Kite Line

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 33.9MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis week focuses on call-ins from two prisoners: Khalfani Malik Khaldun in Indiana, and Muti Ajamu-Osagboro in Pennsylvania. First, we hear from Muti. Muti Ajamu-Osagboro is a prisoner currently incarcerated in Pennsylvania. Muti was sentenced to life without parole as a teenager. Despite the fact that the …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 40.7MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis week’s episode ends our series of conversations with Valrice “Whop” Cooper. Whop is the legendary cornerman who learned his craft training prisoners in the Louisiana DOC’s boxing program. For this episode, they discuss how he was punished inside the prison system for standing up for his …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 40.8MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis week continues our set of conversations with Valrice “Whop” Cooper, the legendary cornerman who learned his craft training prisoners in the Louisiana DOC’s boxing program. For this episode, we discuss how he got into the game, the politics behind such programs as the PAL, or Police …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 40.6MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis week starts our series of conversations with Valrice “Whop” Cooper, the legendary cornerman who learned his craft training prisoners in the Louisiana DOC’s boxing program. For this episode, we discuss his thirty-five-year prison term that began in 1976 at the age of 17, and how coming …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:33 — 39.3MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThe Federal government rolled out the weed and seed program in the early 1990s in response to a new wave of urban uprisings. It placed social services under police control, so that cops could first “weed,” (i.e. remove undesirable elements) and then “seed” by distributing resources, following …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 38.4MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreOur episode this week finishes the conversation between Rojas, Meg, and Cyrus. Last week, they spoke about the conditions of transgender and gender non-conforming prisoners in the prison system. They continue talking about efforts to support transgender and GNC prisoners inside and outside of the walls. Additionally, …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:10 — 39.0MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreOur episode this week is a conversation between Rojas and Cyrus, two advocates with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.  CCWP is an organization that exists, in their words, to “monitor and challenge the abusive conditions inside California women’s prisons. We fight for the release of women …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 43.3MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreOn our show this week, we hear from Dennis Boatright, a co-organizer with MAPS- Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Support. Boatright presents ‘From Convict to Inmate’, tracing the counter insurgent and repressive measures- such as isolation, book restriction, and even the colors used within the facilities- used by …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 38.6MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreFor the first part of this week’s episode- we hear from Onishona. In this interview, she tells us about her experiences with recidivism and problems with re-entry. She also talks about the role books, and specifically how books about mass incarceration, such as The New Jim Crow, …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 41.5MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis week, we speak with two writers, Laura Lasuertmer and Wendy Lee Spacek. Spacek and Lasuertmer run a writing workshop in the local jail. They tell us about the writing program, what led them to do this project, and its impact on folks in the inside. Then, …