The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world. But there are big systems at work in our culture to make us forget that—to try and keep prisons, and the terrible impacts of mass incarceration, invisible. This vanishing act requires help from all parts of our society, including our pop culture. While they play a huge role in how our economy, politics, and families function, it's rare to see the stories of incarcerated people in our pop culture.
On this episode, we share three stories about making prisons impossible to ignore. We hear voices from a recent national protest against prison labor (incarcerated people are paid as little as 12 cents an hour!), talk with filmmaker and disability justice activist Cheryl Green about the often unseen links between disability and incarceration, and hear from powerhouse Andrea James, who co-founded the group Families for Justice and Healing while serving time in Danbury—the women's prison made famous by Orange is the New Black.
