NC Womens Prisons + Overcrowding Post-Helene in NCDAP

This week, we’re featuring two interviews concerning prison conditions in North Carolina. First up, you’ll hear from Elizabeth Simpson of Emancipate NC, one of the signatories to a public letter to this state’s department of corrections calling for the release of hundreds of prisoners in North Carolina. This comes in response to over-crowding and understaffing of prisons following the emergency transfer of 2,000 prisoners from prisons in the western part of the state effected by Hurricane Helene. [00:01:15 - 00:18:50] Then, Mona Evans of Benevolence Farm, a post-release residence and re-entry program in North Carolina for people coming out of the women’s prisons talks about their programs, re-entry and some of the realities faced inside womens prisons in this state.   [00:20:04 - 01:04:40] In this conversation I mentioned Victoria Law's latest book, Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration (Haymarket Books). You can find our 2013 interview with her about her 2nd edition of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women at this link. Other projects Mona mentioned include: Arise Collective re-entry program DownhomeNC engages in a number of progressive causes in this state, including the bail fund that Benevolence Farms is currently running. You can find our 2020 interview with them here. . ... . .. Featured Track: Women on the Inside by Sistas In The Pit from The We That Sets Us Free: Building A World Without Prisons