Ronald is a formerly incarcerated person who defended himself in prison, succesfully advocated for his own release, and now works as a nationally recognized activist for prison reform. The interview goes over Simpson-Bey’s experience as an incarcerated person, and as a leader within his prison family. In this, we hear stories of dehumanization, found family, and the barriers to education within the prison system. Simpson-Bey also describes life after prison and his vision for the future of incarceration through the decarceration movement. Simpson-Bey calls for an end to the systemic injustice of mass incarceration as it exists today.

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Sofia shares their experience working as a Housing Advocate and Social Medicine Program Coordinator at the Lifespan Transitions Clinic and Social Medicine Programs in Rhode Island. They explain the Clinic’s role and impact in the Providence and Rhode Island community and center the stories and influence of a number of individuals and Community Healthcare Workers who have shaped the Clinics growth and development since its founding in 2018.

The interviewee shares his experiences with the abuse and trauma that he faced as a juvenile serving a cumulative 13 year sentence in New York State prison. Now, he is a community organizer who helps in the re-entry process for others who have recently been released from prison.

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Erica Gerrity is the founder of the Minnesota Prison Doula Project, which assists incarcerated mothers in the childbirth process. She speaks about the abuses that incarcerated mothers face and how she wants to end prison births in America.

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Tevin discussed the impacts of incarceration on the community and how detrimental the carceral system is to community health. Particularly, Tevin shared his insight into the ways in which the carceral system takes mothers and fathers out of the community. Children grow up with limited guidance and lack structure. In turn, the criminal justice system attempts to fill the void created by incarcerated parents. He also discussed the lack of healthcare in prison. He emphasized Covid-19 and how prisons don’t take proper precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. Tevin felt that the prison system does not value the life of people in prison.

Ayoola works in a jail and does criminal justice advocacy. She spoke of working “on the front lines” of mass incarceration and “in the trenches.” Her interview addressed the lack of health care and the poor quality of existing health care within prisons. Ayoola spoke to the lack of visibility for those experiencing mental and physical illness due to incarceration. Many people both in and out of prison do not receive proper treatment. Those in prison are denied or made to wait for treatment because prison staff believes the individual is malingering. Those formerly incarcerated individuals have deteriorated health upon release and receive inadequate health care. Ayoola mentioned how working in prisons has an impact on the mental health of her family. Additionally, her interview touched on the effects that working in incarceration has on her health. She spoke of migraine headaches that she believes have to do with the constant exposure to stress in the prison environment. Ayoola wished that the country would acknowledge the parallels between incarceration and slavery.

In this interview, the interviewee discusses her contact with the criminal justice system as a young adult who had an incarcerated parent and worked at a public defender’s office, to now as a full-time lawyer and volunteer with Prisoner Visitation and Support. She often visited her father in prison and believes it is important for people experiencing incarceration to have outside connections. She also shares how difficult it is for family members to visit their loved ones in prison right now, compared to her familial visits in the 1980s. The conversations that occur when she visits include politics, concerns about life after release, and personal troubles within the prison. While it is challenging to keep certain thoughts to oneself, she states that the role of a prison visitor is to listen and be supportive rather than transforming people’s principles. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, prison visitors have had little to no communication with people they once regularly visited.

Miguel describes the process he went through to become a prison visitor and how he develops relationships with the individuals he visits. As the only Spanish-speaking person in his group of visitors, he was able to have meaningful conversations with other men in the prison who spoke the language. He also indicates that education is important to these men, but they fell prey to a cycle that marginalized and criminalized them because of limited opportunities.