Libsyn Directory

Introducing: Lessons From The Garden

Release Date: 09/23/2024

Beyond Prisons

In this episode we talk about mental and physical healthcare in Washington’s prisons. We speak with Tony Tyson, Queen J, and Darnell Jones, all incarcerated voices in our state, who talk to us about accessing care in prison, and also what they or the people around them have done to get or create care. Content warning: this episode includes first-hand accounts of medical neglect and suicidality in prison. In-Care-Ceration was written and produced by Leah Montange and Meredith Ruff.

In-Care-Ceration Episode 6: Care Reform, Care Otherwise

Beyond Prisons

In this episode we explore ways that people are working to build a more caring and care-full world, and to address the harms of our carceral systems whether they are prisons, jails, or hospitals. Some of the people we talk to are interested in engaging with Washington State to change systems, and others are more interested in finding ways to do care otherwise, outside of state systems. This episode features the words of Scout Smedley, SYP, Cindi Fisher, Joshua Wallace, Lauara Van Tosh, Chris Carney, Shaun Glaze, and LeTania Severe, as well as Patreece Spence. We’d like to dedicate this...

In-Care-Ceration Episode 3: Civil Commitment

Beyond Prisons

In this episode, we take on the topic of civil commitment and experience. We address hospitalization, the emergency room, and the perspectives of people who work in the system and who receive treatment. We address ways that civil commitment resembles incarceration. We speak to SYP and Laura Van Tosh, and feature the words of Cindi Fisher – all people whose lives and advocacy have intersected with the civil commitment system. This episode contains descriptions of civil commitment and emergency rooms, including discussions of suicidality. Music by Scout Smedley and editing by Nest Audio...

In-Care-Ceration Episode 4: Jails

Beyond Prisons

In this episode we talk about mental health in jails – what mental health care looks like in jails, how people with disabilities navigate and experience jail, and how activists and organizers have addressed the mental health crisis in urban jails in Washington. We speak with Jordan Landry, Tony Tyson, Leslie McCallum, KL Shannon and Patreece Spence. Content warning: this episode includes first-hand accounts of police violence, unhealthy jail conditions, and suicidal ideation. In-Care-Ceration was written and produced by Leah Montange and Meredith Ruff.

In-Care-Ceration Episode 1: Entanglements

Beyond Prisons

In episode one, we introduce this series’ central questions: what do the mental health system and the criminal legal system have to do with one another? More to the point, how is improving care in Washington contributing to the expansion of jails, prisons and other spaces of confinement? We frame the whole series by outlining ways that care and incarceration are entangled with one another in Washington State. This episode features the voices of Chris Carney (Carney Gillespie) as well as Shaun Glaze (Black Brilliance Research) and LeTania Severe (Black Brilliance Research and Seattle...

In-Care-Ceration Episode 2: Forensic Commitment

Beyond Prisons

In this episode, we take on forensic commitment, the psychiatric commitment of those who are facing criminal charges but are legally considered not competent to stand trial We unpack how the jail and state hospital systems are connected with each other through forensic commitment, and how there is a surplus of people in the jails who are awaiting space for beds to open up in the state hospital system. This has created pressure for an expansion of forensic commitment space in the state hospital system, something that abolitionists and reformers have addressed. We speak with Chris...

Introduction to In-Care-Ceration: A Podcast

Beyond Prisons

In-care-ceration is a documentary podcast about how Washington’s so-called mental health system is entangled with the carceral system. How do people in need of mental health care end up losing their freedom, whether in a hospital, jail, or prison? How do these institutions care for people? Do they care for people at all? Are community calls for a more caring system having their intended impact? We especially tune in to how improving care is a guise for expanding confinement and coercion. The podcast episodes feature voices from...

A Continuous Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Martin Sostre feat. Garrett Felber

Beyond Prisons

For this episode I sat down with Garrett Felber to talk about their new book, A Continuous Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Martin Sostre. The book is described by Dr. Orisanmi Burton, author of Tip of the Spear, as “A rigorous examination of Sostre's revolutionary life that offers vital lessons for those seeking to carry on the struggle.” I began our conversation by asking Garret about what motivated them to write the book in the first place. We then focus our discussion on what they learned about Sostre throughout the process. Garrett’s clear writing and insightful...

Lessons from the Garden: Circle Keeping and Restorative Justice feat. Jennifer Viets

Beyond Prisons

In this episode I sat down with the amazing Jennifer Viets for a conversation about her work as a restorative justice practitioner in Chicago. We begin by talking about Jennifer’s experience with being a grandmother including pushing back against societal expectations, how her work shifted from being individually focused to more community oriented, and we explore some of the lessons she’s learned from being a circle keeper about being in right-relationship with others. Jennifer Viets(she/her/hers) has worked as a Restorative Justice Practitioner for the past 15 years....

For a Livable Future: Building Movements to Stop War & Save the Planet

Beyond Prisons

Welcome to episode three of “Over the Wall: The Abolitionist Hour with Critical Resistance.” For listeners new to Beyond Prisons or our collaboration with Critical Resistance, this is a new, regular series that premiered in September of 2023. Hosted by members of Critical Resistance’s The Abolitionist Editorial Collective, “Over the Wall” discusses articles and key interventions made by Critical Resistance’s cross-wall, bilingual newspaper, The Abolitionist. This special episode focuses on both issues of the newspaper that Critical Resistance (CR) published in 2024:...

More Episodes

Beyond Prisons is excited to announce the launch of a special new series titled ‘Lessons from the Garden,’ where Kim Wilson will be interviewing contributors to the forthcoming anthology that she co-edited with Maya Schenwar, We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition.

We Grow The World Together will be out on November 19, 2024 from Haymarket Books, and is now available for pre-order wherever you buy books.

The series is an opportunity to engage in further conversation with brilliant organizers, writers, and thinkers about their work, and how they practice abolitionist parenting and caregiving in their daily lives. Additionally, we will draw on some of the themes that they wrote about in the book to help us deepen our understanding of caregiving - broadly configured - and what it means to live collectively in a world that is designed to keep us isolated from each other.

In the first episode, Kim talks with Susana Victoria Parras and Alejandro Villalpando — two of the most generous, kind, and smartest people that she’s had the honor of being in community with — about how their parents’ forced displacement due to political and social unrest provides the context for understanding the legacy of inherited trauma. Susie and Alex also share how through a continued practice of communal study they are able to renew their commitment to each other, their child, and to their community in ways that are generative and don’t engage in disposability politics or pathologizing their elders and ancestors. As part of their conversation, they talked about grief, loss, accountability, and care. Susie shares an intimate view into the love ethic that she and Alex share, and Alex reminds us that this shit is hard, and that in spite of that, we have to keep trying.

At Beyond Prisons, we’ve had the opportunity to talk with so many incredible people over the years, and we continue to be awed and unsettled. Alex often says that he is not interested in inspiring folx, but wants them to feel unsettled. We wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment because inspiration is fleeting, and requires no change in thought or behavior, but when people feel unsettled they are more likely to examine why they are, and to engage in activity to address the issue/issues that have unsettled them.

We hope that this series, and the book, leave people unsettled in the best way possible. As you will learn throughout this series, the contributors offer us glimpses into how they engage with the people in their lives and in their communities to organize against injustices, genocide, prisons, isolation, death, and more. At the core of these offerings is a deep love for humanity, which as adrienne maree brown says “love is what makes surviving worth it.”

The name of the series ‘Lessons from the Garden’ is an apt phrase that reflects the metaphor in the book’s title, and allows us to consider many issues related to caregiving, parenting, and abolition. As Lydia Pelot-Hobbs once said “our citation politics matter,” and in that spirit we want to credit Susie Parras for the series title.

What listeners can expect in the coming months, is a resource library that will include as many contributors to ‘We Grow the World Together’ as we can schedule. In thinking about what we wanted to do with this series, we decided that we want it to function as a political education tool and supplement to the book. With so many incredible contributors to this anthology, we imagine that our conversations will be insightful, lively, and full of wisdom and love. We are looking forward to seeing what unfolds.

Episode Resources & Notes

COMING NOV. 19, 2024! Pre-order We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition, Edited by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson

Abolition has never been a proposal to simply tear things down. As Alexis Pauline Gumbs asks, “What if abolition is something that grows?” As we struggle to build a liberatory, caring, loving, abundant future, we have much to learn from the work of birthing, raising, caring for, and loving future generations.

In We Grow the World Together, abolitionists and organizers Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson bring together a remarkable collection of voices revealing the complex tapestry of ways people are living abolition in their daily lives through parenting and caregiving. Ranging from personal narratives to policy-focused analysis to activist chronicles, these writers highlight how abolition is essential to any kind of parenting justice.

HELP SEND THIS BOOK INSIDE: Contribute toward sending copies of We Grow the World Together to folks in prisons and jails by donating at https://haymarketbooks.app.neoncrm.com/forms/we-grow-the-world-together