Welcome to episode two of  “Over the Wall: The Abolitionist Hour with Critical Resistance.” For listeners new to Beyond Prisons or our collaboration with Critical Resistance, this is a new, regular series that premiered in September of 2023. Hosted by members of Critical Resistance’s The Abolitionist Editorial Collective, “Over the Wall” discusses articles and key interventions made by Critical Resistance’s cross-wall, bilingual newspaper, The Abolitionist.  This episode—dedicated to...

Welcome to episode two of  “Over the Wall: The Abolitionist Hour with Critical Resistance.” For listeners new to Beyond Prisons, this is a new, regular series on Beyond Prisons that premiered in September of 2023. Hosted by members of Critical Resistance’s The Abolitionist Editorial Collective, “Over the Wall” discusses articles and key interventions made by Critical Resistance’s cross-wall, bilingual newspaper, The Abolitionist.  This episode focuses on Issue 40 of The Abolitionist and is...

Josh Davidson and Leslie James Pickering from the Certain Days collective join the show to talk about 2024’s Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar and the work of their collective. We previously spoke with Josh and other folks from the collective back in 2020 and we encourage you to go listen to that episode if you haven’t heard it yet.  Josh and Leslie spoke to us about the works included in the 2024 calendar, how they’ve navigated increasingly oppressive mail policies to...

This is the first episode of  our new series titled “Over the Wall: The Abolitionist Hour with Critical Resistance.” This will be a regular series on Beyond Prisons, hosted by members of Critical Resistance’s The Abolitionist Editorial Collective, in which they will discuss articles and key interventions made by Critical Resistance’s cross-wall, bilingual newspaper, The Abolitionist. The first episode of this series focuses on Issue 39 of The Abolitionist and is titled, “Beyond Abortion:...

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of sexual violence. Kim and Brian discuss Mark E. Kann’s “Penitence for the Privileged: Manhood, Race, and Penitentiaries in Early America.” This essay is a chapter in the book Prison Masculinities, edited by Don Sabo, Terry A. Kupers, and Willie London. Our wide-ranging conversation examines the role of prisons in early America as a tool for sorting who was and was not American, which was understood exclusively as a white male citizen. We...

For this episode, Kim sat down with Jeanie Austin, a Bay Area librarian and academic who focuses on library services for incarcerated people, and Sarah ball, a New York City public librarian working inside jails and prisons providing access to books and information for criminalized and incarcerated people and their families. We explore the multifaceted role of prison libraries, and the challenges faced by prison librarians in providing access to information and literature within the confines...

In this follow-up to our six-year anniversary episode, Kim shares some of what she has been going through in recent years. We recommend you listen to that previous episode before listening to this one. You can support Kim on Cash App at https://cash.app/$BeyondPrisons Credits Created and hosted by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein Website & volunteers managed by Victoria Nam Support Beyond Prisons Visit our website at beyond-prisons.com Support our show and join us on Patreon. Check...

April marks 6 years of Beyond Prisons! Thank you so much to everyone who has listened to the show and supported us over the years. In this episode, Kim and Brian reflect on their work and their lives over the past several years. They discuss everything from their favorite episodes to how they work together, how doing the podcast influenced their lives, and what has brought them joy outside of the show. Episode Resources & Notes Check out Kim’s art at her website:...

This is the third episode in our Creative Interventions series, where we explore this fantastic and practical toolkit for stopping interpersonal violence and speak with some of the people whose organizing efforts directly informed it. We speak with Mimi Kim and Shira Hassan once again, this time with reflections, observations, and other notes for people who are considering interventions. If you’ve got the toolkit at home, which you can purchase from AK press or access for free at...

Brian Kaneda and Woods Ervin join the show to tell us about the Close California Prisons Campaign. This campaign is led by the statewide coalition known as Californians United For A Responsible Budget (CURB), pressuring Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Correction to close prisons across the state.  Last year, CURB released The People’s Plan for Prison Closures, which they describe as “a visionary report that outlines the failures of California’s bloated carceral...

This is the second episode in our Creative Interventions series, where we explore this fantastic and practical toolkit for stopping interpersonal violence and speak with some of the people whose organizing efforts directly informed it. We speak with Mimi and Shira Hassan about the basics of interpersonal violence as outlined in the Creative Interventions Toolkit. If you’ve got the toolkit at home, which you can purchase from AK press or access for free at creative-interventions.org, we’re...

The following talk was delivered by Dr. Kim Wilson at the DecARcerate Arkansas 2022 conference in Little Rock. The conference was an opportunity for abolitionist and other organizers to come together to listen as speakers from around the state and the country talked about their work. Kim interviewed organizers about their experience with boundary setting in movement spaces, and what they said illuminates a deeper problem that we seldom hear addressed, but that is nonetheless, important for...

This is the first episode of our Creative Interventions series.  In this series, we will explore the Creative Interventions Toolkit, which provides tools, resources, and a model for community interventions in interpersonal violence. We’ll go section-by-section and talk to some of the folks whose work served as the source material for this project. You can find digital versions of the Creative Interventions Toolkit or purchase a physical copy by visiting www.creative-interventions.org. ...

This is the audio version of a panel discussion hosted on March 24 that explores the importance of physical mail in prison and how the prison industrial complex works to undermine imprisoned people's ability to meaningfully communicate with their loved ones. You can watch video of the panel here: https://www.beyond-prisons.com/home/video-why-physical-mail-matters Physical mail is a layered issue, and policies that eliminate physical mail are violent and cruel. They seek to destroy the...

In this episode, Kim sits down with Monica Cosby to talk about the draconian policy in the Delaware Department of Corrections to end all physical mail sent to prisoners.  Join us to take action on Friday, March 18, 2022, and on Monday through Wednesday, March 21-23, 2022. Details at: https://www.beyond-prisons.com/home/say-no-to-eliminating-physical-mail-in-delaware-prisons Kim and Monica discuss the cruelty of this policy, which would prevent prisoners from receiving sympathy cards,...

Christopher R. Rogers and YahNé Ndgo join us for a wide ranging conversation grounded in the book “How We Stay Free: Notes On A Black Uprising.” This anthology, which was published by Common Notions and edited by our guest Christopher as well as Fajr Muhammad, and the Paul Robeson House & Museum, brings together essays, timelines, poetry, photography, illustration, and other artwork to reflect on the George Floyd Uprisings of 2020 in Philadelphia.  Kim and Brian ask Chris and YahNé about...

This is a companion episode to our interview with Geo Maher. If you haven’t listened to that yet, you may want to put this on hold and check that conversation out first. Kim Wilson and Geo Maher dive deep into Chapter 5 of his book, A World Without Police: How Strong Communities Make Cops Obsolete. The chapter is entitled, “Building Communities Without Police,” and this discussion was originally prepared for one of Kim’s courses. Geo Maher is a Philadelphia-based writer and organizer, and...

Geo Maher joins us to discuss his new book, "A World Without Police: How Strong Communities Make Cops Obsolete."  We touch on a number of subjects, including the context in which the book was written, cops and labor unions, and how Geo’s experiences in Venezuela influenced his work. We also touch on Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s comment likening abolition to a suburb and rhetorical strategies with the mainstream, as well as examples of bottom-up abolitionist organizing around the world. Geo...

In this episode, adrienne maree brown discusses her recent book: Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation. We talk about the structure of the book, Black feminist wisdom, breathwork as a facilitation practice, the importance of setting boundaries, the need to remain open to new ideas, and moving with grief. adrienne maree brown is the author of Grievers (the first in her novella series with the Black Dawn imprint), Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy...

Rory Elliott and Woods Ervin from Critical Resistance’s newspaper, The Abolitionist, join the show for a wide-ranging conversation on abolitionist media. According to their website, The Abolitionist, sometimes lovingly referred to as The Abbey, “launched in the spring of 2005 as a bilingual publication dedicated to the strategy and practice of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition. It is distributed absolutely free of charge to thousands of people in prisons, jails, and detention centers...

In the second episode of our series, Beyond Solitary, Kwame Shakur joins the show to talk about the need to develop inside-out revolutionary strategy, and the work already being done with that goal in mind by organizations like I.D.O.C. Watch, Prison Lives Matter, and the New Afrikan Liberation Collective. This is the second of two episodes with members of I.D.O.C. Watch, an organization of prisoners in Indiana and outside supporters dedicated to exposing abuses by authorities in the...

Beyond Solitary series | Episode 1 In the first episode of our new series, "Beyond Solitary," Shaka Shakur talks about the history of the prison movement in Indiana, and how the movement has evolved and responded to consistent repression from the carceral state. This is the first of two episodes featuring members of I.D.O.C. Watch, an organization of prisoners in Indiana and outside supporters, dedicated to exposing abuses by authorities in the Department of Corrections. Shaka begins with...

Beyond Prisons Editor Ellis Maxwells introduces a new series called "Beyond Solitary," exploring solitary confinement as a site of struggle and featuring interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones. In recent years, due to tireless work from individuals and organizations around the world, we’ve seen a growing understanding of the horrors of isolation. Long-term solitary confinement—a practice widely used in U.S. prisons and hardly anywhere else in the...

Andrea Ritchie joins the show to talk about her research with the group Interrupting Criminalization, specifically their new report looking back on the “Defund the Police” demand in 2020. Interrupting Criminalization describes itself as an initiative that aims to interrupt and end the growing criminalization and incarceration of women and LGBTQ people of color for criminalized acts related to public order, poverty, child welfare, drug use, survival, and self-defense, including...