Kite Line

Eric King is an anarchist prisoner who was arrested in September 2014 after he carried out a solidarity action to support the Ferguson Uprising.  We speak again today with his lawyer, Lauren Regan, about the harsh violence and repression he has faced in prison, culminating in trumped-up charges of assaulting a guard, charges which he just defeated... The post 299 | Eric King’s Trial...

Eric King is an anarchist prisoner who was arrested in September 2014 after he carried out a solidarity action in support of the Ferguson Uprising.  We speak today with his lawyer, Lauren Regan, about the harsh violence and repression he has faced in prison, culminating in trumped-up charges of assaulting a guard, charges which he just defeated... The post 298 | Wall of Silence firs...

For our show this week, Micol Seigel talks to Abby Cuniff. Cuniff is a reporter who recently published an article about arsenic contamination in Kern Valley State Prison in California. In this conversation, they talk about the prevalence of arsenic in California’s Central Valley – including in its prisons. She also describes the impact of... The post 297 | No Choice But Poisoned Water first...

This week, we share Isaiah Willoughby’s story. He’s been on the show before, talking about his incarceration due to actions on behalf on the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Today, he walks us through the events leading up to and after his arrest, including the police murder of his neighbor in Seattle and his... The post 296 | Words from an Incarcerated BLM Demonstrator first appeared on Kite...

This week, we speak with Dan from Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity. MAPS is an exemplary grassroots abolitionist group, which arose out of the 2016 National Prison Strike and, specifically, the Kinross uprising in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Dan lays out this history, and gives us an inventory of COVID-19 in Michigan prisons, based on... The post 295 | Michigan Abolition and Prisone...

This 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... The post 294 | Prison Profiteering with Br...

We begin this episode with our monthly round up of prison disturbances, generously compiled by Perilous Chronicle. Afterwards, we share a piece by IU graduate student Kayan Tara about the death of Malik Ali Malik, who died during a police chase in Bloomington last spring. Then, we return to the topic of long-term prisoner Leonard... The post 293 | Freedom for Leonard Peltier first appeared on Kite...

In this week’s episode, we air the final part of a conversation between Jok from Focus Initiatives and Rodney Jones, known as Big R. Big R was a witness to the beating that sparked the 1985 Pendleton prison uprising here in Indiana. In previous episodes, they discussed the circumstances that led up to the beating,... The post 292 | The 1985 Pendleton Uprising first appeared on Kite Line Radio .

In this week’s episode, we air the second part of a conversation between Jok Huerta from Focus Initiatives and Rodney Jones, known as Big R. Big R was a witness to the beating that sparked the the 1985 Pendleton prison uprising here in Indiana. This conversation is part of a series put on by IDOC Watch and... The post 291 | Uncovering White Supremacist Violence first appeared on Kite Lin...

In this week’s episode, we air the first part of a conversation between Jok Huerta from Focus Initiatives and Rodney Jones, known as Big R. Both men share stories of their own incarceration, and describe life in a Maximum Restraint Unit. As Big R puts it, when you leave general population for the MRU, “you’re... The post 290 | Life in a Maximum Restraint Unit first appeared on Kite Line Radio .

We open this episode with our monthly collection of prison disturbances, generously compiled by Perilous Chronicle. Afterwards, we share a conversation between Daniel McGowan and Brian Whitener about the Certain Days calendar. The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project coordinated between outside and inside organizers in the US......

This week, we continue to air selections from a presentation moderated by Ruth Wilson Gilmore and featuring James Kilgore speaking on his new book Understanding E-Carceration.  Speaking from his own experience, he emphasizes that electronic monitoring is another euphemism for the expansion of the carceral net across the globe, enriching corporations and shackling prisoners —... The post 288 |...

This week, we share two features dealing with the cunning ways that the carceral system conceals itself and the harm it causes.  The first is an account from Adrien Espinoza, who has been on the show before, speaking about conditions in the Maricopa County Jail. As a child, Adrien survived the Adobe Mountain School in... The post 287 | How Prison Hides first appeared on Kite Line Radio .

This week, we air an interview with WFYI reporters Lauren Bavis and Jake Harper in Indianapolis. They co-host the podcast called Sick, the second season of which focuses on health care issues in the Indiana Women’s Prison. As they share on the show, the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic ignited their interest in IWP and... The post 286 | Sick in the Indiana Women’s Prison first appeared on Kite...

The explosive spread of the Omicron variant has brought our focus back to the COVID-vulnerability the prison system imposes on its captives. This week, we speak to two people — one outside and one inside the walls — dealing with the effects of COVID on California prisoners.. We start off with an interview with Olivia... The post 285 | We Understand How They’ll Play with Our Lives in Here first app...

This week, we honor the late Russell Maroon Shoatz. On December 17th, Russell Maroon Shoatz passed away. In 1970, Shoatz was convicted for the murder of a police officer in Pennsylvania and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. On February 20, 2014, Shoatz was returned to the prison’s general population after... The post 284 | Russell Maroon Shoatz, In His Own Words...

This week, Mwalimu Shakur calls us from inside Corcoran prison in California to share his experiences in the Secure Housing Unit. He’s been on the show before, talking about the gladiator fights used by guards to punish and control the imprisoned population. Housed in Corcoran for decades, he describes how he kept going under such... The post 283 | Revolutionaries in Isolation first appeared on Ki...

We 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... The post 282 | Carceral Nonprofits first appeared...

This 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... The post 281...

We begin our episode with our monthly round up of prison disturbances contributed by Perilous Chronicle. We close out the episode with a call from Adrien Espinoza, who is currently housed in Maricopa County in Arizona. Espinoza, who got his paralegal degree inside, has contributed to the Prisoner Correspondence Project, the Silvia Rivera law project,... The post 280 | Brutal Jail Conditions in Mar...

Our news today is focused on the long-term consequences of incarceration.  Not only was one of the oldest juvies in the country finally shut down due to systemic abuse of young prisoners, but a number of old school imprisoned militants, from Khalfani Khaldun to Sundiata Acoli, are being hit with repression or are fighting for late-life... The post 279 | Prison’s Durable Harm first appear...

This week, our guest is Bianca Tylek, who fills us in about the prison phone industry. GTL and Securus among others profit off of prisoners and their families by charging them exorbitant fees for access to the phone lines which are so key for surviving prison. Recent coverage confirming that Sesame Street had entered a partnership caused... The post 277 | Prison Phone Justice first appea...

This week, we finish our conversation with Kelly Grace Price about the campaign to close Rosie’s. 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. Suzanne Singer, the granddaughter of the jail’s... The post 276 | The Long Tail of...

This 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... The post 275 | Close Rosie’s firs...

We 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,... The post 274 | Hard-earned Wisdom f...