When one or both parents are in prison the whole family is, in a way, also imprisoned. Family members are negatively affected in ways that worsen existing struggles and inequities. Today we’ll go to New York and New Hampshire to hear about programs for inmates and families that encourage rebuilding and maintaining relationships — despite being separated by prison.
On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll meet people challenging polluters in their own backyard. Not to push hazardous industries into another neighborhood. Instead they’re developing visionary solutions for a better life for all and for the future of the planet. From urban to rural communities, we’ll learn about indigenous-led efforts to protect public health and the environment for future generations.
Pregnant women in America’s prisons are being shackled to their beds and cells. Others are being sterilized, some say, against their will. Correctional institutions claim the policies are for safety’s sake, and that consent is always obtained. But others see a larger pattern at work. On this edition, from shackling to sterilization, thousands of incarcerated people are struggling to maintain control over their own reproductive health.
Largely working isolated in people’s private homes, the exploitation of domestic workers has been well documented throughout history. But with the passage of New York’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010, the tide is beginning to turn. Workers are now organizing in California and other states to win basic rights and protections long denied to this labor force. Along the way, they have had to come up with creative solutions to systemic challenges.
