Free Them All: Organizing in Prisons with Laketa Smith of Voice Of The Experienced

In this special bonus episode, Laketa Smith of Voice Of The Experienced (VOTE) in Louisiana joins host Max Rameau to discuss environmental justice, prisons, and prison reform versus prison abolition. Laketa Smith is a proud dual member of Voice Of The Experienced in their New Orleans & Baton Rouge Chapters, Executive Director of A Bella LaFemme Society, and a mentor and advocate for social justice.

This episode was recorded before COVID-19 had been declared a pandemic across the U.S. Of course, communities in jails and prisons are more at risk now than ever before, and the need to free them all has become more urgent than ever. For that reason, we wanted you to hear from a grassroots organization that is led by the formerly incarcerated, even though this episode does not directly address COVID-19 organizing. You can find out about and support VOTE's organizing to free Louisiana's prisoners in response to COVID-19 at vote-nola.org/covid-response.

Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights. See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation. 

Support the show.