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Criminalized Survival
Jul26

Criminalized Survival

Journalist Natalie Pattillo and filmmaker Daniel A. Nelson created the documentary film And So I Stayed to raise awareness about criminalized survival, the criminal justice system’s long practice of imprisoning survivors of intimate partner violence when they fight back against their abusers. Pattillo, herself a survivor, followed the stories of Kim Dadou Brown, Tanisha Davis and Nikki Addimando, women imprisoned for killing their...

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70 Million: Why Policing Our Schools Backfires
Mar08

70 Million: Why Policing Our Schools Backfires

School resource officers are often called upon in middle and high schools to help with routine discipline. But for many children, especially those with disabilities, a law enforcement response to their behavior can lead to the school-to-prison pipeline. This week on Making Contact, we hear a story from our podcast partner 70 Million about the relationship between students with special needs and school resource officers and the changes...

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Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons (Encore)
Jan26

Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons (Encore)

Making Contact · Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid-19 and Prisons   In a two-part series, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. For Part 2, we talk about why vaccines aren’t an effective solution to ending COVID in prisons, and we also look at how re-entry has become harder...

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Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons (Encore)
Jan19

Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons (Encore)

Making Contact · Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid 19 and Prisons – Encore   In this encore episode, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. In part one, we focus on California. We take a look at why a prison, like San Quentin, is such a perfect environment for infectious diseases,...

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70 Million: How Black Women Are Rightfully “Taking Seats at the Table”
Oct20

70 Million: How Black Women Are Rightfully “Taking Seats at the Table”

Making Contact · 70 Million: How Black Women Are Rightfully “Taking Seats at the Table”   Nearly one in two Black women in the US have a loved one who has been impacted by our prison system. Many become de facto civilian experts as a result. Some rise to lead as catalysts for change. And now, scores of Black women are joining the ranks—as officers of the court, police, and judges—to manage and advance a system that has had such...

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Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons
Mar17

Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons

Making Contact · Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid-19 and Prisons   In a two-part series, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. For Part 2, we talk about why vaccines aren’t an effective solution to ending COVID in prisons, and we also look at how re-entry has become harder during the...

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Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons
Mar10

Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons

Making Contact · Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid 19 and Prisons   In a two-part series, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release people in prison in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. In part one, we focus on California. We take a look at why a prison, like San Quentin, is such a perfect environment for infectious diseases,...

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One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps
Jan27

One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps

Making Contact · One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps Today we use a lot of euphemisms: re-education camps, internment, work camps, prison camps, camps for internally displaced people. But before World War I, these prisons were known simply as concentration camps and they started in Cuba in the 1890s to control an uprising against the Spanish colonizers. Since then, concentration camps have...

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Re:Work: [No] Child Left Behind, the School to Prison Pipeline
Aug11

Re:Work: [No] Child Left Behind, the School to Prison Pipeline

Making Contact · Re:Work: [No] Child Left Behind, the School to Prison Pipeline   We often see children as innocents who need love, support, and stability. But not all young people are nurtured this way. Too often youth from marginalized communities of color are not seen as needing protection — they are treated as the ones we need protection from. We see this in this episode, brought to us from Re:Work Radio, with...

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Call for pitches on prisoners during COVID-19
Aug05

Call for pitches on prisoners during COVID-19

How do prisoners and their loved ones cope during COVID-19? People in prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers are at an exceptionally high risk for coronavirus. Meantime, family members of those locked up are worried sick. Relatives along with advocates and prisoners themselves organize to limit the spread of the virus. They demand prisoner releases and reimagine a world without humans in cages. But releases are slow. By some...

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