prisons – Citizen Reporter

Jordan Flaherty: Prisons and Justice in New Orleans

In post Katrina New Orleans, prisons and the justice system suffer from a long list of problems, many of which were there before the floods. They’re also the subject of a battle being fought by community leaders to change and fix how crime is addressed in a city fighting to rise again.

My guest for this podcast is Jordan Flaherty, a journalist and community organizer based in New Orleans, where he works on an impressive list of social issues. His book, Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena 6 focuses on the struggle of people in New Orleans, the stories of community and culture that do not often reach the mainstream media.

ExCon and the Vote

Ever since the 2000 election in the United States, the fact that in many states ex-convicts are barred from voting, has become somewhat more known.? Rarely covered in the mainstream media, the few investigative reports done on the topic of voter fraud in places like Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, revealed that in several cases, people were taken off of voter rolls and labeled as former convicts.

One related issue that even fewer reports or public figures are brave enough to bring forward is the policies in various US states that keep prisoners, parolees, those on probation and those once convicted of the most minor of offenses, from voting.? In 10 US states people who have served their sentences and are now out of prison, not on parole or probation, are kept from voting for life.? As incarcerated citizens are often stigmatized regardless of their crime or if they’ve already completed their sentence, it would seem the average citizen doesn’t care or see them as deserving of equal rights once they’re back in society.? Which translates to very little political pressure to change this policy that so many states have.

On a recent edition of The State We’re In, this was exactly the topic that was explored. Specifically the program looked into how ex-cons feel about not having that right. And, for those who do, what importance they give to having that right. What interested me most was when they briefly touched on studies that have shown that when ex-cons return to society and have their right to vote restored, this can have the effect of making them feel more part of society and responsible for what happens in their community.? Click the link above and listen to the segment, a very important question that hardly any people in positions of power are willing to ask.

Prison Life In Ohio

On my way back from Washington DC I was listening to a recent edition of Off the Wall, one of the two radio programs / podcasts that 2600 produces. The program featured an interview with a friend of Emmanuel and 2600 who is currently incarcerated at an Ohio state penitentiary. Besides the alarming story of how he found himself in such a place for 6 months for doing very little besides being at the wrong place at the wrong time and then misreading an order to “not leave the county” as “do not leave the country”, even more eye opening is his experience in prison.

I highly recommend listening to this episode of Off the Wall, Emmanuel does a good job asking questions and bearing with the difficulties of just talking on the phone with someone in prison, and Lurid – the friend – gives a vivid picture of what is a violent and terrible place that isn’t doing much in the way of rehabilitation as the prison system once was supposed to.

bm224 Josh Wolf on Prison Blogs

Many unforgetable words have been written from the prisons of the world, yet in today’s world of internet publishing, will there be a place for prisoners as well? Independent journalist and San Francisco mayoral candidate Josh Wolf joins me to talk about his experience and the Prisonblogs.net project.

Josh’s Website, currently focused on the Mayoral Campaign
Media Sphere

We Discuss:
– Prisoner options for communicating or publishing
– How he handled internet posts
– Internet access in prison?
– 2 places where we normally can’t hear from people
– How P-Blogs works
– Pressuring the Gov’
– Prisoner issues in his mayoral campaign

Mid August Listening

Busy work and social life welcomes me back to Amsterdam. Plus frisbee all weekend. Therefore, two recommendations is what I leave you with.

1 – Naomi Klein, one of my journalistic idols and someone I learn alot from.. speaking at some conference recently, aired on democracynow. She gets into globalization, the business of war, and looking back to how we got here.

2 – On Point episode focusing on the American Prison population. Ever growing and out of control, they get into not only who is in prison but why and what is happening to cities like Newark. An issue that deserves much more media attention then it gets.

Prison Writing

I’ve recently tried to get in touch with Josh Wolf, citizen journalist recently released from jail. Obviously since his release he’s had nonstop places to be and people to talk to, but I figured I would get in line and see about interviewing him.

The purpose of my interview was NOT going to be his case and the whole question of journalist-blogger rights. That topic, while important, has been well covered by the alternative media online.

Instead I want to talk to Josh about prison life. Especially about the conversations, the thoughts, every aspect of prison life and the experiences of other prisoners. He had lots of interesting things to say while he was in prison about what things they did have a right to and what things he thinks they should have a right to, and I wanted to explore all that and hopefully learn from it.

Well I still haven’t heard back from the man, but I will remain patient. In the meantime, I was excited to hear about his project “Prisonblogs.net”. Free blog hosting for prisoners, a space where they can communicate their thoughts and experiences. Over my 7 years of publishing on the internet, I’ve come across many letters from prisoners republished on a few blogs. I glad to see that someone like Josh is helping to make this more possible and will be reading along with great interest.

ps- Do watch his appearance on Colbert.. it’s fun.

**UPDATE: Just recieved an email from the man. thank you internets.**