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Welcome to the PrisonsKill Podcast, which is a new element of the #PrisonsKill media project, which can be accessed at prisonskill.wordpress.com. We are prison abolitionists and this platform will creatively work to center the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated people. We will expose the systemic and inherent violence of the carceral state by creating space for those in its clutches to speak the truth on their own terms. Our goal is to subvert and challenge how prison is portrayed in the media, who gets to be considered a journalist and what is considered objective. In doing so we are trying to create media that can help us all imagine a more compassionate future where everyone’s human dignity is recognized, where everyone is loved and where everyone’s voice is heard.
Our first episode is a very special one as we are joined by Sean and Lauren Swain, a truly inspiring and revolutionary couple, who hope to be living together in the so called free world very soon. Sean, who we will hear from first, has been incarcerated by the state of Ohio since 1991 for defending himself in his own home against an intruder. In his 30 years inside he has become intensely politicized and identifies as an anarchist. He is also an outstanding jailhouse journalist who has contributed to the Final Straw Radio Podcast and SeanSwain.org. He has a forthcoming book entitled Opposing Torture. Sean is currently incarcerated at Buckingham Correctional Center in Virginia, despite being sentenced in the Ohio state system. His transfer to Virginia, is part of a phenomenon incarcerated people refer to as diesel therapy, which is a policy designed to separate radicals from their families, communities and comrades inside.
Sean’s politics and commitment to speaking the truth have made him a constant target of state repression. He first popped up on the FBI’s radar in 2008 when a copy of an essay he wrote was found in the possession of raided Earth Liberation Front organizers. In 2012, Sean wrote a critique of the state’s predatory working relationship with JPay and as a result was falsely accused of inspiring a prison uprising led by a group called the Army of the 12 Monkeys, which Sean had nothing to do with. This became the pretext for Sean’s subjection to a year long domestic torture program orchestrated through a collaboration between the FBI and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Sean’s perseverance is truly extraordinary and he not only survived the best efforts of the state to kill him, but has not stopped fighting. He has deeply studied the CIA’s torture manuals and understands resistance, particularly in solitary confinement, not only as a moral imperative but a necessary aspect of self care. Very significantly, Sean is up for parole this August and has a chance to come home.
Send a letter to support Sean’s parole application by clicking here.
Follow Sean on Instagram @swainiac1969
Check out Sean’s writing here: https://seanswain.noblogs.org/
Read and send inside Sean’s essay “The Colonizer’s Corpse: A Liberatory Approach to Maintaing Mental Health While Subject to Isolation in Prison”
Transcript of podcast here - We encourage you to send it to incarcerated folks if it is safe.
We encourage you to write Sean:
Sean Swain #2015638
Buckingham Correctional
PO Box 430
Dillwyn, VA 23936
