From the 70s or 80s into the earlier 2000s, we saw the numbers of people locked up in prisons and jails increase, around the country. But since the first decade of the 2000s, the numbers of people being locked up have actually decreased nationally and also locally. One of the results is that prisons themselves have started to close nationwide, as they have more and more empty beds, empty cells. On today’s show, we take a look at what it means for imprisonment facilities to close – the impact on social systems, the impact on local economies, and especially, what happens to the actual buildings that once held people in cages.
Our guest is Nicole Porter, the Senior Director of Advocacy for the Washington DC-based Sentencing Project. Nicole was the lead researcher on a report released in August called Repurposing Correctional Facilities to Strengthen Communities.
Follow Nicole Porter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicoleporter
Follow the Sentencing Project on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SentencingProj
Read the report: https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/repurposing-correctional-facilities-to-strengthen-communities/
This week’s Artist Resistance in Residence is jazz musician Eli Maliwan AKA Saxreligious, who is releasing his debut album Elysia Marginata on Friday, September 9th with a release show event at the Bandcamp headquarters in downtown Oakland. We will be giving away a pair of tickets to the event on our show this Thursday.
Follow Eli Maliwan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saxreligious
Buy Eli’s music and tickets to his album release show in Oakland on Friday, September 9th: https://saxreligious.bandcamp.com/
Check out Eli’s website: https://www.saxreligious.com/