This week, we honor the late Russell Maroon Shoatz. On December 17th, Russell Maroon Shoatz passed away. In 1970, Shoatz was convicted for the murder of a police officer in Pennsylvania and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. On February 20, 2014, Shoatz was returned to the prison’s general population after being held in solitary confinement for 22 consecutive years. Shoatz was granted compassionate release on October 26, 2021, while suffering from a terminal illness.

We share part of an interview with Shoatz, recorded on August 15th 1996, at State Correctional Institution-Greene in Pennsylvania.  The interview was originally aired on the Peoples Video Network, and was conducted by Dhoruba Bin Wahad.

In breaking news, Shaka Shakur was severely beaten during a transfer from the Green Rock Correctional Center to the River North Correctional Center, both in Virginia. Shakur, a longtime Indiana prison rebel, was punitively moved to Virginia in 2019. Another prisoner reported this week’s beating, and passed along that Shakur has been denied medical care, with the exception of a tetanus shot and a shower.

As mentioned in our episode, the call-in information to aid Shaka Shakur is here:

Urgent-Action-Alert–Defend-Shaka-Shakur’s-Life