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Shows from the Prison Desk


Survivors of Solitary Confinement

post thumbnail Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Tens of thousands are in solitary confinement in American prisons which according to the United Nations is torture. Producer Claire Schoen met nine former prisoners who describe in detail what it’s like to be in solitary confinement.


Prison Town, USA

post thumbnail Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

In our special collaboration with public television’s P.O.V., Directors Katie Galloway and Po Kutchins take us to “prison town, usa” where they explore how the industry affects correctional officers, their families, and whole community.


A Crisis of Care: A System on Life Support

post thumbnail Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

In the last of our three-part series, A Crisis of Care: A System on Life Support, we’ll hear from experts offering an insiders view on the continuing health care crisis in California’s prisons.


A Crisis of Care: Gina’s Story (Part 2)

post thumbnail Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

On the second of our three-part series, ‘A Crisis of Care,’ a look inside California’s prison health care system, we continue ‘Gina’s Story.’


A Crisis of Care: Gina’s Story (Part 1)

post thumbnail Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

This is the first of a three-part series, ‘A Crisis of Care,’ a look inside the prison health care system in the state of California, where we learn about ‘Gina’s Story’ within the prison system.


Beyond Bars: Community Resistance to Prison Expansion (encore edition)

post thumbnail Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

On this edition, Dr. Gilmore, a key figure in the grassroots movement fighting prison expansion in California, extracts lessons from more than two decades of on-the-ground community organizing against what has been termed the “biggest prison building project in the history of world.”


Women Rising XV: World Health Activists

post thumbnail Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Prudence Mabele is a South African activist in the battle to contain HIV. Mary Pipher is an American psychologist and author confronting the American Psychological Association about its cooperation with the U.S. government in the use of torture.


Beyond Bars: Community Resistance to Prison Expansion

post thumbnail Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

In the U.S., more than more than 2 million people live behind prison bars. Dr. Ruth Gilmore, a professor of geography at the University of Southern California and a long-time prison activist, extracts lessons from more than two decades of on-the-ground community organizing against what’s been termed the “biggest prison building project in the history of the world.”


Lockdown on Life: Stories from Women Behind Bars

post thumbnail Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

On this edition, we take you to two U.S. prisons ­ behind the bars and into the lives of incarcerated women.


The Attica Rebellion

post thumbnail Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

September 9-13th, 2006 marks the 35th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion, a massive prison rebellion, massacre and cover-up in New York. On this edition, we present a documentary produced by the Freedom Archives.



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