, we think this is a conversation you should be in on because it may help you read between the lines and evaluate media sources that cover these issues on your own. Consider this a starting point for getting these thoughts and...

Kim Wilson speaks with formerly incarcerated activist Kempis "Ghani" Songster about the black liberation group MOVE in the second part of episode 29. (Listen to Part 1 here ). MOVE's Philadelphia home was bombed by a police helicopter in 1985. The attack killed eleven people—including five children—and resulted in the destruction of 65 houses in the neighborhood. There were only two survivors. Gha...

Kim Wilson interviews formerly incarcerated activist Kempis "Ghani" Songster in part one of Beyond Prisons episode 29. In 1987, at the age of 15, Ghani was imprisoned for homicide.  Despite his age, he was certified as an adult, convicted of first degree murder, and given a mandatory life sentence without parole, or what is increasingly known today as death by incarceration. Thus, he became one of...

Jared Ware joins episode 28 of Beyond Prisons to discuss this year's prison strike. Recorded in the midst of the strike on August 30, co-hosts Brian Sonenstein and Kim Wilson have a conversation with Ware about the strike's progress, as well as the challenges of organizing and why the press is woefully unprepared to report on the action. Support our show and  join us on Patreon . Please listen, su...

Activist and paralegal Sean Damon joins episode 27 of Beyond Prisons. Sean is a legal worker and organizer with twenty years of experience in union, community and social movement organizing. He works for Amistad Law Project , a West Philadelphia-based public interest law center focused on the human rights of incarcerated people. He is also a co-founding member of the Coalition to Abolish Death By...

TRIGGER WARNING : Content includes discussion of suicide. John Gillespie Jr. (aka swim.) is an incoming PhD student in UC Irvine's Comparative Literature program, a poet and a recording artist hailing from Newark, Delaware currently based in Orange County, California. His research interest are in Black suicide, the relationship between scientific development (specifically the Internet and Medicine...

Panagioti Tsolkas, an organizer with the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, joins the Beyond Prisons podcast for a discussion of prison ecology and the intersection between the criminal legal system and the environment. We talk about how his organization came into existence and he gives us some examples of issues they're working on in Florida (where they're based) and around the country, like access...

Bret Grote, legal director for the Abolitionist Law Center, joins the Beyond Prisons podcast to tell us about his organization's work and what an abolitionist approach looks like for lawyers. The conversation touches on the impact the Abolitionist Law Center has had in Pennsylvania and the work it's done on solitary confinement, juvenile life without parole, health care, and more. We talk about po...

Victoria Law returns to the Beyond Prisons podcast to talk about prison publications and curating art and writing by incarcerated people. Victoria tells us about the zine she's organized for nearly 16 years,  Tenacious , which is a DIY publication featuring the work of incarcerated women from around the country. She talks about her introduction to zines, her experiences curating content from incar...

In a special two-part episode of Beyond Prisons, we discuss communicating with incarcerated people and interview pen pal and activist Ciara Kay. Ciara Kay joins us in Part 2 to tell us about how she got involved with pen palling and her experience corresponding and organizing with Michael Young, who is incarcerated in Louisiana. She talks about their friendship over the past few years, as well as...

In a special two-part episode of Beyond Prisons, we discuss communicating with incarcerated people and interview pen pal and activist Ciara Kay. In Part 1, we talk about forming relationships with people on the inside through email, phone, or snail mail and the obstacles you face attempting each. We also discuss how pen palling, building relationships, and maintaining communication with people on...

Today is the 150th anniversary of W.E.B. Du Bois's birth. To mark this occasion, I interviewed Du Bois scholar, Dr. Tony Monteiro. In this conversation, Dr. Monteiro talks about the year long project he and his colleagues launched in Philadelphia including a weekly radio show on WURD, where works of Du Bois are read. As part of The Year of Du Bois, Dr. Monteiro has helped form Du Bois reading grou...

Hosts Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein discuss Operation PUSH: a nonviolent prison labor strike and boycott in Florida that began on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Brian talks about what he's learned from reporting on the action and the intense retaliation by state prison official against suspected organizers. We go over the goals and demands of Operation PUSH and how prison officials are denying the...

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 activis...

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 policin...

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 relevan...

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...

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 abou...

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 relationsh...

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 im...

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...

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, whic...