This week, we have the first of several interviews that were conducted this fall in São Paulo, Brazil. Kite Line contributor Micol Seigel was there to teach a course on American prison history at the state university.  Seigel’s academic host introduced her to an activist civil servant at the Secretariat of Penal Administration, who connected her to the members of a work release program.  In this program, people came from prisons all over the São Paulo metropolitan region to work in the Secretariat, doing everything in the building from accounting to crafts to janitorial services.  Seigel ended up bringing her students off campus to the Secretariat to hold conversations together with the folks on work release.  Together, the two groups of students crafted research and interview projects, ending with the interviews you will hear this evening.  The interviews were conducted in Portuguese, translated by the University of São Paulo students, and read by people here in our Bloomington studio.

CORRECTION: Bomani Shakur’s execution date is scheduled for 11-16-2023, not 11-26-2023 as reported in the episode.