Tag: RTB
Interview from prison: What an inhumane carceral system does to human psyches
In this urgent, exclusive interview for Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa speaks with Carla J. Simmons from inside the Georgia prison system, as well as Page Dukes of the Southern Center for Human Rights. Simmons,…
‘This is war’ fighting mass incarceration from inside prisons | Rattling the Bars
Click here to read the transcript: https://therealnews.com/how-a-1970s-prisoner-organized-literacy-program-changed-marylands-penitentiaries Marshall “Eddie” Conway was framed for the murder of a police officer and incarcerated for 44 years—but even behind bars, he continued to organize. In the early 1970s,…
‘The Road to Damascus’ confronts white supremacy with theater | Rattling the Bars
The new one-woman play ‘The Road to Damascus’ reinterprets the biblical story of Saul and the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as an allegory for white complicity in the US prison system and the…
US Sentencing Commission could act to reduce prison time for thousands | RTB
On April 27, 2023, the United States Sentencing Commission submitted to Congress amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines that would recommend lower sentences for certain defendants. If these changes are applied retroactively, some 18,775 people…
48-year political prisoner reviews John Oliver’s report on solitary confinement | Rattling the Bars
The topic of solitary confinement was the focus of a recent episode of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on HBO. Thanks to the hard work of activists organizing against solitary confinement for decades, awareness of…
Cash bail is an abomination of justice | Rattling the Bars
While the underlying logic of the cash bail system in the US may sound convincing on paper, in practice it has become a means of denying justice to, and destroying the lives of, people who…
These former prisoners are fighting mass incarceration | Rattling the Bars
*Editor’s note: At 00:56, host Mansa Musa misspeaks when quoting a report and says that 55 million people are in the system of mass incarceration; the correct number is 5.5 million. Over 1.9 million people…
Addiction and prison in Alaska | Rattling the Bars
Mass incarceration as we know it today owes much of its existence to the political rationale created by the War on Drugs. Although proffered as a solution to the public health crisis of drug addiction,…
Disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline w/Keturah Herron | Rattling the Bars
The system of mass incarceration extends into the public education system. Known as the school-to-prison pipeline, policies that criminalize youth and their families, from the presence of police in schools to discriminatory and punitive practices…
How Maryland discriminates against women prisoners | Rattling the Bars
Jessup, Maryland is home to the state’s only women’s prison, the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women, commonly known as “The Cut”. For years, advocates fought for a women’s pre-release center, which would house prisoners eligible…
Ed Poindexter—Black Panther imprisoned for 52 years | Rattling the Bars
After 52 years of incarceration, Edward Alan Poindexter is among the longest serving political prisoners in US and world history. Originally part of the “Omaha Two,” Poindexter and Mondo we Langa, both leaders of the…
They were released from Guantanamo. But the horrors didn’t end | Rattling the Bars
The revelations of widespread torture of detainees at the illegal US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, rattled the American conscience during the Bush Jr. administration. Two decades later, detainments at Guantanamo continue, but the public…
Her father was granted parole. The governor took it away | Rattling the Bars
Thomas “Tahaka” Gaither was out on parole when then-Gov. Glendening of Maryland revoked parole for all persons convicted of a life sentence. Since the late 1990s, Gaither has remained incarcerated—despite once having been deemed fit…
California is about to execute an innocent Black man | Rattling the Bars
A 1995 robbery gone wrong in the town of Tulare, California, ended with the murder of five people. For years, the police were unable to pin the case on anyone—until they arrested Timothy James Young….
