There are over 2.4 million people in America’s prisons and rural America is home to the majority of them--a way to prop up the economy. Where I live, in the central Appalachian coalfields, the result has been nothing short of a archipelago gulag, with almost every county having a state, federal or private prison.
Back in 1999, our funky regional community radio station (WMMT-FM "The Voice of the Hillbilly Nation) responded to reports of human rights violations in two newly opened SuperMax prisons with a holiday call-in show for prisoner families. Ten years later the program has grown to a national radio program that brings hundreds of prisoner family voices to the airwaves each holiday season. Sometimes heartbreaking the calls give instant insight into a system the targets our poorest citizens.
The volunteer djs are putting "Calls from Home" right now, live on the Internet. I've posted some of the calls below the fold.
(Brief update for those interested. I've added the final radio program, which was pretty powerful)
Full sixty-minute program:
Ten-minute copy:
Learn more about this program
From www.thousandkites.org: Thousand Kites is excited to offer community radio stations and individuals the 9th annual national radio program Calls from Home. The program features phone calls from mothers and children, brothers and grandparents, sharing the intimate power of families speaking directly to their incarcerated loved ones. Calls from Home, produced in the coalfields of central Appalachia, reaches a national network of prisoners, their loved ones and public listeners through community radio in an effort to educate the public about the criminal justice system.
The calls point to a larger social justice issue: the mass incarceration of our citizens. Possibly the economic crisis we are currently facing provides a window to address a costly system that fails at almost every level. We can't afford to continue to put in citizens behind bars in mass. How we move this issue forward and into the the public eye is the more complex question. How does the criminal justice system affect you?
Learn more about Calls from Home and how to call in if you wish