Today we welcome artist Nadira Simone, who wrote the breath-stealing new play The Killing of Kings. The drama weaves a tapestry of Black families in America dealing with mass incarceration and police brutality, grappling with Black Lives Matter, and surviving racism. Simone achieves this by homing in on the King family, as patriarch Patrick King returns home from a second stint in prison. But what kind of life awaits Patrick King now that he is out? 

We dig into the struggles of transitioning out of incarceration. Experts Anthony Dixon of the Parole Preparation Project and Esther Matthews of Gonzaga University rewind to the conditions that lead to imprisonment and recidivism—the tendency of a formerly incarcerated person to become reincarcerated. We learn why words like “re-entry,” “rehabilitation,” and “reintegration” are inaccurate and counter-productive and reset terminology to use the word “transition.” Simone, Dixon, Matthews, and host Ruthie Fierberg discuss possible reforms inside prisons to transform residents and how we as the receiving communities can facilitate the transition for people who get out to become integrated members of society.

Create the change

• Watch The Prison Within
  


• Question your own biases about incarcerated and formerly incarcerated persons


• Approach all people with compassion and humanity


• Advocate for prisons that help people change; not just lockup


• Support the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and peer support in prisons


• Find short-term, medium-term, and long-term proposals from Brookings Institute


• If you are an employer, consider “banning the box” - raise the bar for disqualification of employment


• If you are a landlord, raise the bar for disqualification of rentals


• Read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson


• Go to Brennan Center’s “End Mass Incarceration” > Click on an “Issue” > Click “Work & Resources” > Read “Policy Solutions” > Advocate for these, Vote for representatives who include these in their platforms


• Support and amplify the “Reverse Mass Incarceration Act”
  


• Read “A Federal Agenda to Reduce Mass Incarceration”


• What to look for in activists and candidates


• Improve physical conditions in prisons (the jurisdiction of each state’s Department of Corrections)


• Support Last Prisoner Project, reach out to them if you are in need


• Learn about HOPE for Prisoners
  


• Donate to Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
  


• Learn more about the War on Drugs and the number of people imprisoned for non-violent crimes (ACLU, AP, Brennan Center)

Referred to in this episode

• 
  Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, where Anthony spent time in his childhood


• Goshen Annex


• 
  The War on Drugs and its effect on the Black community


• 
  The Prison Within documentary


• 
  Washington Post article by Esther Matthews


• 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the U.S., 40 % no public safety reason (Brennan Center stats)


• DOC: Department of Corrections


• 
  Data on obstacles to transition (housing, employment, etc.)


• Reuben Miller’s book Halfway Home
  


• 
  Megan Kurlycheck research (specifically Comparing the Distributional Properties of Arrest Risk Across Populations of Provisional Employees With and Without a Criminal Record)
  


• What is “Ban the Box”?

Ruthie Fierberg, Host

Ruthiefierberg.com 

IG: @whywetheater / T: @whywetheater

IG: @ruthiefierceberg / T: @RuthiesATrain

Learn more about our guests at bpn.fm/whywetheater.

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