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.

In this interview, a case manager at both Reentry Campus Program and the Nonviolence Institute in Providence Rhode Island explains the variety of services her organization offers to assist individuals currently or previously incarcerated. She describes how her organizations work collaboratively with others within and outside of the state to provide comprehensive services for individuals at all reentry phases. She discusses how many of the state’s reentry services are accessed by word of mouth. She also discussed the unique difficulties people with incarceration experience face when looking for employment and housing.

Next, she talked about some of the challenges she has faced in providing services to incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. She describes how some of the services her organizations offer have pivoted or expanded and improve client services during the pandemic. Additionally, many of her clients faced technology access and knowledge barriers early in the pandemic, making navigating the reentry process more difficult.

She also described how the reentry programs she is a part of function as a larger community. Many of her current co-workers were former clients of the Reentry Campus Program or the Nonviolence Institute or had prior experiences with incarceration. Finally, she discussed the challenges of working against larger systems of oppression and racism that impact the lives of her clients. She ends on a positive note, describing how her organizations are working toward changing Rhode Island policies that disadvantage individuals with incarceration history and incorporating people with lived experience into policy discussions.