OP-ED: JOURNALISTS MUST REPORT ON PRISONS—BUT WE NEED TO PROTECT INCARCERATED SOURCES

Sources trust reporters to keep them out of trouble — and prison in many cases — in exchange for information of public interest. But what happens when the source is already imprisoned? The bottom has fallen out. The parameters are different. In prison, “trouble” is defined and punished by people who control every aspect of a prisoner’s life. In that environment, consequences exist in an ever-expanding hall of trap doors. The most consequential thing about prison is that everything has consequences.

 

PODCAST APPEARENCES

Coup Save America

In this thought-provoking episode of Coup Save America, Sean St. Heart sits down with Paula Lehman-Ewing to discuss her compelling profiles of racial and social justice organizations.

 

Breaking Bias

In Ep 185: Challenging Binary Systems & Thinking of the Breaking Bias podcast, RTR author Paula Lehman-Ewing discusses the importance of nonbinary thinking and how to develop narratives that create meaningful change.

 

MadPo3t Podcast

A two-part interview with Paula Lehman-Ewing that discusses social justice, the modern day civil rights movement, and the part that art plays in the rehabilitation process for incarcerated individuals.

FROM HARVARD’S INQUEST FORUM

THE PRISON THEY LET YOU SEE

The San Quentin Film Festival offered a feel-good image of prison life—one far removed from the reality faced by most incarcerated Californians. While the festival received extensive media coverage, it’s crucial to question the “model prison” narrative it presented.

ASYMMETRICAL PARTNERS

Between incarcerated activists and non-incarcerated activists, there are extreme asymmetries in degrees of risks incurred by activism (for the latter, virtually none; for the former, mortal), as well as in basic freedoms around public speech, access to communication, and privacy.

Contributor profile on Inquest.org

SPEAKING EXPERTISE

  • Having examined four organizations vying for change in radically new ways, I can discuss how activism is evolving—and embracing humor.
  • With the upcoming dumpster fire of an election, Paula can speak to the idea of looking beyond political solutions to societal problems.
  • Paula has discussed modern abolitionist movements and the theory of abolitionist thought within a modern context.
  • As a Jewish American with strong ties to the Black liberation movement, Paula can speak to the seemingly radical notion of being both anti-terrorist and anti-colonialist.