Kite Line

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 …

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- …

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’ …

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 …

We recently sat down with Zolo Agona Azania, who was recently released after surviving decades on Indiana’s death row.  In this first section of the interview, he covers his early experiences in prison, the role of imprisoned Black Panthers in mentoring him, and the cycle of prisoners struggles that lasted in Indiana from the late …

This week, we finish our conversation between Toussaint Losier and Micol Seigel. This is part three of a series in which we hear Losier, author of Rethinking the American Prison Movement, speak to Seigel about his research while writing his book, in which he builds a cohesive picture of the long history of incarceration. In this final …

This week continues the conversation between Toussaint Losier and Micol Seigel. This is part two of a series in which we hear Losier, author of Rethinking the American Prison Movement, speak to Seigel about his research while writing his book, in which he builds a cohesive picture of the long history of incarceration.  In this episode, …

This week, we have a conversation between Toussaint Losier and Micol Seigel. This is part one of a series in which we hear Losier, author of Rethinking the American Prison Movement, speak to Seigel about his research while writing his book, in which he builds a cohesive picture of the long history of resistance to …

This week, Kite Line welcomes the continued contributions of Mark Cook, who we recorded in conversation with Alejo Stark.  Mark is a former prison rebel, dating back to ambitious organizing on the inside in the 1960s.  Following his release from prison, he co-founded the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and later went underground …

  This week, Kite Line welcomes the contributions of Mark Cook for a second time.  Mark is a former prison rebel, dating back to ambitious organizing on the inside in the 1960s.  Following his release from prison, he co-founded the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and later went underground with the George Jackson …

Last week, we heard the first part of a lecture by Max Felker-Kantor on policing in Los Angeles, from the Watts Rebellion in the 60s to the brutal police beating of Rodney King in the 90s. This week, he continues to talk about the police murder of Eula Love, and how her death affected the …

This week, we air the first of two episodes tracking the rise of police racism and militarization in Los Angeles, from the Watts Uprising of 1965 to the 1992 L.A. Riots after Rodney King’s beating. Max Felker-Kantor, author of the book, Policing Los Angeles, walks us through the changes in policing, as well as the …

This week, we interview a participant in Perilous, a new prison history project. Perilous launched its website earlier this year, with a goal of compiling all the grassroots, collective mobilizations that have happened in US prisons since the prisoners’ movement seriously kicked off again in 2010. With this interview, we got a sense of their …

In the past months, the California prison system, or CDRC, has been convulsed by hunger strikes and a series of so-called “gladiator” or “dog fights,” in which guards pit prisoners against each other.  Brook, an organizer with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee in Oakland, spoke with us to provide vital context for understanding this volatile …

First, we have updates on the Vaughn 17 and hunger strikes and noise demonstrations from immigrant detention centers around the country. After the news, we share a conversation with Phillip Roberts and Debra Des Vignes.  Des Vignes is the founder of the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop, and Roberts participated in the project for almost a …

This week is an interview with Samantha Johnson, from No New Jails in Brooklyn, New York. As we reported recently, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn recently was the target of large scale demonstrations, after prisoners expressed to their loved ones on the outside that they were being denied basic human needs such as heat, …

This week, we share two different reflections on time inside, focusing on how prison interrupts life, education, and development. The first is the conclusion of Chantal’s account of her weeks inside a French immigrant retention center after her arrest during Yellow Vest clashes in Paris. She describes her and other prisoners’ efforts to pass the …

This week, we hear more from Chantal, who tells us about her time detained in France in December. We also cover breaking news on hunger strikes in immigrant detention centers across the US, as well as the victory of hundreds of hunger strikers in Corcoran prison in California.  Medical malfeasance by prison officials, and the …

This week,we hear a statement regarding a hunger strike that took place in France this month. On January 8th, detainees at the same immigration retention center that Chantal, the subject of this week’s Kite Line, was held in released a statement announcing that they had begun a hunger strike, and calling on detainees in other …

In this episode, we read a statement by Keith Lamar, also known as Bomani Shakur, who just had his execution date set.  In his statement, Keith wrangles with the violent death the state of Ohio is seeking to inflict on him, but also with the vast challenges and ruptures that we as a whole face …

Since the Ferguson uprising in 2014, the Black Lives Matter movement has shone a light on a range of American institutions, revealing their white supremacist origins and functions.  In addition to police and the discriminatory mortgage market, cash bail is one of the most important of these institutions to be revealed and resisted.  Community bail …

We are completing our series on Brazilian prisons by airing an interview between Beny and Rosângela, who wanted to discuss her experiences with health care there.  Her account of  deprivation of care, along with the over application of psychiatric drugs, will be familiar to anyone who has spent time inside an American prison.  She likewise …

This week, we share an update from the U.S./Mexico border, as well as two more illuminating conversations from inside the Brazilian prison system. First, we hear from Luce, who has just returned to the U.S. after doing legal aid for unaccompanied minors at the Barretal migrant shelter in Tijuana. As we mentioned in last week’s …

This week, we have the first of several interviews that were conducted this fall in São Paulo, Brazil. Kite Line contributor Micol Seigel was there to teach a course on American prison history at the state university.  Seigel’s academic host introduced her to an activist civil servant at the Secretariat of Penal Administration, who connected …

This week, we speak more with Leon Benson, who calls us from inside the Pendleton Correctional Facility here in Indiana. Benson shared his story with us in the past several Kite Line episodes, and now he talks to us about the conditions inside the prison.  Benson demonstrates the importance of prisoners being ableto form bonds …