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.

Transcript

The interviewee spoke to their experiences working as a social worker providing mental health services in the criminal justice system. She described different approaches to working with clients, whether more restrictive or ones that offer more autonomy. Additionally, she offers her experiences in confronting the hierarchies and “rules” that govern mental health in the criminal justice system and the ways mental health professionals become overshadowed by correctional officers, police officers, and judges. Overall, she expresses her affinity for restorative approaches in working with incarcerated individuals.

The interviewee spoke on their experiences as a mental health provider in a reentry program that coordinates with a women’s prison. The participant reflects on how their clients’ sought a space to speak on mental health. The participant observed that incarcerated people felt unable to express their struggles with mental health within the prison system because of a “prison culture.” The participant did not witness specific mistreatment against incarcerated people within their field. The participant also emphasized their belief in a rehabilitative approach when working with incarcerated people. From the participant’s perspective, many incarcerated people have undergone trauma that needs to be addressed through a public health perspective. In working with the reentry program, the participant was surprised at how incarcerated women took the initiative in completing their tasks within the reentry program, and based on these experiences, the participant supports giving more autonomy to incarcerated people.

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.

Dorothy Chao began volunteering with Prisoner Visitation and Support because she felt called to be a presence for a population that typically has “no voice.” In the first facility she visited, she encountered many women who were incarcerated for similar reasons – someone in their lives had committed a crime and was found guilty of conspiring with them. The second prison she visited was completely different in that the population was male, the security level was higher, and the crimes people were convicted of were more serious. She discusses the difficulty of working with people who experience trauma and her practice of being comfortable in the moment in order to continue helping others. She also shares stories of people with mental illnesses who were mistreated by prison staff.

David Wynne shares his story of visiting people incarcerated in the same correctional institution he was held in thirty years ago. An important distinction he mentions is that he was placed in minimum security while the men he visits are in medium security. He revealed that while the sadness people experience in prison never changes. Over time, he observed how different people were treated and categorized between facilities. He also describes how he reconstructed his life through faith, family, and community support after his release. In his spare time, he is a coordinator for Books Through Bars, an organization that sends free books to prisons.

Transcript

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.