Interviews about the John Howard Society and ‘Contact’

An interview with Catherine Latimer and Lawrence Da Silva about the launch of a new podcast and more broadly about the need for transparency, information, and assistance for prisoners. If you’re interested in learning more about the project, or contributing, please contact the John Howard Society by writing to them at 809 Blackburn Mews, Kingston, ON K7P 2N6, Canada, e-mailing national@johnhoward.ca or phoning Lawrence at 613 218 7592.

After that, an interview with Andrea Conte about his documentary project dedicated to Contact, the 1990s prison television show that aired right here in Kingston. If you happen to have tapes of Contact, please contact contacttvdocumentary@gmail.com.

Listen here: https://archive.org/details/2019111318

Interviews with Zahra and Linda Mussell, October 16, 2019.

October 16, 2019 presented two interviews during this episode.

The first is with Zahra Fahran, a trans woman prisoner who was just paroled after serving almost 20 years behind bars. She talks about the experience of transitioning inside, being sent to a women’s prison, and finally living outside of a cell.

The second interview is with Linda Mussell, Queen’s Department of Political Studies, discussing her research, and the power of media images and prison tourism to shape public understanding of people behind bars.

Listen to the interviews here: https://archive.org/details/cproct1619h00

Teachin’ Against the Big House: Teach-in on Prison Entertainment.

September 18, 2019, at 7pm EST CFRC Prison Radio (CPR) will air the audio from Teachin’ Against the Big House: Teach-in on Prison Entertainment. This teach-in took place on September 12, 2019, bringing together voices critical of the Rockin’ The Big House concert to discuss what prison tourism means for Kingston and beyond. It was organized by the P4W Memorial Collective, SNID, and OPIRG Kingston.

Listen to the audio here.

Speakers included professors Justin Piché (University of Ottawa) and Kevin Walby (University of Winnipeg), and formerly-incarcerated activists Richard Atkinson, Ann Hansen, Donny Hogan, and Jimmy Hogan.

Post-PJD Reports, August 14, 2019

Tonight at 7pm on CFRC 101.9 FM our first post-PJD episode. Featuring an interview with Shaun Shannon and Calvin Neufeld at the Evolve Our Prison Farms PJD event in Kingston, a discussion of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project second quarterly JAIL Hotline report, and PJD events in St. John’s and Hamilton.

Listen to the full episode here: https://archive.org/details/cpraug14

Prisoner Justice Day, August 10, 2019

This year marked the 45th annual Prisoners Justice Day and the 11th annual Prisoners Justice Day broadcast on CPR. Thank you to everyone who made contributions to the show! Thank you as well to CJAI 92.9 Amherst Island Radio for simultaneously broadcasting the show and spreading the message.

Contents:

0:00-0:26:00: Introduction and Historical Information

0:26:00-0:54:00: Interview with Al Fowler of Crackdown about the opioid crisis in prisons.

0:54:00-1:30:00: An interview with April, who lost a brother at the Barton Jail in Hamilton.

1:30:00-2:01:00: An older #FreeThePeople interview with Jamindian, aka Henry Ryskamp, who passed away at the Quinte Detention Centre this year.

2:01:00- 2:36:30: Interview with 3 women who were incarcerated in the now-closed Prison For Women who return each year to Kingston for Prisoners Justice Day for a panel and healing circle on the grounds of P4W.

2:36:30-3:33:00: Memorial – reading out the names of those who have died behind bars.

3:33:00-6:00:00: Requets, messages, songs and poems.

Archive here: https://archive.org/details/pjd2019fullbroadcast

Prisoners Justice Day Special Broadcast

Harsha Walia at De-Carceral Futures, Queen’s University, May 9, 2019

On June 12, 2019, CPR aired part of the keynote address for the De-Carceral Futures: Bridging Prison and Immigration Justice workshop that was held at Queen’s University on May 9-10, 2019.  The keynote featured Harsha Walia, Activist, Researcher and Author of Undoing Border Imperialism: “Migrants are not Criminals: Challenging Movement Carceral Logics that Foreclose Solidarity” and Jonathan Simon, Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California – Berkeley: “Four Myths of Punitive Immigration Policies: Sovereignty, Discipline, Eugenics, and Broken Windows”.  It was chaired by Stephanie J. Silverman (Chair), Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Listen here: https://archive.org/details/CPRJune121900Prerecord.

This episode also includes updates about solitary confinement and the ongoing controversy over Bill C-83.

CFRC Prison Radio On TVO!

Why prisoners are tuning in to this campus radio station

Hey wow! A nice write-up about the show from TVO! Much thanks to David Corrigan for interviewing us and seeing the show in action while we were on the air at CFRC 101.9 FM.

“When people are calling in with all their kids on the line, leaving a message for Daddy, and you can hear all the kids in the background yelling at him with their cute Christmas song request or whatever, those are the things that make it worthwhile.”

Violent History of Benevolence

CFRC rebroadcast on May 1st a March 28 panel in Toronto called “Violent History of Benevolence”. This event was part of the monthly OCAP Speakers Series, where we gather to discuss issues that are critical to the success of poor people’s movements.

This event was sponsored by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.

Listen to the archive show here.

“Social work is often considered a noble profession.

But writers A.J. Withers and Chris Chapman argue this idea is not only historically inaccurate, but the fiction also allows decent people to become willing participants in furthering violence against poor and marginalized people.

In their book, A.J. and Chris document many histories usually left out of social work, including communities of Black social workers (who, among other things, never removed children from their homes involuntarily), the role of early social workers in advancing eugenics and mass confinement, and the emergence of colonial education, psychiatry, and penitentiaries.”

Calls from Home – April 24, 2019

Our monthly Calls from Home episode, in archive form.

Listen back here: https://archive.org/details/2019042419

As always, you can submit to our next call in show in the following ways:

E-mail us at CFRCprisonradio [at] riseup [dot] net
Call us at 613-329-2693
Or write to us:

CPR c/o CFRC
Lower Carruthers Hall
Queen’s University
Kingston, ON
K7L-3N6