Prison Desk | National Radio Project

Shows from the Prison Desk

Our Bodies, Our Stories: Reproductive Health Behind Bars

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

Pregnant women in America’s prisons are being shackled to their beds; others are being sterilized. Correctional institutions claim the policies are for safety’s sake, but thousands of incarcerated people are fighting for control of their own reproductive health.

Breaking the Psychological Chains of Slavery

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

African-Americans have endured more than 246 years of slavery, 100 years of racism and segregation. The trauma from that experience continues to impact African-Americans and society today. Dr. Joy DeGruy presents a discussion on post traumatic slave syndrome.

Life or Death: Ending the Death Penalty

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

Reporter Nancy Mullane speaks to some of those on California’s death row and we hear from two opponents of the death penalty about where the movement to end executions goes next.

Michelle Alexander on the New Jim Crow

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

Professor Michelle Alexander, author of ‘The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness’ makes the case that the US’ criminal justice system policies can be traced directly back to slavery. The target then, and now, are African Americans.

The Penalty is Exile: How Immigration and Criminalization Collide

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

Under President Obama more than 1 million people have been deported from the United States. Immigration officials claim that many of those being deported are criminals. On this edition, producer Cory Fischer-Hoffman investigates the connection between immigration and the criminal justice system and the impact this burgeoning relationship is having on immigrants.

COINTELPRO 101 (Part 2) ENCORE

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

This week, we broadcast the second half of the documentary film “COINTELPRO 101,” about the secret FBI program which ran from 1956-1971, and disrupted many movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.. Today, we hear the second half of the film, produced by the Freedom Archives.

COINTELPRO 101 (Part 1) ENCORE

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Over the next two weeks, we broadcast the documentary film “COINTELPRO 101,” about the secret FBI program which ran from 1956-1971, and disrupted many movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.. Today, we hear the first half of the film, produced by the Freedom Archives.

Undue Influence: the power of Police and Prison Guards’ Unions

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

Police officers and prison guards hold tremendous political sway. Their advocacy for better pay, more power, and more jobs has been a major factor in the expansion of the prison industrial complex. Now that system is changing. Can law enforcement unions change as well?

Ban the Box! The Campaign for Post-Prison Employment ENCORE

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

It’s not even the crime that counts sometimes. It’s that little box on an application that asks you to reveal if you have a criminal history. Checking that box can mean the difference between failure and success. We look at the nationwide movement to ‘ban-the-box’, and make criminal histories less of a stigma.

Prison Crisis: Local Solution?

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

The United States imprisons more people than any other country. In California a new policy called ‘realignment’ aims to reduce the number of people in state prison. Could the incarceration nation finally be slowing down?