142 Episodes

  1. Wisconsin's prison lockdowns: No visitors, few showers, and no end in sight

    Published: 1/29/2024

  2. A prison librarian's efforts to humanize the stories of incarcerated people

    Published: 1/29/2024

  3. 'No way a human should be': Abolishing solitary confinement in DC

    Published: 1/15/2024

  4. Three former Maryland prisoners explain the state's disastrous parole system

    Published: 1/8/2024

  5. The 13th Amendment legalizes slavery—and many states have their own version

    Published: 12/18/2023

  6. For incarcerated people, the holidays are a reminder of captivity

    Published: 12/4/2023

  7. Malik Rahim: Climate justice and the prisoners' struggle go together

    Published: 11/27/2023

  8. Baton Rouge cops tortured detainees at 'Brave Cave' black site

    Published: 11/6/2023

  9. Maryland's parole system 'conditions people for despair'

    Published: 10/3/2023

  10. El Salvador's 'gang crackdown' and the permanent state of exception

    Published: 9/25/2023

  11. The Cop City RICO charges and America's road to fascism

    Published: 9/18/2023

  12. Alabama's 'astonishingly cruel,' untested plan to kill Kenneth Smith

    Published: 9/18/2023

  13. Ed Poindexter has been a political prisoner for 52 years. His family just wants him to come home.

    Published: 8/30/2023

  14. Who was George Jackson? America's prophetic revolutionary

    Published: 8/22/2023

  15. Juvenile sentencing in the US is barbaric, racist, and ineffective

    Published: 8/15/2023

  16. Nebraska teen, mother imprisoned for abortion is just a taste of post-Roe America

    Published: 8/7/2023

  17. Former Guantanamo detainees were deported to Kazakhstan, UAE

    Published: 7/31/2023

  18. Inside the fight to expand addiction care in Alaska

    Published: 7/24/2023

  19. How Maryland discriminates against women prisoners

    Published: 7/17/2023

  20. Trump's indictment and America's two legal systems

    Published: 7/10/2023

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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.Help us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletter