podcasts on prisons & carcerality
a growing guide to podcasts related to prison abolition, carceral state apparatus, and prison industry.
more in the prison abolition study guide:
Prison Radio
Prison Radio is an independent multimedia production studio in San Francisco producing content for radio, television, and films for 30 years and distributing throughout the world. They stream our high-quality audio material to media outlets and the general public in order to add the voices of people most impacted by the prison industrial complex.
This takes on a special urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the national focus on the damage done by the police and prison structures across the nation.
Prison Radio CKUT
Prison Radio Montreal has been on the air in Montreal for more than nine years. It seeks to confront the invisibility of prisons and prisoner struggle, by focusing on the roots of incarceration, policing, and criminalization, and by challenging our ideas about what prisons are and the people inside our jails.
Prison Radio is dedicated to programming that is directly collaborative with people who are currently incarcerated. This is in the interest of forging stronger ties between incarcerated and non-incarcerated people, ensuring that prisoners have direct control over their representation, and that our understandings of prisons be informed by those who live inside their walls.
Beyond Prisons
Beyond Prisons is a podcast that explores incarceration from an abolitionist perspective. They amplify the voices of people directly impacted by the system and seek to tell stories that push us to imagine and work toward a world without prisons.
Launched in 2017 by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein, Beyond Prisons is an educational and political resource for those new to abolition and those long engaged in movement work.
Prison Abolition Conversations
The United States has an issue with mass incarceration. This podcast will specifically touch on these subjects and other important conversations that we need to have collectively.
This podcast is hosted by Odalis Pacheco, a graduate student at NM Highlands University. Support the podcast here.
Ear Hustle
Ear Hustle brings you the daily realities of life inside prison shared by those living it, and stories from the outside, post-incarceration.
Launched in 2017, Ear Hustle was the first podcast created and produced in prison, featuring stories of the daily realities of life inside California’s San Quentin State Prison, shared by those living it. Co-founded by Bay Area artist Nigel Poor alongside Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams — who were incarcerated at the time — the podcast now tells stories from both inside prison and from the outside, post-incarceration. In 2019, Rahsaan “New York” Thomas joined Ear Hustle as a co-host inside San Quentin.
Abolition Learnings
Imagine Black Presents: Abolition Learnings centers the work and voices of Black abolitionists, each episode will consider a different aspect of abolition-- from Abolition 101 to an in-depth breakdown of the school to prison pipeline. The series features guests from across the diaspora who are all at different stages in their abolitionist education.
Abolition Science Radio
Abolition Science radio is an abolitionist project that envisions a science and math delinked from racial capitalism, imperialism, and oppression — a science and math that serves all people.
Art of Abolition
The Art of Abolition is a podcast that aims to center the voices of people who have been affected by incarceration. Each episode will center around a theme that has to do with mass incarceration and prison abolition.
During these episodes, they bring information, stories, and art by and for people affected by incarceration. The Art of Abolition is a project of the Abolition Collective.
Go to their website for transcripts for every episode.
Abolitionist Teaching Podcast
Teaching to Thrive is a podcast committed to sharing ideas that strengthen the everyday lives of Black and Brown students within our schools and communities. Each episode is aimed at empowering our knowledge for collective liberation.
Abolition Today
Abolition today is a weekly online radio program with specific focus on modern slavery as it is practiced through the 13th amendment of the US constitution and by private for-profit prisons worldwide.
Airs live Sundays 7pm EST. 4pm PST and 5pm Central.
Justice In America
Justice in America, hosted by Josie Duffy Rice and Clint Smith, is a podcast for everyone interested in criminal justice reform— from those new to the system to experts who want to know more. Each episode they cover a new criminal justice issue.
They explain how it works and look at its impact on people, particularly poor people and people of color. They interview activists, practitioners, experts, journalists, organizers, and others, to learn. By the end of the episode, they aim to give you a better understanding of what drives mass incarceration and what can fix it.
Rustbelt Abolition Radio
Rustbelt Abolition Radio is an abolitionist media and movement-building project based in Detroit, MI. Each episode broadcasts the voices of those impacted by incarceration and explores ongoing work in the movement to abolish the carceral state — prisons, police, courts as well as racial domination and capitalist exploitation.
The show seeks to strengthen community collaboration and undermine the common sense that putting people in cages and shackling them with electronic devices solves the problems produced by racial capitalism. They aim to expand our ability to struggle against the ways in which the carceral state impacts our daily lives and to create a space where we can both imagine and remake our world anew.
The Appeal Podcast
he Appeal is a podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson, on criminal justice reform, abolition and everything in between. Each week they feature interviews with those covering, working in, and most affected by the American criminal system; from lawyers to activists to reporters to the formerly incarcerated.
The Appeal will unpack the latest efforts to shine a light on––and radically rethink––the largest prison state in the world.
Two Sides of Justice
Two Sides of Justice is a collection of narratives from system survivors. The criminal justice system has altered the lives of the people you’re about to hear, sometimes for the better, but more often for the worse. Their contact with the system has permanently changed them and their life trajectories.
We hear their reflections on surviving “justice”, and their experiences urge critical reflection on the way the criminal justice system is shaping lives, families, entire communities, and our nation as a whole- esp at a time when the system holds more than 2.3 million people in prison cells, and at least 4.6 million people under correctional supervision in community.
The Secret Life of Prisons
The Secret Life of Prisons aims to take the bars off prison windows. To shine a light into some of the darkest corners of prisons. It is curious, illuminating, moving and informative, this podcast offers more than just a glimpse into what is, for many, an unseen world.
The presenters are Phil Maguire OBE, Chief Executive of the Prison Radio Association, and the Prison Reform Trust’s Head of Prisoner Involvement, Paula Harriott. Each episode of The Secret Life of Prisons takes on a theme related to the prison experience and features guests with personal experience. Most have been inside. Check out their website.
Curtain the podcast
“This is Curtain – a podcast where we pull back the blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of our justice system and ask – who are the victims? Could an Aboriginal man who has served 25 years in prison for Murder be innocent?
Hosts Amy McQuire and Martin Hodgson
Forgotten Prison
McNeil Island in South Puget Sound is the Alcatraz you've never heard of. The now-abandoned prison on McNeil operated for 136 years. Today, the island is home to the Special Commitment Center, which houses Washington state's "sexually violent predators."
A collaboration between KNKX and the Washington State Historical Society, Forgotten Prison tells the stories of inmates, guards, and children who grew up on the island. The history of this forgotten place can tell us a lot about how and why we lock people up. Check out their website.
Wrongful Convictions
Based on the files of the lawyers who freed them, Wrongful Conviction features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit – some of them had even been sentenced to death. These are their stories.
Featuring Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin and Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science with host Josh Dubin
Inside Prison Walls
Inside Prison Walls tells the stories from Kansas prisons by those who’ve lived it. The show, hosted by Hutchinson News reporter Michael Stavola, will feature former inmates and employees of the Kansas Department of Correction.
Life of a Lifer Podcast
Life of A Lifer podcast hosted by Designed Conviction founder, Taylor Tom, in conjunction with co-host Cecilia Conley, Wife of a Lifer. Taylor Tom Conley is serving a life without the possibility of parole sentence and opens his life up to give a unique perspective, one you may not hear about in the media. The human perspective, not only from him, but he invites others to share their stories and experiences.
Prison: The Hidden Sentence
“The purpose of this podcast and it's blog is to help educate and empower those who have or had a loved one in prison. Did you know that the chances are very high that someone you know has had a loved one incarcerated? Or maybe you are part of the 45% of the US population* who has had a loved one in the prison system?
Indirectly we are all affected, and if you have a loved one in prison you are probably doing the time even though you committed no crime. This is the Hidden Sentence. The sentence does not end once your loved one is released either. Depending on the type of release he or she may still need to deal with probation or parole which carries its own set of regulations.”
Reimagining Prisons
The Reimagining Prison Podcast is hosted by Sam Dye, interviewing thought leaders in the field of corrections to get their thoughts on what it would mean to reimagine prison in America.
Prison Fellowship is a Christian non-profit organization that aims to restore those affected by crime and incarceration by helping men and women in prison achieve holistic life transformation and emerge as productive citizens.
For more information contact reimaginingprisonpodcast@pfm.org
Prison Pipeline Radio
Prison Pipeline is a radio program dedicated to educating the public about the Oregon criminal justice system. Their goal is to present a unique understanding of the criminal justice system, address the root causes of crime, and challenge the status quo.
They seek to promote awareness and activism in order to foster a safe, healthy, and just society. Tune in every Monday at 6:30 P.M. to hear our hosts Karen James, Adam Carpinelli, Amy Johnson, Emma Lugo, Doug McVay and Isabelle Sinclair explore the Oregon justice system with a variety of guests. Hosts rotate weekly. Prison Pipeline's engineer is Celina Flores. Connect with them at kbooppc@gmail.com