Tag Archives: News

In this episode, we speak to people with experience with both homelessness and incarceration. Often, there is a cyclical relationship between these two situations. We speak with Forest Gilmore, the director of the Shalom Center here in Bloomington. Forest talks about various barriers that both people who experience homelessness and those who have been incarcerated face. We have conversations with …

The city of Bloomington has discovered contaminants on land that is slated for an affordable housing development. The Bloomington Animal Shelter will be getting a million dollar facelift this year. The owners of Hopscotch Coffee have reportedly purchased Rainbow Bakery and plan to open a new location On Madison Street. Full time enrollment has reached an all-time high at IU …

This week concludes our series on the mass escape from the Woomera immigrant detention center in 2002. Aren Aizura, who helped organize the solidarity camp outside the prison over Easter weekend of that year, tells us more about the aftermath: follow-up organizing with captive refugees, and the Australian government’s push to move the prisons to remote, unreachable islands. Despite these …

In 2002, imprisoned refugees inside Australia’s Woomera immigration prison coordinated with 2500 outside supporters who had pitched camp outside the facility.  Their coordination allowed them to stage a mass breakout.  This is the first of three episodes dedicated to telling this story, from an interview with a participant in the solidarity camp. It’s a vital reminder than in an age …

This episode, we focus on two individuals who are working to organize support systems for communities that are directly affected or targeted by law enforcement and incarceration. First, we continue our conversation with Akili Shakur, wife of prisoner Shaka Shakur, who works to organize support groups for family members of prisoners. Then, we hear from local student organizer Willy Palomo, …

Our focus for this episode returns to the impact of incarceration on families. First we have a discussion between our friend Lucy and one of her fellow classmates at Indiana University, Rafael Green, III. Rafael describes having multiple family members in prison during his childhood, and the way that affected both his childhood, and the lives of other family members …

In this episode, we introduce a new topic, going “off-paper.” When prisoners finish their time and re-enter the free world, they confront a whole host of barriers and questions that extend the hold that institutions have on them well past their “on-paper” sentences. To begin, we hear a recently released anarchist prisoner who reflects on his time outside prison and …

Join bloomingOUT anchors Colin and Grace as they welcome the program’s new volunteer and News Director, Noelle Philipps, to the show. Noelle will tell us a little bit about herself, her history and interest in journalism; as well as give her inputs on the new climate of freedom of press in the Donald Trump administration. Also on the program – …

Our topic this week is creativity behind bars. We showcase poetry from prisoners working with the Indiana Prisoners’ Writing Project, a piece by Shaka Shakur, entitled “Black Pain”, and a song by local musician Billy Young. Shakur is currently serving time in the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility here in Indiana. Billy Young will speak with us in a future episode …

This week, we hear some prison-related news and then return to the topic of pregnancy in prison. We continue our discussion with Dr. Alicia Suarez, a sociologist who researches pregnancy and childbirth as it relates to incarcerated women. She continues the discussion from our Pregnancy in Prison episode, and walks us through the process of giving birth as a prisoner. …