4 JUL 2024 · It's been 40 years since supervised release was first introduced into the federal court system by the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act. Supervised release, which replaced federal parole and probation, is a secondary sentence judges can impose that only comes into effect once people have already served their time in prison. The legality of the widespread use of supervised release, not to mention its overall constitutionality, is highly controversial. Jabari Zakiya joins https://therealnews.com/rattling-the-bars to make the case for the abolition of supervised release. Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino Post-Production: Cameron Granadino, Alina Nehlich https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

26 JUN 2024 · For the past 54 years, Thomas 'Tahaka' Gaither has lived behind bars as a political prisoner. A former member of the Black Panther Party Baltimore Chapter, Gaither was a close associate of 'Marshall' Eddie Conway Jr., who spent his last years as host of Rattling the Bars. Although Gaither was released on parole decades ago, he was https://therealnews.com/marylands-parole-system-conditions-people-for-despair when Gov. Glendening revoked parole for anyone who had received a life sentence. Tahaka Gaither and his daughter, Tara, return to Rattling the Bars to discuss his life, their family's shared struggle to release Tahaka and live on in spite of the prison system, and what Tahaka's incarceration has meant for generations of his family. Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

17 JUN 2024 · The prison system keeps millions of families from celebrating Father's Day together. For Alexia Pitter of https://famm.org/, separation from her father, Gasi Pitter, has been a lifelong reality. Kept from even embracing her father during prison visits as a child, Alexia's struggle to build and maintain a relationship with Gasi has required taking on the entire prison system. After believing for many years her father would never be released, Alexia is now fighting for her father's release. Rattling the Bars explores this story of a brave daughter's love, and one family's determination to resist. Additional links/info: - https://www.change.org/p/governor-j-b-pritzker-please-support-my-father-gasi-in-his-attempt-for-clemency?original_footer_petition_id=27020191&algorithm=promoted&source_location=petition_footer&grid_position=4&pt=AVBldGl0aW9uAH347gEAAAAAYlJxJS1DGwUzZTRmY2ZjZg%3D%3D. Studio Production: David Hebden Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

10 JUN 2024 · The lived reality of the racist prison system can get lost in the swirl of facts and figures surrounding mass incarceration. Frigid cells in winters and sweltering conditions in summers; the volatility and capriciousness of hostile guards and correctional staff; food barely fit for human consumption; isolation from one's community and deprivation from the routines and small freedoms that made up one's identity prior to incarceration. The trauma of such an experience is undeniable, and extends far beyond prison walls—from overpoliced communities subjected to the constant presence of police surveillance and terror, to the families and relationships put under the strain of separation. Dr. Da'Mond Holt returns to Rattling the Bars for the final installment of a https://therealnews.com/the-reality-of-black-historical-trauma-makes-healing-a-form-of-justice, this time speaking with host Mansa Musa and his friend Lonnell Sligh, about their respective experiences behind bars, and the implications of the prison system as a deliberate system of mass trauma affecting Black and other working class communities of color. Studio Production: David Hebden Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

3 JUN 2024 · Despite now spending 47 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Leonard Peltier continues to be denied parole by the federal government of the United States. Why has the US so obstinately refused to free Peltier, despite decades of international outcry? The answer lies in the threat posed by what Peltier represents—the demands of the Indigenous liberation movement for sovereignty and justice after centuries of US settler colonialism. Historian Ward Churchill joins Rattling the Bars for a discussion on Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement, COINTELPRO, and more. Studio Production: David Hebden Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

3 JUN 2024 · In 1977, American Indian Movement member Leonard Peltier was convicted of the murder of two FBI agents, and has remained a political prisoner of the US ever since. Peltier's conviction has long been contested by activists and legal experts. Despite the recantation of three key witnesses, his case has never been brought back to trial. Peltier has been eligible for parole since 1992, and the federal government has ignored calls to free him for more than 30 years. Rachel Dionne Thunder joins Rattling the Bars to discuss Peltier's case and the radical vision of the American Indian Movement which the federal government has sought to repress through Peltier's incarceration. Studio Production: David Hebden Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

3 JUN 2024 · The oppression of Black people is more than just a historical or political question. The accumulated harms of centuries of slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, and racism in all forms have a psychological and medical effect, in addition to political and economic ones. Trauma, after all, describes the physical injury of the brain as a result of harmful experiences. At the scale of communities and generations, such trauma can be passed down and reproduced for decades, and even centuries. In the first of a two-part conversation, traumatologist https://x.com/drdtholt?lang=en explains the medical reality of Black historical trauma, and what kinds of interventions and solutions are required to promote healing as a form of justice. Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

17 MAY 2024 · Critics of the prison industrial complex have long noted the system's failure to properly rehabilitate those who are locked away in its bowels. Christina Merryman and Ameena Deramous return to Rattling the Bars for the second part of a https://therealnews.com/the-womens-cut-marylands-only-womens-prison on the reality facing prisoners in Maryland's only women's correctional facility. https://therealnews.com/the-womens-cut-marylands-only-womens-prison Studio Production: David Hebden Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

24 APR 2024 · For decades, prisoners' rights advocates have called on the State of Maryland to address its flagrant discrimination against prisoners housed in the state's sole women's prison. As The Real News has previously reported, https://therealnews.com/it-is-torture-women-in-marylands-prisons-have-nowhere-to-turn and the lack of resources and services dedicated to incarcerated women amounts to https://therealnews.com/how-maryland-discriminates-against-women-prisoners. Christina Merryman and Ameena Deramous, both former inmates in the MCIW—or the "Women's Cut"—join Rattling the Bars, explaining the conditions faced by incarcerated women in Maryland, and what advocates inside and outside the prison walls are doing to fight for justice, in the first half of this two-part panel. https://therealnews.com/help-us-to-get-better-maryland-is-failing-women-released-from-prison Studio Production: David Hebden Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support

25 MAR 2024 · The prevalence of sexual violence in the US prison system is so widespread and accepted that it's often made the butt of jokes in popular culture. Yet the reality is that countless survivors of the prison system carry the scars and traumas of sexual abuse—and for many, the perpetrators of these crimes were the very prison staff charged with their protection. Juvenile victims of the prison system are no exception. In Maryland, several adult survivors of sexual abuse as juveniles in state custody have filed a class action lawsuit demanding justice. Lawyer and former DC Council Member https://twitter.com/larubymay?lang=en joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the class action suit, and the systematic nature of sexual violence in prisons as a form of racial oppression. Studio Production: David Hebden Post-Production: Cameron Granadino https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe https://facebook.com/therealnews https://twitter.com/therealnews https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support