The nightmarish reality of the prison industrial complex depends on a vast array of stereotypes and tropes about incarcerated people that have proliferated through our culture. From the myth of the ‘superpredator’ to other racist and anti-poor constructions of the prisoner, the real stories and lives of the human beings trapped in the prison system are obscured by a veil of assumptions propagated by the institutions and interests most invested in maintaining mass incarceration. Fred Winn, a former librarian, correctional officer, and case manager at California’s Soledad Prison has attempted to peel back this veil with the true stories of the human beings he encountered behind bars in his memoir, For the Least of These. Winn joins Rattling the Bars for a discussion on his book and the humanity that clings on in prisons in spite of constant repression.

Click here to read the transcript: https://therealnews.com/a-prison-librarians-efforts-to-humanize-the-stories-of-incarcerated-people

Studio / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

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