Kite Line

In this episode, we share information about the recent disturbances in St. Louis. Afterwards, we have the second part of a conversation with Balagoon, an Indiana political prisoner who has been locked up for almost 43 years, 31 of those in isolation. In this episode, he first describes the context of the 1985 uprising in the Indiana reformatory, now called Pendleton Correctional Facility.

He describes the lockup units as “our schools of thought and consciousness” prior to the uprising. He tells of guards beating his dear comrade with an illegal baton so hard that it cracked. The guards then dragged his comrade in front of the other inmates, telling them that quote “they were next.” Balagoon says in this interview that it’s the same thing that happened to George Floyd, but the difference was that this were no bystanders able to take video.

He talks about how the violence his friend experienced was not unique at all- that it was common practice for guards to handcuff and shackle a prisoner, beat him or throw him down a flight of stairs, and then transfer the prisoner to another facility, Indiana State Penitentiary, before the inmate’s parents or other family found out about the injuries. Balagoon also discusses the presence of neo-nazi groups like the sons of light, and says the conditions documented in the well-known Gomez case  (a prisoner civil-rights class action suit challenging the conditions of confinement at the Pelican Bay State Prison in California) was similar to what they experienced in Indiana.

He said that even though their case against the prison was strong, the prison couldn’t afford to let them out, as it would set an example to the other prisoners. So, as he says, they were used as an example, that as a prisoner, even when you’re right…you’re still wrong.

Special Thanks to Nicholas Greven from IDOC Watch for conducting this interview, and to Balagoon for sharing his story.

Up first, we have a comprehensive overview of prisoner protests compiled by Perilous Chronicle, who are collecting information about the many prison uprisings and disturbances now occurring regularly. They will be sharing these updates with us each month.

For our feature this week, we share the first part of a conversation with Balagoon, an Indiana political prisoner who has been locked up for almost 43 years, 31 of those years in isolation. Now, at age 61, he is seeking a sentence modification due to his worsening health conditions, as well as the fact that – as he puts it- after 43 years inside he simply isn’t the person he used to be. Balagoon was a participant in the famous 1985 uprising in Indiana’s Pendleton facility.

We’ll talk more about the uprising in our next episode with Balagoon, but this week he talks about the reasons for his sentence modification request, as well as how his perspective has shifted after nearly 43 years inside. He says that his activism has transitioned away from focusing on material conditions to helping people file petitions and advocate for themselves. Balagoon speaks to mentoring younger prisoners, and how the state of Indiana has already exacted a heavy toll from him.

You can read about Balagoon on IDOC Watch’s website: https://www.idocwatch.org/

Our show this week returns with the second part of a conversation between Kite Line’s Micol Seigel and three members of the Carbondale, Illinois community:  Chastity, Kim, and Nick. They speak about the ongoing struggle for the use of the Eurma C Hayes Community center.

Originally opened by the city as a space for youth, the city later defunded the Eurma C Hayes center and put the responsibility on community groups to steward the building.   Now Carbondale politicians are proposing converting it to a police substation. This sequence is familiar to Bloomington residents, where a community environmental hub was replaced with the police substation now looming over Switchyard Park. These Carbondale residents speak about why they oppose police being installed in the Eurma C Hayes Center, and the alternatives visions each of them has for their city.  Each of them is thinking through what will be required for a Carbondale that doesn’t need police and instead prioritizes people’s needs over businesses, cops, and bureaucrats.

You can hear the first part of this conversation here.

For our show this week, we have the first part of a conversation between Kite Line’s Micol Seigel and three members of the Carbondale, Illinois community:  Chastity, Kim, and Nick. They speak about the ongoing struggle for the use of the Eurma C Hayes Community Center

Originally opened by the city as a space for youth, the city later defunded the Eurma C Hayes Center and put the responsibility on community groups to steward the building.   Now Carbondale politicians are proposing converting it to a police substation. In this first of two parts, three Carbondale residents speak about why they oppose police being put there, and the conflation of an idea of “security” with so-called community resource officers, who often function as agents of punishment and trauma for teens in local schools. They talk about the racial bias shown in punishment during school and how it relates to the incarceration of people of color. They also tell us about the current conditions in the nearby Menard Prison where they have incarcerated loved ones, and how important re-entry options have been limited in recent years, continuing a cycle of loss and trauma for many people in the area.

This week, we are trying something new so that we can cover the full range of increased prisoner struggles. We will be teaming up with Perilous Chronicle at the beginning of each month to give you headlines tracking disturbances in prisons, jails, and detention centers. Perilous is a project seeking to gather and track information on prison uprisings, riots, protests, strikes, and other disturbances within public and private jails, prisons, and detention centers in the US and Canada. In this process, they rely on crowdsourced information in addition to local news outlets and our own reporting. In this segment, we share the events that Perilous tracked for January and February 2021.

After that, we hear from a prisoner being held while awaiting trial in FDC SeaTac. He spoke to us awhile back about a lack of COVID-19 protocols in the facility. As you’ll hear, he had his phone privileges revoked for shining a light on their conditions. He talks to us this week about how the COVID protocols have changed since he spoke out, and with a new administration coming into office. He also talks about the First Step Act, signed into law by Trump in 2018- which allegedly intends to reorient prisons around rehabilitation rather than punishment. As he tells us, it’s not going that way in his facility- where the two classes they are offering have no real world application.

Check out our new, searchable website: kitelineradio.org.

This week, we return to an important conversation about grand juries and state repression. Recently, Steve Martinez, an Indigenous and Chicano Water Protector who opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on the Standing Rock reservation in 2016, was held on charges of civil contempt of court for his refusal to cooperate with a federal grand jury.

In order to learn more about Steve’s situation, Perilous Chronicle editor Ryan Fatica spoke with Lauren Regan, lead attorney and executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Oregon, who has dedicated her life to defending those facing charges for their participation in social movements. Last week, she laid out the fundamentals of Steve’s case by explaining his role in saving the life of Sophia Wilansky, and how he has been targeted due to his efforts. Lauren is representing Wilansky, a Standing Rock protestor who is suing law enforcement after officers injured her with grenade during a protest on the Backwater Bridge at Standing Rock in 2016.

We mentioned last week that Steve was released shortly after that interview was recorded. However, on March 3rd, Steve was taken back into custody and is being fined $50 for every day he refuses to collaborate.  Red Fawn Fallis, who was imprisoned for her participation in the Standing Rock blockades, has finally completed her sentence today, March 5th, and her ankle monitor has been removed.

You can find Steve’s fundraiser here.

More information can be found at Perilous Chronicle, and at The Civil Liberties Defense Center. Thank you to Lauren Regan and Ryan Fatica for their work on this episode.

This week, we brought together three segments that focus on ways the system attempts to repress participants in collective struggles and those who fight for a better world.

In a segment that originally aired on KPFA, we hear about the punitive measures Malik Washington is facing after speaking out about the COVID-19 outbreak in a Geo Group run halfway house.

We air audio from Cory Cardinal, an Indigenous activist imprisoned at the Saskatoon Correctional Center in Saskatchewan, Canada. Cory spoke with Perilous Chronicle editor Ryan Fatica earlier this week, and says that this week he was sent to solitary confinement after he organized a protest at the prison. The protest involved collecting and sending out more than a dozen testimonies from prisoners about their experiences with COVID-19 at the facility.

Cory also expressed his solidarity with Kimberly Squirrel, a 34-year-old Native woman and mother of 6 who froze to death in January just 3 days after being released from Pine Grove Correctional Centre, near Prince Albert.

We also share the first part of a conversation about a North Dakota activist who was released Monday after ­­nearly 3 weeks in jail for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. Steve Martinez, an Indigenous and Chicano activist who participated in the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota in 2016, was held in the Burleigh County Detention Center in Bismark, North Dakota on charges of civil contempt of court for his refusal.

In order to learn more about Steve’s situation, Perilous Chronicle editor Ryan Fatica spoke with Lauren Regan, Lead Attorney and Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Oregon who has spent many years of her life dedicated to defending those facing charges for their participation social movements. Our segment this week focuses primarily on another water protector, Sophia Wilansky. Lauren is representing Wilansky, a Standing Rock protestor who is suing law enforcement for injuries she sustained during a protest on the Backwater Bridge at Standing Rock in 2016 and has been following the grand jury proceedings closely. This interview was recorded last week before Steve was released from jail. Although Steve is now free, his challenges are far from over.

Look for updates on Steve’s case from the Water Protector Legal Collective at waterprotectorlegal.org and from Perilous Chronicle at  Perilouschronicle.com

You can learn more about Kimberly Squirrel and find a link to donate to the Inmates for Humane Conditions fundraiser here.

Mwalimu Shakur, who spoke in last week’s episode about COVID-19 protocols in his facility, returns this week to share more reflections. He shares first-hand experiences of gladiator fights and organizing against the SHU (Secure Housing Unit) from the inside. Corcoran State Prison was the first prison to develop the ultra-repressive SHU.  He also talks about using his time inside to educate other, younger prisoners through reading groups on classics like George Jackson and lessons in language, Marxist theory, and more.

This week, we followup on the COVID-19 conditions at Corcoran Prison in California and share news from the uprising in the St. Louis Jail.

Afterwards, we finish a conversation between Dr. Jeffrey Ian Ross and Dr. Micol Seigel. Ross is a Professor at the University of Baltimore, and has researched, written, and lectured extensively on policing, political crime, state crime, and crimes of the powerful for over two decades.

Last week, they discussed the concept of “convict criminology”. Convict criminology is the study of crime and prisons by formerly imprisoned academics and associated critical and radical scholars. Now, their conversation moves into a vital discussion of police violence and use of force, and the difference between “state crime” and “state violence”.

You can learn more about Dr. Ross’ work via his website, jeffreyianross.com.

On January 30th, guards attacked Robert Earl Council, and beat him until he was unconscious.  Council, also known as Kinetik Justice, is a longtime imprisoned organizer and cofounder of the Free Alabama Movement.   Outside supporters have urged as many people as possible to call the Donaldson Correctional Facility and express concern for Council’s welfare.  The prison’s phone number is (205) 436-3681.

This week, we sit in on a conversation between Dr. Jeffrey Ian Ross and Dr. Micol Seigel. Ross is a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, College of Public Affairs, and a Research Fellow in the Center for International and Comparative Law, and the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore. They discuss the concept of “convict criminology”. Convict criminology is the study of crime and prisons by ex-convict academics and associated critical and radical scholars. In addition to outlining the roots and applications of the concept, they reflect on other issues, such as police reform, and the practical challenges faced by formerly incarcerated people and those who study incarceration and policing.

You can check out all of our previous episodes at our new website: kitelineradio.org