How Hurricane Ida is Impacting Incarcerated Youth in Louisiana
In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, incarcerated people at the New Orleans Parish Prison were left to fend for themselves as toxic water filled prison cells and deputies deserted en...
View ArticleThe Legacy of Abu Ghraib
One man’s ongoing effort to get justice for the abuse he endured at a U.S. prison in Iraq. At the start of the Iraq War in 2003, Salah Hasan Nusaif al-Ejaili was working as a journalist when the U.S....
View ArticleThe Attica Prison Uprising 50 Years Later
WNYC's Race and Justice unit is looking back at the 1971 Attica Prison Uprising. Joseph Gedeon, reporter in WNYC's Race and Justice Unit, and Emily Lang, producer at WNYC, discuss their project and...
View ArticleBrooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez on the Crisis at Rikers
New York City's prosecutors continued to send people to Rikers Island over the last few months as conditions deteriorated. Eric Gonzalez talks about what role prosecutors play in addressing the crisis...
View ArticleThe Books of Guantanamo Bay
When we think of Guantanamo Bay, some typical locations come to mind: cells, courtrooms, courtyards, common spaces, maybe even the surrounding naval base. One place that rarely makes a reporter's...
View ArticleThe Struggle to Cover Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay is a tricky place for a reporter. It's a high-stakes beat that touches on thorny legal and political issues, as well as fundamental questions about human rights. But the day-to-day...
View ArticleThe True Cost of Prison Phone Calls
Ashley C. Ford was just a baby when her father was sentenced to 30 years behind bars. Prison phone calls—a $1.4 billion industry in the United States—were often prohibitively expensive for her family,...
View ArticleMass Incarceration, Then and Now
The United States has the largest prison population in the world. But, until the publication of Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow,” in 2010, most people didn’t use the term “mass...
View ArticleA Dozen Years After “The New Jim Crow”
The United States has the largest prison population in the world. But, until the publication of Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow,” in 2010, most people didn’t use the term “mass...
View ArticleMass Incarceration in America, Then and Now
The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world; although the country makes up about five per cent of the global population, it holds nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners. David...
View ArticleReginald Dwayne Betts Reads from “Felon”
Reginald Dwayne Betts discovered poetry while in solitary confinement, during a prison sentence for a carjacking that he committed when he was sixteen. He was tried and sentenced as an adult, and...
View ArticleLife After Prison
As a kid, Jonathan was good at soccer and making friends. But by the age of eighteen, he was a drug dealer facing his first serious conviction. For his third conviction, although the charges were for...
View ArticleLife After Prison
As a kid, Jonathan was good at soccer and making friends. But by the age of eighteen, he was a drug dealer facing his first serious conviction. For his third conviction, although the charges were for...
View ArticleScores of Incarcerated New Yorkers Sent to Solitary Confinement and Denied...
The New York State prison system utilized a faulty drug test that resulted in 1,652 incarcerated people being wrongfully punished, including with solitary confinement, longer prison terms, and ban on...
View ArticleThe Rikers Hunger Strike Continues
As the Adams administration inherits crisis conditions at Rikers, those detained at one of the island's jail facilities refused dozens of meals during the past week in protest of their living...
View ArticleA Family Grapples with Images of Death
Visuals of excruciating events can become rallying cries in national movements for accountability, justice, and change. Sometimes they even work as legal evidence and proof for the families who have...
View ArticleNo immediate federal takeover at Rikers, even as lack of bathrooms lead...
Mayor Eric Adams and the city Department of Correction will avoid a federal takeover of the dangerous Rikers Island jail complex for at least the next five months, even as new revelations arise about...
View Article[Unedited] adrienne maree brown with Krista Tippett
“What a time to be alive,” adrienne maree brown has written. “Right now we are in a fast river together — every day there are changes that seemed unimaginable until they occurred.” adrienne maree brown...
View ArticleThe Prison of Manhood Can’t Hold Shaka Senghor
He went to prison at age 19. When released, he had to learn how to be a father to two Black sons with very different life experiences. His letters to them have lessons for us all. Hear more from Shaka...
View ArticleHalf of My Parents, All of Me
Folashade Olatunde, a WNYC Radio Rookie, shares a series of open and honest audio diaries, inviting listeners on her journey to rebuild a relationship with her dad.Folashade’s dad went to prison when...
View ArticleAn Incarcerated Writer Fights Book Bans in Prisons
In a 2019 Report, PEN America revealed that book restriction policies in American prisons amounted to the nation’s largest book ban. These bans can come from prison-wide, state, or federal policies,...
View ArticleBiden's 'Cancer Moonshot' Initiative; City Agencies to Cut Budgets; Reading...
On today's show:In a speech this week, President Biden announced the next steps of his administration's so-called Cancer Moonshot initiative, which aims to prevent deaths from the disease. Sarah...
View ArticleReading Prison Letters
Having written for the New York Times Magazine about the exoneration of a prisoner who wrote her a letter about his case, staff writer Emily Bazelon, co-host of Slate's "Political Gabfest" podcast,...
View ArticleAdnan Syed Released From Prison
The subject of Serial's first season, Adnan Syed, has been released from prison after 20 years. Sarah Koenig, host and co-creator of "Serial," joins us to discuss the news.→Serial, Season 1, Episode...
View ArticleGuest Spotlight: Ear Hustle
This week we’re featuring an episode from our fellow Radiotopia show, Ear Hustle. Ear Hustle is produced inside San Quentin State Prison, in California. The show tells stories about what life is really...
View ArticleJanuary 6 Hearing Recap; Mass Incarceration & Bail Reform; Brad Lander on...
On today's show:Claudia Grisales, NPR Congressional correspondent, recaps what was likely the final January 6 hearing by the House Select Committee, and explains where the investigation goes from...
View ArticleIncarceration of Women of Color Hearing
New York City Council Women’s Issues Committee hearing on the rate of Incarceration of women of color in New York. The recording date in the early 2000s is not clear. 87952
View ArticleChina accused of operating illegal overseas security network
Beijing has been accused of setting up a global network of overseas police stations to help pursue government targets, including in Spain. And, a rescue ship carrying about 230 migrants had been stuck...
View ArticleSpeaker Pelosi Steps Down; Rikers Island Federal Monitor; What to do About...
Coming up on today's show:This week, Nancy Pelosi announced she was stepping down from Democratic leadership just after Republicans clinched control of the House. Steve Israel, former member of...
View ArticleCrime, Panic and The Case Of The Exonerated Five
It’s been twenty years since five men who were convicted as kids in the “Central Park jogger case” were exonerated. Their story has resonance in today’s crime-panicked United States.In 1989, amid a...
View ArticleRuth Wilson Gilmore — “Where life is precious, life is precious.”
To say that Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a geographer, which she is, is not to convey the vast and varied ways in which she is influencing the makings of the future. She's a mentor and teacher to a new...
View ArticleNY prison graveyards must finally include names of the deceased on headstones
For generations, New York state prisoners who died were buried in graveyards just outside prison walls, under headstones marked with prisoner identification numbers — but no names.In recognition of the...
View ArticleA Headline Stays Static Even As A Life Transforms
Lawrence Bartley is a journalist devoted to getting news stories about criminal justice inside prisons and jails, something he wished he had access to when he was incarcerated. “I could have used some...
View ArticleAnother Proud Boy Goes to Jail and A Media War in 1980's NYC
This week a former Proud Boys leader received the longest prison sentence for the insurrection so far. On this week’s On the Media, why conspiracy theories that the FBI planned January 6 live on. Plus,...
View ArticleJoe Garcia Reads “Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison”
The New Yorker recently published an essay by Joe Garcia, a man serving a life sentence for murder in California’s High Desert State Prison. In the essay, Garcia writes about his admiration for Taylor...
View ArticleJennifer Egan on a Solution for Homelessness
About 1.4 million in the United States people end up in homeless shelters every year, with many thousands more living on the street. You could fill the city of San Diego with the unhoused. But there...
View ArticleA Solution For the Chronically Homeless, and Listening to Taylor Swift in...
About 1.2 million people in the United States experience homelessness in a given year—you could nearly fill the city of Dallas with the unhoused. But there are proven solutions. For the chronically...
View ArticleThe Effect of Climate Change on Incarcerated Individuals
Alleen Brown, climate journalist, talks about "Climate and Punishment," a groundbreaking project for which she and her colleague Akil Harris received a 2023 Covering Climate Now journalism award. The...
View Article"26.2 to Life" explores a prison marathon
"26.2 to Life" follows inmates at California's San Quentin prison as they train and compete for a marathon. Filmmaker Christine Yoo explores how each prisoner strives for their personal best, seeking...
View ArticleThe Unmarked Graveyard: Angel Garcia
When Annette Vega was seven years old, she found out the man she called “dad” wasn’t her biological father. But all she knew was that her mom had had a teenage romance with a guy named Angel Garcia....
View Article530- The Panopticon Effect
The “panopticon” might be the best known prison concept in the world. In the original design, all the cells are built around a central guard tower, designed to maintain order just by making prisoners...
View ArticleJumaane Williams on Ending Solitary Confinement & Recording Police Stops
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams talks about two bills up for a vote at the City Council on Wednesday.
View ArticleUkraine's counteroffensive might finally be over
Hopes are dimming for Ukraine's spring push to drive Russia from its territory. Kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive has fallen flat and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is reportedly planning to fire his...
View ArticleHow to Train for a Marathon While Incarcerated
The new documentary "26.2 to Life" follows a group of incarcerated men at San Quentin Prison who are training to run a marathon within the prison's walls. Director Christine Yoo joins us to discuss the...
View ArticleAfter Serving Decades in Prison for Murder, Two Men Fought to Clear Their Names
For years, the staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman has reported on the case of Eric Smokes and David Warren. When they were teen-agers in Brooklyn, in 1987, Smokes and Warren were convicted of...
View Articleadrienne maree brown — On Radical Imagination and Moving Towards Life
The wonderful civil rights elder Vincent Harding liked to look around the world for what he called "live human signposts" — human beings who embody ways of seeing and becoming and who point the way...
View ArticleA Flood of Claims From Rikers Island Amplify the Pervasive Problem of Sexual...
Warning: This episode contains profane language and detailed descriptions of sexual assault allegations.More than 20 women say a man who went by Officer “Champagne” sexually assaulted them while they...
View ArticleAn infamous New Jersey jail faces demolition after decades of turmoil
An infamous jail in downtown Paterson, New Jersey is on the verge of being demolished. For decades, Passaic County Jail was known for unsanitary conditions and overcrowding, prompting several lawsuits....
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