Jackie Sumell shares her experience being mentored by Herman Wallace of the Angola 3. This mentorship led her to create The Solitary Gardens, a work of performance art exploring the intersection of gardening and criminal justice reform. She shares insights into how art can be used for social activism.

Sherrill Roland discusses how being incarcerated in a federal jail inspired him to start The Jumpsuit Project, a work of performance art born out of his thesis proposal at the University of North Carolina.

© Sherrill Roland

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Professor Chrysanthi discusses her experiences working as a prison educator in a women’s prison near the University of Delaware teaching classes on women’s literature and gender studies. She shares stories of her relationships with her students, the hardest parts of teaching in prison, and what continues to motivate her to do this work. 

Corvain expressed his disdain towards the harsh sentencing of cannabis-offenders and the lack of rehabilitation efforts towards those released from prison. He spoke about the shock of coming home, reuniting with family and the frustration at the social handicap he faced. Corvain channelled these emotions into his initiative, the 40rty Ton Project, a brand with the aim of restoring justice and rebuilding communities

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Kevin shares the story of his crime, incarceration, and reintigration process. When Boyd was 16, he gave his mother the keys to his abusive father’s residence. Although she had previously spoken about murdering Kevin’s father, her ex-husband, Kevin did not take her seriously. He wishes he had, because his mother murdered his father that night and framed him for the crime. After over 25 years of incarceration, Kevin was finally released when his case was re-tried with new laws and new evidence. He attributes his relative success reintegrating to his profession as a tradesman and his optimism. Boyd calls us to attend more to law and less to politics when it comes to performing and assessing legal proceedings. Otherwise, he says, “we play chess matches with people’s lives and we don’t think there’s consequences to that.”

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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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Liz, a volunteer with Prisoner Visitation and Support (PVS), shares her experiences and thoughts on visiting and corresponding with incarcerated people at El Reno in Oklahoma.

Ken is a volunteer for Prison Visitation Services (PVS). He shares his experiences visiting incarcerated individuals–mostly in military prisons. He describes some of the unique conditions in military prisons. He also emphasizes the strength and importance of his relationships with the individuals that he has visited over his time with PVS.

John describes his work with theater programs in prisons- from his own experiences in them as an incarcerated person to the work he does now that he has been released.

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Larry recalls his volunteer visitor work at the Lompoc Federal Correctional Institute. He talks about his family’s history with the prison system, how he got introduced to the field of volunteer work, the stories he has gathered about the dynamics on the inside of a medium or minimum security institution, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of the work he does.