Kite Line

This week, we share the first part of an interview with Anastazia Schmid. Schmid has appeared on Kite Line before, analyzing women’s health care in the prison system. Now, she joins us on the other side of the walls, talking through her release and subsequent support, and the meaning of truth in light of trauma. After spending 18 years in Indiana prison, her case was recently overturned- due largely to her own tenacity. She spoke with us only two weeks after her release, and shared valuable insights as to her time inside and her transition out. We’ll hear more from her next week.

This week, we hear a talk by H.H., who spoke recently at the Bend the Bars conference in Lansing, Michigan. H.H. shares his story, including the inside scoop on the Kinross prison uprising on 2016 and its aftermath. He was only released last month, after being in prison from age 17 to 48. H.H. also reflects on the importance of inside/outside coordination, along with thoughts on which methods are most successful.

First, we hear some prison news and reflect on the anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion. Then, we hear more from last month’s Bend the Bars conference, which was held in Lansing, Michigan. In a compelling panel called “Fighting Immigrant Detention Centers”, organizers with the Little Village Solidarity Network explain the processes that children go through when they are detained by immigration officials. They clarify some of the misconceptions about the so-called “shelters” that children are detained in, and talk about some of the things they have discovered while fighting the increasing number of immigrant detention centers.

This week, we speak on the phone with writer and prison abolitionist Craig Gilmore, who begins by discussing his recent piece in Commune Magazine. The article, “The Business of Incarceration” is a review of American Prison, a critically acclaimed 2018 book by Shane Bauer. In his conversation with us, Gilmore critiques the book’s thesis on private prisons, and then tells us some of the ways in which he has seen prison abolition and organizing evolve over the decades. Reflecting on some of the most recent successes like the fight against a prison in Letcher County, Kentucky, Gilmore also suggests books to read and ways to get involved in anti-prison work in our own local areas-namely in the fight against the expansions of county jails and ICE detention centers.

It’s been one year since the August 2018 National Prison Strike. This week, we feature a talk from Ben Turk and Amani Sawari- both of whom were important outside supporters of last year’s national Prison Strike. This talk took place at Bend the Bars 2019, a prison abolitionist conference focusing on the initiatives of prisoners themselves.  This conference, held in Lansing, Michigan, was the follow-up to a Bend the Bars organized in 2016 in Columbus, Ohio in the lead up to the first national prison strike.  With two national strikes between these events, this panel was an opportunity to reflect on the development of the prisoners’ movement, the achievements and failures of outside solidarity efforts, and the future of prisoner-led organizing.