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0:31

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0:33

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0:35

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0:37

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2:07

My name is Latifah Simon and I'm a criminal

2:09

justice reform organizer here in the

2:11

Bay Area. The following episode of Ear

2:14

Hustle contains language that may not be

2:16

appropriate for all listeners. Discretion

2:18

is advised. Hi, my name is

2:20

Teresa and I'm calling from Maraud, California.

2:23

Hi, my name is Laura Judon, calling from Pennsylvania.

2:26

I'm a pediatrician and I'm interested

2:28

in knowing... Hi, my name

2:29

is Amy. I'm from Portland, Oregon. Hi there,

2:32

my name is Andrea and I'm calling from Alberta, Canada.

2:34

Hi, this is Sonia from Sacramento

2:37

and for the upcoming tragic

2:39

kite

2:39

episode, I was wondering...

2:45

Erlon, it has been a while since

2:47

we've explained what a kite is. Could you

2:49

do the honors here? Yes. A

2:52

kite is basically some

2:54

type of writing that's usually secretive from

2:57

one prisoner to another prisoner. Yes.

3:00

Or it could just be simple as, send me a shot of

3:02

coffee.

3:03

Okay, so it's a request or

3:05

it's information. Something. But it's

3:07

kind of like you said, sort of secretly said. Secretly,

3:10

it's not passed the regular way.

3:12

It's not something that someone would say over

3:14

the tier. It's just a direct communication

3:17

between one person to the next person.

3:19

Okay, so the way that kite episode

3:21

works,

3:22

and Erlon, we've been doing this since season

3:25

two? Season two. Listeners

3:27

send us questions about life inside prison.

3:30

And we do our best to get a mask. Yes, and

3:33

up until now, they've mostly been answered by

3:35

people inside San Quentin. Right.

3:38

But this time, we're going to do something just

3:40

a little different. I'm Nigel Poor. And

3:42

I'm Erlon Woods. This is Ear Hustle

3:45

from PRX's Radiotopia.

3:48

I'm Katrina Hovey. My name is Sarah Rothschild.

3:56

My

4:00

name is Anne-Marie Harrison. I have

4:02

two life sentences and I've been incarcerated 19

4:05

years. My name is Nicky.

4:07

My name is Kiara Anderson. Hi,

4:10

my name is Michelle Cato, C-A-T-O.

4:14

Ever since we started going into the California

4:16

Institution for Women. C-I-W

4:19

for short, they go to macronomes, not actually. Prisons

4:22

full of them. We've been thinking it would

4:24

be really fun to base a Ketch-A-Kite

4:26

episode in there. I mean, it's

4:28

a very different kind of place than St. Quentin.

4:30

Right. So for this Ketch-A-Kite,

4:33

we asked listeners to come up with questions

4:36

about life inside a women's prison.

4:39

And there were definitely some questions we could have

4:41

predicted. I mean, a lot of people

4:43

asked about periods. And they asked about

4:45

some new stuff too, guys. Yes, yes, you're right.

4:47

Let's get started. Let's do it. Hi,

4:58

this is Liz from Washington State. And

5:00

I'm curious, what is one banned

5:02

item that you wish you had access

5:05

to in prison? Thank

5:06

you. Probably

5:09

internet access. An

5:12

air fryer. A cell phone. Come on now. What

5:15

is one banned object

5:17

that you wish you could have? Electric stove.

5:23

Something to really cook with. What

5:25

would you have? I could sneak one

5:27

of those into my room. I'd have it. What would

5:29

you make? Everything. I could

5:31

make rice and Puerto Rican food. And like fried food. Some

5:34

fried chicken. A real fried chicken.

5:37

That'd be nice. Yeah. That'd

5:40

be nice. Nudge. You know what

5:42

I would have said, right? What? An air

5:44

fryer. Are you serious? Out of all the

5:46

banned things, that's what you would have wanted? The air fryer,

5:48

yeah. That has made my life so

5:51

meaningful out here at Nudge.

5:54

But

5:56

what food would you have nailed? The air fryer in there.

5:59

Out of air fryer. a baloney sandwich.

6:01

I mean, but you get,

6:03

you get like macros in the pack. You get all kinds

6:05

of stuff. You make some concoctions

6:08

up in there.

6:10

If you could have one band

6:12

item in prison, what would

6:14

it be? One band item. Yes.

6:18

And you wouldn't get in trouble for it. It's just

6:20

one thing that you really wouldn't want to have. A

6:23

recording studio.

6:28

For music? Yes, primarily

6:30

for music. And what would be the first song you would

6:32

record? I'd

6:36

probably record an original song that

6:38

I wrote with another prisoner in 2013. It's

6:44

called Get a Grip. Are

6:47

there lyrics? Yes. Get

6:50

a grip

6:50

don't even trip it's time

6:52

to show you what I've got.

6:55

I've got, oh yeah, oh yeah, I've got

6:57

the answer to your prayers.

7:01

That's it. All

7:08

right. What is on the band

7:10

item list that you want? Nail

7:13

polish, perfume, hair dye.

7:15

We have a lot of band items we can't have. So

7:18

yeah, mostly it would be stuff to make us feel

7:20

better about ourselves.

7:22

Beauty products

7:24

are aligned. OK. This

7:27

is a topic that didn't come up too

7:29

much when we did these episodes from the side of San

7:31

Quentin. No.

7:33

Hi, my name is Healy

7:35

from Victoria, California.

7:37

I was wondering if women

7:40

in prison are

7:41

color their hair ever or

7:44

if there's a way to do that. Thanks

7:49

for listening.

7:52

Can women color their hair in prison? I

7:55

think they used to when the

7:57

salon was here.

7:59

Until pretty recently, CIW

8:03

had a cosmetology vocational program

8:05

where women could learn salon skills

8:08

and it would pretty much help them find work once

8:10

they get out.

8:11

We used to be able to dye

8:14

our hair, do pedicures, even fake

8:16

nails, but we don't have a teacher

8:19

currently right now, so we're not allowed to do

8:20

it. And how did you do it? With a real

8:22

dye, somebody would do it, a student. A

8:24

student who was training that needed their hours would

8:27

do our hair, they would do haircuts,

8:29

they would dye your hair.

8:30

Some kids, was Tyra important

8:32

to that? Tyra, no, so

8:34

sometimes people that know how to do hair from the street, they just do

8:36

it on the art. So Tyra used to cut my hair

8:38

on the art. Can you remind listeners

8:41

who Tyra is?

8:41

Tyra was my nephew mom and

8:44

she's been in a couple of our episodes, including

8:47

the one called Better Sweet, the one I

8:49

got out. Yeah, I remember that well. And

8:51

for a time, she was incarcerated

8:54

at CIW. I remember

8:57

she used to write me and tell me about the cosmetology

8:59

program that she was taking there. I can totally

9:01

see her doing that. And sadly, Tyra

9:03

passed away last year.

9:06

Yeah. And I notice when if we go to CIW,

9:09

you always ask if somebody knows her. Yeah,

9:11

I get a new memory of

9:14

somebody saying something that happened there.

9:16

Yeah, and it's like keeping her alive and

9:19

close. It's a trip. So

9:22

to come back to Hailey's question, now

9:24

that the cosmetology program is closed,

9:27

women who want to tie their hair are

9:29

kind of shit out of luck.

9:32

Can you order dye or anything off the catalog?

9:35

No, no, we can't get any hair dye on

9:37

the catalog. The only thing we can buy is makeup.

9:40

Yeah, I mean, they can't order hair dye from

9:43

any of the catalogs. It's considered

9:45

contraband. But there's always

9:47

a workaround. I've seen them

9:50

colored their gray with coffee. I've

9:52

seen them do with Kool-Aid. You're looking right up

9:54

at my gray hair when you said that. Oh, I'm sorry.

9:59

It's OK.

9:59

I have some, not as much, but I

10:03

have some, and I'm a whole lot older than you.

10:10

Hi, this is Sonia from Sacramento. I

10:13

was wondering for the women

10:15

in prison, what some of their favorite

10:18

snacks are.

10:20

Thanks. Beef

10:22

jerky. Chocolate

10:25

donuts. Celery. I love

10:27

string cheese. I

10:29

got to know, what was your favorite snack in prison? For

10:32

me, it was oatmeal

10:34

cream pies and donut sticks

10:37

with some coffee. I've never heard

10:39

of donut sticks. I never

10:40

saw donut sticks before. You know how you

10:42

got a round donut with a hole in it? Yeah. This

10:46

is just a donut stick. Like a stick inside

10:48

that hole? No, just the shape of a stick.

10:50

That's how the donut look.

10:53

Oh. It's like a donut bread, like a loaf

10:55

of bread shrunk down. Well, I remember you

10:57

like a donut on a stick. That

11:00

don't sound right now. At

11:03

all. You just changed that

11:05

whole little... Something pure

11:07

into something awful. Yeah, something awful. I'm

11:09

sorry. Well, let's see what

11:12

else the people at C.I.W. snack on. I

11:16

love ice cream. When you

11:19

get a pint of ice cream, there's no freezer here, so

11:21

you have to eat it in one sitting, right? Pretty much,

11:23

and it would be nice to have some kind of cooler clothes,

11:25

man. I...

11:26

Just don't want to eat it at that moment. I want to eat it,

11:28

but... I want to make it

11:29

last. I like everything

11:31

that's snack food. Like, I don't

11:33

need the food. Coffee is my go-to food. Coffee's

11:37

a food for you? Yes. Cream and

11:39

sugar on the block. Cream and sugar. Yeah,

11:41

that makes it a food, yeah. What's

11:44

your favorite snack? Hot

11:46

Cheetos. That's

11:48

a good snack. Yeah.

11:50

You like those? Mess your hands

11:52

up. I know. They really

11:54

do. They're all reading a book. That's evidence. Yeah.

11:58

When we were doing a project in the library...

11:59

In San Francisco a couple librarians

12:02

said the worst thing is people eating hot

12:04

Cheetos and returning the books. Yeah Yeah,

12:07

I didn't do that What's your

12:09

favorite snack? You know

12:11

what since I've been down I've been realizing

12:13

I like hummus and pretzels

12:17

Surprisingly hummus and

12:19

pretzels that's a good snack Arc with

12:21

carrots and I only realized I like it since

12:24

being in prison. That's what they offer us and I didn't know I like

12:26

that What did you think

12:28

the first time you tried it were you suspicious

12:31

or you like? Of course,

12:33

but I was hungry so that that also took

12:35

bait But I was like wow,

12:37

this is so healthy and it tastes good who

12:40

knew healthy still tastes good

12:44

Erlon I believe you have a relationship

12:47

with hummus. Yep. I

12:50

hate hummus What's

12:54

your favorite snack to snack

12:56

on here? Erlon

13:02

come on I mean seriously we had

13:05

just asked her that question I'm gonna

13:07

be generous eight seconds ago

13:09

distracted by the hummus

13:21

Hi, my name is Amy and I'm calling

13:24

from Austin, Texas and my question

13:26

is what is it like to have a period in prison?

13:29

Thank you

13:30

We got a bunch of questions about dot

13:33

dot dot dot You mean

13:35

period? Yes. We got a bunch

13:37

of questions about periods

13:40

A listener wants to know what it's like to have your period

13:42

in prison You

13:46

can always pass on answering a question Well,

13:51

it's uncomfortable Most

13:53

of the time for me at least the

13:56

cardboard applicators are very uncomfortable

13:59

And yeah,

14:02

especially if you have a visit and

14:05

then you have to strip out and all

14:07

that, it can be, yeah.

14:09

And you still have to strip out even

14:11

if you're going through that at the moment? Yes.

14:14

Yeah, so if I have a visit, then yeah.

14:18

So when you have a gang of women

14:20

together in an environment,

14:22

do everyone,

14:24

periods

14:28

get on Bluetooth and all sync up? So

14:33

usually with your Sally, yes. With your Sally,

14:35

yes, you usually do get in sync with your Sally or somebody

14:38

you're really close to.

14:38

So here's only two women

14:41

in sale. So if you were in

14:43

the eight-man style, it'd probably

14:45

be like, probably

14:47

the people you were closest to are the strongest women in

14:49

the, they always say the strongest personality.

14:52

Strongest personality? Okay. So

14:59

I think some listeners are concerned that women

15:01

don't have enough access to tampons

15:04

and sanitary pads. And

15:07

I have heard that from women for sure. So I'm not

15:09

diminishing it. But I swear at CIW,

15:12

I've never seen so

15:14

many pads and so many tampons. Every

15:17

time I turned around, there was not a damn bag

15:19

of tampons.

15:19

And women were finding all kind

15:22

of creative things to do with the pads. I remember

15:24

seeing them stuck to the top of women's

15:26

sale doors.

15:27

Oh yeah, like to prop the door open

15:29

or keep it from slamming shut. And also

15:31

in the sales too, remember looking

15:34

at the sinks?

15:34

Yeah, and the sink, they had the pads

15:36

on the top. They had them on the side,

15:38

like on the corners. So if like,

15:41

I guess you bump into the corner, it ain't gonna hurt as

15:43

bad as that metal wood hurt at that point,

15:45

you know?

15:45

Once again, the prison work

15:48

around. The prison work around.

15:50

I remember seeing one lady had them, she had the pads

15:53

on her shoulders, on her head, on her forehead.

15:55

She said she was finna go play football.

15:58

You happy for a minute there? We're

16:01

going to take a quick break when we get back

16:04

finding happiness in prison.

16:06

And Orange is the New Black.

16:13

We love the freedom hip hop offers, but

16:15

there's a lot less freedom inside the

16:17

culture than you might think.

16:19

This is Louder Than a Riot, podcasts

16:21

where we explore who hip hop marginalizes

16:24

and why it's embedded in the fabric of the culture

16:26

we love. So now Louder Than

16:28

a Riot wherever you get your podcasts.

16:33

My

16:40

name is Mo. I'm calling

16:43

from Massachusetts and

16:45

my question is what makes

16:48

people happy in

16:50

prison? Hopeful

16:55

but happy. Thanks.

16:58

Bye. My

17:00

happiness comes from doing

17:03

for others and my family and visiting

17:05

and I have a daughter. Being

17:07

able to get on the tablets and watch

17:09

movies, connect with my family

17:12

now, which is for free. When

17:14

did you start being able to use a tablet in here?

17:18

When I first got here, so within a week

17:21

I got here days actually. And

17:23

that really changed things. Definitely. I

17:25

was even talking to some people that had been in prison before

17:28

and they was like, what? I got

17:30

tablets. Y'all are spoiled compared

17:32

to how we was in prison. So I'm

17:35

definitely came to prison at a good

17:37

time, but still

17:39

doesn't negate freedom. It is.

17:43

It's a band-aid. Definitely a band-aid. That's

17:45

a nice way to put it, a band-aid.

17:48

Habblets are a big deal in

17:51

prison. Yeah. Well,

17:53

when I was in prison, we had

17:55

the basic tablets. All

17:57

you can do is read a book or play a video

17:59

game.

18:00

But now they have it to where you can

18:02

do emails you can pretty much FaceTime

18:04

a person you can call a person It's

18:07

not the internet

18:09

But they're able to communicate. That's

18:11

amazing. That's no definitely I mean and you don't have

18:13

to stand in line to use the phone But they're not

18:16

at every prison for example saying Quentin

18:18

doesn't have them right I think it's only a couple of prisons

18:20

that it hasn't been rolled out to you

18:22

know saying Quentin supposed to get him this year

18:32

What makes you happy in prison? I

18:35

say my education Because

18:37

nobody could take that from me. I could

18:40

grasp as much as I want and Not

18:44

only is it free But it takes

18:46

me to a whole other place and I could

18:48

get lost in a book. I could get lost

18:51

in my homework

18:53

When I look up, I'm still

18:55

in prison When I look back down

18:57

and I continue writing I'm not so

19:00

it takes me away

19:03

What makes people happy in prison, I mean

19:05

I can't really say that I'm happy

19:07

in prison It makes it easy

19:10

if one has support one

19:12

has Financial

19:15

stability it makes it bearable

19:17

you know,

19:18

but happy

19:20

There's nothing happy about prison other than you

19:22

blessed enough to wake up every day

19:26

Well, I find happiness with the peace

19:28

that I have and and just the joy

19:30

that I have despite me being

19:34

in prison You know, I'm 40

19:37

years old with a life sentence

19:40

Reality of that is scary I've

19:42

seen friends commit suicide I've

19:45

seen

19:46

friends die in here. I see

19:48

friends get released just to die in here Prison

19:51

is hard, but I'm

19:54

okay. I have joy, you know, I'm alive.

19:57

I got all my senses I can breathe

19:59

You know, I can see, you can hear the birds,

20:02

you know, you can see them just snowing the mountains.

20:07

When we're in here, in ourselves, we have

20:09

a mirror probably about the size of this paper.

20:12

And I just see a bigger picture. Whatever

20:14

I'm feeling small about, I just don't feel it no more.

20:17

It goes away and that's joy, you know? And

20:21

that's something that

20:21

you gotta, you kinda gotta get

20:24

for yourself. Nobody is gonna give you that. You

20:27

can look at your cup as half empty

20:29

or you can look at your cup as half full.

20:33

And I'm just, I'm blessed because I

20:35

know that my cup is half full, you

20:37

know?

20:54

Hi, my name is Kathy Sanchez and

20:56

I'm calling from Crockett, California. And

20:59

I wanna know how much

21:01

orange is the new black accurate

21:04

in a women's prison. Thank you.

21:09

Kathy didn't specify whether she meant orange

21:12

is the new black book by our friend Piper

21:14

Kerman or the TV show. So

21:16

we asked about both and we got

21:19

a few bites. More

21:22

like some nibbles. Did

21:24

you think the book was realistic about life

21:26

in a woman's prison? Yeah,

21:30

yeah. What about it? More county.

21:33

More of the county jail aspect of it? Yeah, it

21:37

seemed to me more like the county. I was reading it

21:39

in the county. Wow, this is a lot like, you

21:42

know, being here in county. Not so much here.

21:45

Okay. Prison's a big difference from county.

21:47

What's the difference? We get to go out. I

21:49

mean, see, I was in county for five years and

21:52

didn't see the outdoors at all.

21:54

As for the TV show, well, that's

21:56

a hard question to get answered in a prison. Orange

22:00

is the New Black. The

22:02

TV show? No Netflix

22:04

in prison. That's right.

22:07

My name is Lori McConnell and I'm the senior librarian

22:09

here at California Institution for Women. And

22:12

I'm in my ninth year now.

22:15

Lori's freestyle. She works at the

22:17

prison. So she get to go home at the end of the day.

22:20

And then she can watch whatever she

22:22

wants. Have you watched the TV show,

22:24

Orange is the New Black? For about one

22:26

episode. And then it was like just... What

22:29

did you think of it? Did you think it got anything right?

22:32

Probably to, yeah. Cause it was, I

22:35

didn't really want to watch much of it. So

22:37

some of the caddy stuff that was going on

22:39

and listening to all that, it was like, I

22:41

was like, okay, I hear this all day.

22:43

We hear that here, you know. I

22:47

think women, rather than fighting, we mostly

22:49

hear the complaints.

22:52

So you think it got, at least from what you saw,

22:54

it got it right. From the little bit I watched and

22:56

then I told my husband, oh, it's too

22:58

much talking. I can't listen to that anymore.

23:02

I was so glad that we got to talk to the librarian

23:05

at CIW. Why? Because there's

23:07

nothing listeners ask us about more

23:10

than books. I'm going to say the number one question

23:12

we get from our listeners is about reading

23:14

and libraries. People want to know what are the popular

23:17

books in prison? What gets requested?

23:21

J.R. Ward, Tom Clancy,

23:24

Moss, Sarah Moss, Hobbit, all

23:27

the Dune book, and Nora Roberts.

23:30

Also the urban fiction, that's super

23:32

popular. If we don't go by authors, what

23:34

genre do you think is the most

23:36

popular? The vampire romance

23:38

is big, but I don't know if that's actually a genre

23:41

of its own. True

23:43

Crime, True Crime's huge. We can't

23:46

keep the unruled books on the shelves. They

23:48

are so tore up, it's

23:51

bad.

23:51

But they love those.

23:57

What's the last book you took out of the library? Oh,

24:03

the Rosy Project. What's

24:05

that about? It's

24:09

about a man trying to find

24:11

a mate. He's

24:13

on the spectrum kind

24:16

of.

24:16

It was hilarious. Everybody

24:19

I tell you, you gotta read the book. What

24:21

was the last book you took out of the library?

24:25

The Mark. What's

24:27

that about? It's

24:29

a spiritual book. It's a Left Behind

24:32

series

24:33

from the movies. So it's about

24:35

being bio-chipped at the end of days. They're

24:38

gonna bio-chip you. And how it would

24:40

be if Satan is friend of the world. They're

24:42

doing it in Sweden right now where people have to be bio-chipped

24:45

in order to buy and sell. This is fiction,

24:47

but I think it's gonna one

24:49

day happen. Would

24:52

you be left behind or would you be gone? You

24:55

know, had I not came to prison, probably so.

24:57

You would have been left behind. I would have been left

24:59

behind, but now I'm out of here.

25:03

Hello, Nikki. What's the last book you checked out

25:05

of the library? Actually,

25:08

I am currently reading

25:11

Emotional Unavailability, How

25:13

to Recognize It, Understand It, and

25:17

Avoid It.

25:18

And is this some good

25:20

shit up in there? Hell yeah. Hell

25:23

yeah. It makes me think

25:25

back on all the unhealthy relationships

25:28

I had. And

25:31

the impacts and really, I

25:35

think it'll really help me to identify,

25:38

oh, in the future I'm not gonna be looking

25:40

for some Mr. Romeo or

25:42

something, you know.

25:46

Erlon, what was the last book

25:48

you read when you were locked up? I

25:50

believe the last book I read was

25:53

The Alchemist. I do remember you

25:55

reading The Alchemist, and I'd never seen you

25:57

like this. You got all misty-eyed about it, and

25:59

you were like, You have to read

26:01

this book. Everyone has to read this book. And

26:03

then you kept saying, have you read it? Have you read it yet? And

26:06

Earl and I got to admit, I still haven't read it yet.

26:08

You haven't? I mean, it was a- I got two copies of it at home.

26:13

So Earl, do you remember we spot that box in

26:15

the library? It was wooden

26:17

and like kind of the size of a shoe box and

26:19

had a slit at the top.

26:20

Yep. That's a place where people can

26:23

request books that aren't in the library

26:25

yet. And Lori can either use her

26:27

budget to buy some new books each year or

26:29

maybe someone would donate them.

26:31

So we asked Lori to read some of those

26:33

requests out loud.

26:36

Sent of Darkness series by Christine

26:39

Dodd. So that's romance. Tears

26:42

of a Hustler. Author is Silk

26:44

White in urban fiction. The

26:48

Chosen Ones, did I already say that one? No.

26:50

Okay. The Chosen Ones, Christine Dodd,

26:53

romance. Another one is the

26:55

Winslow series by Gilbert Morris.

26:58

So this is 40 books in the one

27:01

series. So I have yet to put it

27:03

on my list, but somebody wants it, so I

27:05

will. Donation?

27:06

Yeah. Oh, that'd be a great one. And then we'll

27:09

make room for it.

27:12

There are some books that, well, it

27:15

doesn't matter how many times you request them. You're

27:17

not gonna get them. So

27:20

The Game of Thrones was, when it first came

27:22

out as a series, it was super popular here.

27:24

And what is it, five, six, six books now? I

27:26

don't even remember. But we

27:29

have a banned list of certain things that we're not

27:31

allowed to have. So The Game

27:34

of Thrones, Clash of Kings, there's a couple

27:36

of pages in there that we're not allowed to have. So

27:38

the book therefore in its entirety

27:41

has to be removed from the collection. So if you want

27:43

to read The Game of Thrones, you're gonna have to skip book

27:45

two. And what were the pages?

27:48

That were

27:48

the... 417, 467, and 600.

27:59

We happen to have a... of Game of Thrones,

28:01

Clash of the Kings here, Nigel. Care

28:03

to do the honors? Yeah, toss me the book. Okay,

28:07

I'm going to page 417. The

28:10

guards took women off into the bushes

28:13

at night, and most seemed to expect

28:15

it and went, yeah, okay. I think

28:17

we get the picture

28:17

pretty quickly. Ah, yeah. Ooh,

28:20

one was a little girl. All right, what about

28:22

the next one? What about page 467? 467, okay, 467.

28:25

Aegon's

28:31

been drinking and gets to touching her

28:33

and might do a little touching meself.

28:37

Finally, Josh reaches up under

28:39

her skirt, and she shrieks

28:42

and drops her flag on and goes

28:44

running off into the kitchen. Well, it would have

28:46

ended right there. Josh is the old man, another

28:49

silver, rips the dress off the

28:51

wench, and takes her right there

28:53

on the table. Wiggling like a rabbit, and she starts making

28:55

noises. Why am I reading this?

28:58

I laugh so hard, the ale

29:00

came out of my nose.

29:03

Oof, I don't like anyone in this book. Why do people like

29:05

this book so much? What was

29:07

the last page? 600, I

29:10

think. Okay,

29:12

yeah, here's 600. Lady

29:15

Tandra's daughter had surrendered her maidenhood

29:18

to half a hundred shouting men behind

29:20

the Tanner shop. Yeah,

29:24

sheepers. Yeah, I guess I get the picture.

29:26

I guess the common thread in what you just

29:28

read was there was a lot of violence against women.

29:31

So that's probably the reason.

29:35

And I said I didn't like these passages, but

29:38

I am at 100% against banning any book,

29:41

no matter what's in it. Right, right.

29:53

Do people donate good books? Yes,

29:56

yes. A lot of times we do get good

29:59

titles.

29:59

A

30:01

lot of times it's stuff we already have because

30:03

we try to stay pretty hip and in with

30:05

the times with what the

30:07

inmates request. I think

30:10

clearly there are some books that

30:12

just are not going to fly in prison. We

30:15

did get a donation of

30:18

what was it called? A hundred ways to escape

30:20

a situation or something written by a Navy SEAL. Somebody

30:23

donated a couple copies of that once. That was hilarious.

30:26

How to escape from handcuffs.

30:30

Of course, that had to

30:32

go in the confidential bin. It would be

30:34

tossed. I just want to say to listeners, it's great

30:36

to donate books to the prison, but donate books that

30:38

are good and that you would still want. Yes. Just

30:41

offer cleaning out your closet. Thank you because I think that's what

30:43

people miss is it's not

30:46

necessarily like charity donations.

30:48

Our patrons read. They are avid readers.

30:51

They're smart readers. They're intellectuals. They

30:53

don't want to be dumbed down. Give

30:55

them quality material. They will read it. They

30:59

read nonfiction.

31:00

Not everybody reads the vampire

31:02

romance stuff. They

31:04

want to read self-help books. Not

31:07

from the 60s and the 50s. Real material.

31:19

If you're interested in donating books

31:21

to a California prison, just go

31:23

to the show notes and we'll have instructions there.

31:26

Besides our

31:29

Ear Hustle book, what

31:33

book would you donate to prison? I

31:35

would like to donate one that really activates the imagination.

31:38

It would be Calvino's Invisible Cities.

31:42

How about you?

31:43

I would probably donate America's Conda

31:45

intercity escort by Larry Davis. Oh

31:47

yes. Good choice.

31:59

experiences and perspectives which may be

32:02

different from theirs. Another

32:04

reason is to gain insight and knowledge into

32:06

the carceral system as well as

32:08

American politics. Politics.

32:11

I get it. So,

32:14

you know, I mean, you know, it's a cool book and I think

32:17

for some people it gives context

32:19

into how they got to prison and

32:21

how the system works and sometime

32:23

how it don't work. Yeah,

32:25

yeah,

32:25

it's a good read.

32:28

We want to thank all the listeners who sent us questions

32:31

about life inside a women's prison, including

32:34

Sonia Gonzalez, Liz Keeler,

32:36

Hayley Morgan, Amy Fletcher, and

32:38

Missouri Ammons. As well as Kathy

32:41

Sanchez, Teresa Cassado,

32:43

Amy Shuff, Laura, Andrea

32:46

Archer, and Sue Glue.

32:50

Thanks also to the people at the California

32:52

Institution for Women who answered them. That

32:54

includes Katrina Hovey, Sarah

32:57

Rothschild, Anne-Marie Harrison,

32:59

Nicole Carroll, Michelle Cadeau,

33:02

Gladys Ortiz, Holly Gustafson,

33:05

Angel Navarro.

33:06

And Quiche Williams, Leroy Robison,

33:09

Aaron Schamitz, Kier Anderson,

33:12

McCall Martinez, Cassidy Porter,

33:14

and Lorraine Serrano.

33:16

Ear Hustle is produced by me, Nigel

33:18

Poore, Erlon Woods, Rossan

33:21

New York Thomas, Amy Standen,

33:23

and Bruce Wallace.

33:24

With help from Neroli Price and

33:27

Tony Tafoya inside of San Quinn. This

33:30

episode was sound design and engineered by

33:32

me, Erlon Woods, with help from

33:35

Fernando Arruda.

33:36

It features music by Rudy Van,

33:38

David Jossi, Antoine Williams,

33:40

Erlon Woods, and Rashid Cinnamon.

33:43

Amy Standen edits the show, Shubnam

33:46

Sigmund is our managing producer,

33:48

and Bruce Wallace, the new dad.

33:50

With the cutest baby ever. We're

33:52

going to meet you all. Oliver Ollie. Oliver

33:54

Ollie is our executive producer. Welcome to this

33:56

world, Ollie. We can't wait to meet you. and

34:00

Jennifer Kaur. And for this episode's

34:02

approval, we're turning the mic over to

34:04

our new friend down there at CIW.

34:06

I am Lieutenant

34:08

Newbor, Public Information Officer at the California

34:11

Institution for Women, and

34:12

I approve this episode. This

34:15

episode was made possible by the Just Trust,

34:17

working to amplify the voices, vision,

34:19

and power of communities that are transforming

34:21

the justice system. And

34:22

please don't forget to sign up for our newsletter,

34:25

The Low Down, where you can learn more about each

34:27

episode and find out what the Ear Hustle team

34:29

is up to. Please subscribe at EarHustleSQ.com

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slash newsletter. You can also

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find more about the show on Facebook, Twitter,

34:38

and Instagram at Ear HustleSQ.

34:41

Nigel. Yes. You're gonna tell them to go into

34:43

comments and comment? Yeah, comment.

34:46

Comment on our

34:46

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34:48

because I'm looking to get in. I'm looking to dive in.

34:51

We'll comment back. And respond. Yes, yes, yes.

34:54

Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radio Topia from

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35:02

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35:06

I'm Erlon Woods. I'm Nigel Poore. Thanks

35:09

for listening.

35:14

Shitkickers used to be a real

35:19

wanted and sought-after book in prison when

35:21

I was coming through. Shitkickers. Even

35:23

the Youth Authority, people love shitkickers. I

35:26

mean, that's a genre? Like cowboy stories?

35:28

Yeah. Oh, how funny. Yeah, seriously.

35:31

I've learned something today.

35:38

Hey listeners, it's that time of year. It's

35:41

our annual Ear Hustle fundraiser. Help

35:43

us reach our goal of 1,000 donors

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by supporting us right now on EarHustleSQ.com.

35:49

Or you can hit the link in the episode notes.

35:59

donate. We love hearing from listeners

36:02

and truly we read every single

36:04

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