Walled In is a podcast co-produced by Street Roots and The Exiled Voice. In each episode, co-hosts Emily Green and Joshua Wright explore a different, lesser-known aspect of what it means to be incarcerated in America. Audio editing and music by Bryan Miller.
This episode of the Walled In podcast explores the lasting impact of violence exposure in prison.
In the first half of the episode, co-host Joshua Wright and former prisoner Cody Connel discuss the violent events they each experienced while incarcerated in Oregon state prisons.
In the second half of the episode, co-host Emily Green talks to Cleveland State University criminology professor Meghan Novisky about the effects of being exposed to violence in prison. [Read excerpts of their conversation.]
Novisky co-authored a study published last year that examined the lasting effects witnessing violence had on 30 former state prisoners in Ohio who had collectively served time across 19 state prisons. The stories recounted in the resulting report, “Gladiator School: Returning Citizens Experiences with Secondary Violence Exposure in Prison,” are brutally graphic.
Padlocks as weapons, prisoners cleaning up blood and other aspects of Novisky’s report appear to be commonplace in Oregon prisons, too, including policies of abruptly transferring prisoners in the aftermath of violent altercations.
Listen to the first episode of Walled In:
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This article appears in Feb. 24, 2021.