RATTLING THE BARS
Rattling the Bars puts the voices of the people most harmed by our system of mass incarceration at the center of our reporting on the fight to end it. The show was founded by the late Black Panther and political prisoner Marshall “Eddie” Conway, and is now hosted by Charles Hopkins, better known as Mansa Musa, who himself spent 48 years behind bars.
Rattling the Bars offers an honest look at the lives of prisoners, returning citizens, their families, and their communities. With Rattling the Bars, by presenting hard data and real-life stories, we examine and seek to shift public opinion around the misconception that incarceration, punishment, and increased policing make cities safer—the truth of which has been disproven by countless studies. The series examines the history and root causes of the current so-called justice system. It showcases individuals and communities nationwide who are grappling with real solutions to problems created by the prison-industrial complex.
Latest episode
New report exposes DC police using arrests and tickets to score revenue for the District
DC police aren’t just issuing tickets and making arrests on the basis of justice. They’re doing it as part of the District’s fiscal strategy.
Recent episodes
Invest in housing, not prisons: California’s war on the homeless
Rather than treating housing as a human right and committing to large-scale construction of accessible housing, states like California are responding with police raids of homeless encampments and imprisonment for unhoused people.
Will a new president revive the use of clemency?
Under Obama, more incarcerated people were granted clemency than ever before. Could a new president restore this trend?
It’s been 10 years. When will we get justice for Michael Brown?
A decade since Darren Wilson murdered 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, police departments across the US continue to kill and to abuse their power.
How poor and working-class voters navigate an electoral system that doesn’t serve them
The problem isn’t that poor people don’t care about politics, but that politicians don’t care about poor people.
The Supreme Court just made it easier to criminalize homelessness—and that’s a win for the prison system
The Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling found that arresting homeless people is not a violation of our Constitutional right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
Black woman dies in California prison from heat over 110 degrees
Prison guards at Central California Women’s Facility exposed Adrienne Boulware, 42, to extreme temperatures for 15 minutes, according to sources in the prison. Boulware passed away on July 6.
Slavery once split up Black families. Today, prisons do the same thing.
Let’s call the prison system’s use of family separation what it is—torture.
‘Survival pending revolution’: Dominque Conway on education, political abolition, and reform
Brought into the prison struggle by her late husband Eddie ‘Marshall’ Conway, Dominque Conway’s work in prisons continues through the ‘Friend of a Friend’ prison-based mentorship program.
Federal courts use ‘supervised release’ to doubly punish prisoners—it should be abolished
Supervised release replaced federal parole and probation decades ago, but it effectively extends punishments for people who’ve already served their time.
54 years later, this former Black Panther is still behind bars
First incarcerated in 1970, Thomas ‘Tahaka’ Gaither remains a political prisoner of the US. Gaither and his daughter open up about the impact this has had on generations of their family.
Prison deprived her of a father—she’s fighting to get him back
Alexia Pitter’s father was incarcerated when she was just three years old. Growing up, she never thought he would ever leave prison—until she started to fight back.
The prison system isn’t ‘broken’—it’s designed to traumatize Black people en masse
Traumatologist Dr. Da’Mond Holt discusses the ways mass incarceration inflicts deliberate trauma as strategy to oppress working class people of color.
The reality of Black historical trauma makes healing a form of justice
Trauma passed down through generations as a result of oppression is both a political and a medical question.
Leonard Peltier and the long fight for Indigenous liberation
Historian Ward Churchill frames Leonard Peltier’s imprisonment and fight for release in the context of the American Indian Movement and US settler colonialism.
‘FreeHer’ activists demand Biden release incarcerated women and girls ahead of Mother’s Day
Highlighting the cases of Michelle West and other incarcerated mothers, the FreeHer march called on Biden to use his clemency power to live up to past broken promises to help release incarcerated women.
‘Help us to get better’: Maryland is failing women released from prison
Instead of support and resources, formerly incarcerated women face surveillance, fees, and stigma.
The ‘Women’s Cut’—Maryland’s only women’s prison
Though state law upholds gender equality for incarcerated people on paper, the reality of limited facilities, services, and a byzantine bureaucratic structure.
47 years later, Leonard Peltier is still not free
Despite being eligible for parole since 1992, Peltier remains in prison—a sign of how determined the federal government is to repress and criminalize the American Indian Movement.
Survivors of sexual assault in juvenile detention are speaking out
Last year, Maryland lifted the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits against state employees who have committed sexual abuse. A class action lawsuit seeking justice for several survivors was filed this January.
30 political prisoners’ oral histories collected in an unprecedented new book
We speak with recently released political prisoner Eric King and abolitionist Josh Davidson, who have compiled in a new book, ‘Rattling the Cages,’ testimonies from dozens of political prisoners.
‘Second look’ bills offer a chance at freedom to longtime prisoners
Maryland’s proposed Second Look Act would create new pathways to freedom for incarcerated people who’ve served at least 20 years in prison.
Prisoners, unions sue Alabama, alleging ‘modern-day slavery’
The lawsuit claims that Alabama’s system of prison labor generates massive profits for private businesses and revenues for the state by forcing incarcerated people to work for little or no pay.
This is why coming home from prison is so difficult for so many
Over 70% of incarcerated people who are released from prison in the US will be rearrested within five years of their release date. That’s no accident: our system of mass incarceration sets returning citizens up to fail.
Early release: A tribute to Marshall ‘Eddie’ Conway
It’s been one year since we lost our beloved friend, colleague, comrade, and mentor Eddie Conway. Eddie was and remains a giant in the movement for the liberation of oppressed peoples. We miss him dearly.
Baltimore’s ‘downward spiral’ of poverty, disinvestment, and over-policing
A new report maps communities across Maryland, showing the relationship between incarceration and state disinvestment from education and public health.
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