Kite Line

Prisoners in California have been subjected to a new and disturbing round of gladiator fights – conflicts between prisoners instigated by guards for their own amusement or to break down solidarity between different groups on the inside. This week, we will begin sharing a powerful conversation with three women whose husbands have suffered from this... The post 170 | Families Speak Out Against the G...

For this episode, we share calls from folks on the inside. First, we have the statement from the striking prisoners at the Clallum Bay Correctional Facility in Washington State. After their statement, Abu Faheem Shabazz calls in to talk about conditions at Westville Correctional Facility, followed by Myron Walker talking about education at Putnamville Correctional... The post 169 | Updates From th...

This week, we finish our conversation with Anastazia Schmid. This time around, she talks about labels- and the media’s role in the stigmatization of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Schmid also talks to us about the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project, and other ways of presenting her historical research, especially outside of the academic setting,... The post 168 | Writing Our Hi...

We return this week to our conversation with Anastazia Schmid. Speaking to her just weeks after her release, she talks about stigma and control- both for women and for the incarcerated. After spending 18 years in Indiana prison, her case was recently overturned- due largely to her own tenacity. During this part of the conversation,... The post 167 | Apparatuses of Control, from Prison to Gynecolog...

This week, we share the first part of an interview with Anastazia Schmid. Schmid has appeared on Kite Line before, analyzing women’s health care in the prison system. Now, she joins us on the other side of the walls, talking through her release and subsequent support, and the meaning of truth in light of trauma.... The post 166 | Truth and Trauma: A Conversation with Anastazia Schmid, Part One fir...

This week, we hear a talk by H.H., who spoke recently at the Bend the Bars conference in Lansing, Michigan. H.H. shares his story, including the inside scoop on the Kinross prison uprising on 2016 and its aftermath. He was only released last month, after being in prison from age 17 to 48. H.H. also... The post 165 | Bridging the Gap: H.H. on Inside/Outside Coordination first appeared on Kite Line...

First, we hear some prison news and reflect on the anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion. Then, we hear more from last month’s Bend the Bars conference, which was held in Lansing, Michigan. In a compelling panel called “Fighting Immigrant Detention Centers”, organizers with the Little Village Solidarity Network explain the processes that children go... The post 164 | Children in Immigrant Det...

This week, we speak on the phone with writer and prison abolitionist Craig Gilmore, who begins by discussing his recent piece in Commune Magazine. The article, “The Business of Incarceration” is a review of American Prison, a critically acclaimed 2018 book by Shane Bauer. In his conversation with us, Gilmore critiques the book’s thesis on private... The post 163 | The Business of Incarceration: A...

It’s been one year since the August 2018 National Prison Strike. This week, we feature a talk from Ben Turk and Amani Sawari- both of whom were important outside supporters of last year’s national Prison Strike. This talk took place at Bend the Bars 2019, a prison abolitionist conference focusing on the initiatives of prisoners... The post 162 | Three Years of Prison Insurgency first appeared on K...

For this week’s episode, we share a conversation between Melanie D. Newport and Anne Gray Fisher. They talk about the history of Cook County Jail- the largest facility in the country. Melanie D. Newport is an Assistant Professor of US History at the University of Connecticut-Hartford. Her work explores the criminal justice system in the... The post 161 | A History of Cook County Jail first appeare...

This week, we share a panel that took place last week in Indianapolis. As we heard last episode, Indiana Against E-Carceration has been organizing to educate the public about the issues surrounding electronic monitoring. They are struggling to prevent the grim possibility that sentencing and jail “reforms” set for 2020 will lead to an explosion... The post 160 | Not Better Than Jail first appeared...

This week, we share a statement from former political prisoner Ray Luc Levasseur about the recent death of his comrade, Tom Manning. Then, we speak with Micol Seigel about e-carceration, otherwise known as electronic monitoring. Seigel works with the group Indiana Against E-Carceration, who have a series of upcoming events lifting the voices of people affected by... The post 159 | Resistance to E-...

This week, we hear from two people- Faith, who talks to us about the practice of inmate lending- and Jason Renard Walker, who speaks on the retaliation he is facing inside. We spoke to Faith at the Fight Toxic Prisons convergence recently, and she told us about the practice of inmate lending, where prisons bid... The post 158 | Retaliation 101 first appeared on Kite Line Radio .

This week we share two presentations from the recent Fight Toxic Prisons convergence. Held this past month in Gainesville, Florida, Fight Toxic Prisons is in its fourth year of an annual conferences that focus on the intersection of mass incarceration and the environment. Our first segment features Jamani and Jordan, who speak about the environmental... The post 157 | Fight Toxic Prisons 2019 firs...

This week, we hear reflections from members of the MOVE Organization. Speaking at the 2019 Fight Toxic Prisons convergence, they give their thoughts on the past and current struggles of MOVE family members behind bars.  Mike Africa, Jr., who was born in prison, speaks about the MOVE Organization, and having his parents on the inside... The post 156 | On A Move: Reflections From a MOVE Family...

This week, we share an interview with Julie, a researcher who studies the effects of climate change on prisoners.  The conversation was held at last month’s Fight Toxic Prisons conference, and focused on her work on how intensifying extremes of heat and cold impacts prisoners’ health. As this interview is broadcast, a hurricane is bearing... The post 155 | Prison in the Climate Crisis first a...

This week, we spoke with participants in the struggle to close Dekalb County jail in Atlanta, Georgia. They walked us through the launch of the movement there, when prisoners smuggled out photos of horrendous conditions inside, which were posted on social media by family members. Since then, a wide range of people have worked to... The post 154 | Close Dekalb County Jail first appeared on Kite Lin...

Over the past year, the political prisoner support movement has won an exciting number of releases, with long-term political prisoners from MOVE and the Black Panthers finally gaining their freedom.  But many other political prisoners remain behind bars, and their supporters are not slowing down.  Leonard Peltier is a member of the American Indian Movement... The post 153 | The Case and Current Li...

Kevin Steel speaks to us about being sentenced to twelve years in prison at the age of 17.  Speaking to us from the 4th annual Fight Toxic Prisons conference- which you can hear at points in the background- Kevin touches on a lot of different topics, including the Influence of the Black Panthers and other groups... The post 152 | Participating in Strikes on the Inside and Out first appea...

This week, we have several kites, or messages, from people inside and outside of the prison walls. First, we have a statement that was recorded for us on behalf of Keith Malik Washington, who is housed in a Texas prison. In his statement, he talks about the negative health impacts of prison, along with other... The post 151 | Summer of Kites 2019 first appeared on Kite Line Radio .

This week, we speak to two long-term supporters of Marius Mason, a long-term anarchist prisoner. He is currently held in a federal women’s facility in Danbury, Connecticut, despite years of struggle inside for recognition of his identity as a transman, and his advocacy for other trans prisoners to be able to access support and medical... The post 150 | Be Like Water: J11 Reflections on Marius Maso...

This week, we cover some sensitive topics on the show. We speak with Fable, who tells her story of incarceration when she was barely 18 years old. Fable shares her complicated experiences with mental health, sexuality and gender, consent, and violence in prison. In a prison system where many young people spend formative periods of... The post 149 | Youth and Gender on the Inside first appeared on...

On May 20th, Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez became the fifth child to die in border patrol custody since December. He was 16, and had been held for a week in a border patrol outpost that lacked proper provisioning. He had fled Guatemala, currently wracked with drought and violence, and reached the U.S. on May 13-... The post 148 | Migrant Bodies, Uncaring Medicine: The Lethal Politics of Detent...

This week, we air part of a conversation with Brandon Ackerson, a 36-year-old survivor of an 18 year prison sentence in the Indiana prison system. Newly released, he talks about using the skills he learned and honed during life in the DOC, in which he became a successful writer while in the Indiana Prison Writers’... The post 147 | Prisoners Write, Prisoners Speak first appeared on Kite Line Radio...

This week, we return to our conversation with Zolo Agona Azania, who was recently released after surviving decades on Indiana’s death row.  In the second part of the conversation, he talks about researching the death penalty and appealing his death penalty sentence. The efforts of Azania, his lawyers and supporters helped to successfully free him... The post 146 | Appealing the Death Penalty- A Co...