Lydia Pelot-Hobbs and Jack Norton, co-editors of the collection The Jail is Everywhere, join me in this interview to discuss the “quiet jail boom” in numerous counties across the United States. They examine how the county jail has become the preeminent site of the adaptive, expansive, and shapeshifting carceral state, as well as the local and nationwide struggles to end it.
Read MorePrison Abolition
#300 | Part Three: Plague Days, Fertile Grounds
May we live in interesting times.
The fertile grounds that bred a novel, deadly coronavirus and the misinformation that accompanied its spread is our subject. Over the last year-and-a-half since COVID spilled over, and more specifically, when our collective reaction to it began to reshape every aspect of our lives, I conducted numerous interviews to make sense of this thing.
Disruptions in the very fragile (and simultaneously resilient) global economic system, mass death, overburdened healthcare workers, the widespread proliferation of conspiracy theories, fascistic outbursts, mutual aid networks, and the uncomfortable questions that arise, characterize this audio narrative I’ve cobbled together for your listening pleasure.
Timeline:
00:00: Intro
12:12: John Feffer (Globalization)
24:42: Commentary
28:46: Alley Valkyrie (U.S. Cultural Tendencies)
35:13: Commentary
44:32: Jared Yates Sexton (QAnon)
55:58: Commentary
1:01:18: Derek Beres, Julian Walker, & Matthew Remski (Conspirituality)
1:15:18: Commentary
1:20:54: Amy Lou (Healthcare Worker)
1:35:09: Commentary
1:40:25: Shane Burley (Mutual Aid)
1:50:53: Commentary
1:54:45: Duncan Tarr (Prisoner Solidarity)
1:59:16: Commentary
2:05:18: Ja Reyalidad (Authoritarianism)
2:17:13: Commentary
2:20:32: Joe Brewer (Regeneration)
2:43:16: Commentary
2:46:16: Bayo Akomolafe (Hibakusha, Trinitite, Corona)
3:08:37: Outro
VIDEO EPISODE:
#282 | First 90 Days: Prisoner Resistance To COVID-19 w/ Duncan Tarr
Intro: 12:57
Duncan Tarr, prison abolitionist and researcher for Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest Across the US and Canada, joins me to discuss their recent report on the wave of strikes, rebellions, and general acts of civil disobedience — organized by detainees in prisons, jails and ICE detention centers — that have occurred since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year.
At Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest we track all instances of prisoner protest across the US and Canada since 2010 that involve multiple prisoners. In early 2020 we were paying close attention to the outbreak of prisoner rebellions, escapes, riots, and resistance in other parts of the world in response to the coronavirus, most notably in Italy. As COVID breached the shores of the U.S. (where we live) we prepared ourselves as best we could to document what we anticipated would be a huge uptick in prisoner organizing and action.
That wave did in fact crash, and we subsequently counted 119 instances of prisoner resistance in the first 90 days of the COVID crisis. These actions occurred in prisons, jails, detention centers, and more. We mark the date of that crash as March 17, the date of the first two actions that we are aware of in which the participants clearly articulated the actions as responses to the spread of COVID-19 behind bars. (http://bit.ly/3ojqA7i)
Duncan Tarr is a writer and organizer living in Lansing, Michigan. Perilous is a digital research and media project documenting and publicizing acts of prisoner resistance and unrest across the US and Canada.
Episode Notes:
- Follow Perilous and support their work: https://perilouschronicle.com / https://twitter.com/PerilousPrisons
- Mail-in address: PO Box 381 Tucson, AZ 85702
- Read ‘First 90 Days of Prisoner Resistance to COVID-19: Report on Events, Data, and Trends’: http://bit.ly/3ojqA7i
- Read Ella Fassler’s article ‘Report Finds Over 100 Rebellions in Jails and Prisons Over COVID Conditions’: http://bit.ly/2Xbc71c
- The song featured is “Tribolita” by J G B from the album Desapego: https://youtu.be/M3o6NhrO8D4