AJCRADIO
Exposing Injustices Wherever Found
an Organization for Social Justice
Our hosts will continue their ongoing discussions on Voices Behind the Wall. Tonight's focus will be Part 2 of sharing voices of those being abused and tortured in a Federal Prison in Florence, Colorado. Listen and learn more about the death of Michael Andersen, an inmate whose life was ended behind these walls.
Writer, Author, & Professor - Alan Prendergast
Alan wrote the article “At the Federal Supermax, When Does Isolation Become Torture?” Alan Prendergast’s reporting on the justice system has appeared in a wide range of publications and anthologies including Rolling Stone, Outside, Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Best American Crime Reporting 2008, and Best Alternative Longform Journalism. He is the author of a book about the Richard Jahnke child abuse and parricide case, The Poison Tree, and is a longtime contributor to the Denver weekly Westword. Prendergast served as principal reporter for a CBS News one-hour documentary about the Columbine shootings, which aired on 60 Minutes and was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism.
Websites: https://www.westword.com/ ; https://muckrack.com/alan-prendergast/articles
Attorney - Bernard Kleinman
Bernard Kleinman is an Attorney with his own Private Law Practice; practicing in Federal and State Courts for Clients in NY and across U.S. Federal criminal, civil rights, commercial, and constitutional law. He represents clients at the ADX in Florence, CO. They are Mamdouh Salim, Wadi el Hage, and Ramzi Yousef who are all convicted “terrorists” and alleged former members of Al Qaeda. He has represented Ramzi Yousef for more than 20 years including not only his conviction in the Southern District of NY (SDNY) for the 1993 WTC Bombing and the Manila Airlines Plot, but also in litigation challenging his conditions of confinement under the SAMs program. He was named to New York Superlawyers in 2013/2014 and to New York Top Lawyers in 2015/2016.
Advocate - Kathy Morse
Kathy Morse is a former detainee at Rikers Island. New York State oversight agency determined that Rikers is so dangerous, it can no longer be permitted to accept inmate transfers from outside New York City. Kathy is one of several people formerly incarcerated at the troubled complex who tells her story in "Rikers: An American Jail." Kathy missed a court date and was picked up and sent to Rikers. During her stay, she was sexually assaulted by 4 detainees while taking a shower to teach her a lesson. They heard Kathy was a snitch. Kathy never reported the assault because, in Rikers, correctional officers retaliate against you for reporting abuse or they just ignore your claims of abuse.
Websites: http://rikersfilm.org ; https://www.closerosies.org/index ; https://vimeo.com/212659765
Author/Ex-Correctional Officer & Prison Inspector - Gary York
Gary York served in the United States Army and was honorably discharged at the rank of Staff Sergeant from the Military Police Corps. After discharge, he began a career with the Department of Corrections as a Correctional Officer. He was promoted to Senior Prison Inspector where for the next twelve years he conducted Criminal, Civil and Administrative investigations in many state Prisons. Gary has conducted hundreds of investigations in the prison system regarding numerous crimes that occur in our prison system. Cases that are not known to the public, but are public record. Gary has written a couple of books: Corruption Behind Bars and Inside The Inner Circle.
Website: http://www.corruptionbehindbars.com/
KCADP Board of Directors Chair - Aaron Bentley
Aaron Bentley is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He is actively involved in fundraising and urging Kentucky legislators to support abolition. KCADP educates members of the Kentucky Legislature about why the death penalty is costly, unnecessary, and that victims’ families deserve more care and compassion. They work with legislators and like-minded groups to pass bills restricting the death penalty and to oppose legislation that would expand its use. As a murder victim’s family member, Bentley empathizes with all people affected by the death penalty. Outside of his work on abolition, Bentley is a civil rights lawyer who focuses on representing individuals whose civil rights have been violated in prisons and jails or during interactions with police officers or other government officials.
Website: http://kcadp.org/
CEO & Founder of Prison the Hidden Sentence - Julia Lazareck
Julia is CEO and founder of Prison the Hidden Sentence, a four-year old organization that provides information and stories for and from those involved in and affected by the prison system. Prison the Hidden Sentence serves an online community with podcasts and blogs that can be found on the organization’s website, Facebook, and Twitter pages with over 2,000 organic followers. Her interest in the effects of incarceration on friends and family members started after her brother was incarcerated for 15 years. His sentence ended when he passed away in 2012 of Hepatitis C while still serving his sentence in prison. She realized after his passing that she had been serving the sentence with him on the outside and was living the life of a victim. She has taken that experience from victim to hero and advocates for those on the outside.
Website: https://prisonthehiddensentence.com/home/prison-the-hidden-sentence/
Clean Slate Re-Entry Program Director - Derek Gamble
Derek Gamble is the Executive Director with Clean Slate Reentry Program. In this role, Derek looks after/coordinates/manages/leads a team providing all aspects of re-entry services, including livelihood, residency, family, health, criminal justice and social connections. Before founding Clean Slate Reentry Program in 2016, Derek started various business ventures for 6 years after his release from the Department of Corrections including a mobile vending business, vending machine company, and real estate. Clean Slate Reentry Program follows the concept of restorative justice which mandates our residents to participate in community service opportunities that helps with reconciliation within the community at large and rehabilitation.
Website: https://cleanslatereentry.com/
Advocate - Kathy Morse
Kathy Morse is a former detainee at Rikers Island. New York State oversight agency determined that Rikers is so dangerous, it can no longer be permitted to accept inmate transfers from outside New York City. Kathy is one of several people formerly incarcerated at the troubled complex who tells her story in "Rikers: An American Jail." Kathy missed a court date and was picked up and sent to Rikers. During her stay, she was sexually assaulted by 4 detainees while taking a shower to teach her a lesson. They heard Kathy was a snitch. Kathy never reported the assault because, in Rikers, correctional officers retaliate against you for reporting abuse or they just ignore your claims of abuse.
Websites: http://rikersfilm.org ; https://www.closerosies.org/index ; https://vimeo.com/212659765
Advocate - Kathy Morse
Kathy Morse is a former detainee at Rikers Island. New York State oversight agency determined that Rikers is so dangerous, it can no longer be permitted to accept inmate transfers from outside New York City. Kathy is one of several people formerly incarcerated at the troubled complex who tells her story in "Rikers: An American Jail." Kathy missed a court date and was picked up and sent to Rikers. During her stay, she was sexually assaulted by 4 detainees while taking a shower to teach her a lesson. They heard Kathy was a snitch. Kathy never reported the assault because, in Rikers, correctional officers retaliate against you for reporting abuse or they just ignore your claims of abuse.
Websites: http://rikersfilm.org ; https://www.closerosies.org/index ; https://vimeo.com/212659765
Wrongly Convicted - Mark Clements
Mark A. Clements spent 28 years behind Illinois prison walls as the result of being tortured and forced by a detective that worked under the command of Jon Burge who tortured African-American and Latino men inside area’s two and three violent crime units in Chicago, Illinois from 1972 until 1993. Mark now works with the Northwestern Center for Wrongful Convictions in Illinois to help others who have been wrongly convicted for crimes, they didn’t commit. Mark was only 16 years old, when the guilty verdict was handed down by a federal Chicago jury against Jon Burge, the master mind of torture in Chicago. Mark Clements convictions were overturned in August 2009.
Website: www.nodeathpenalty.org