What is life jolt?
Life Jolt — prison slang for a life sentence — examines the lives of women navigating Canada’s correctional system. Our team gained unprecedented access to the Grand Valley Institution prison — the federal pen for women in Ontario — for a full year. We followed women going into prison for the first time, spoke with lifers who have been there for years, and parolees as they left. Hosted by Rosemary Green, a former inmate herself, Life Jolt focuses on individual women’s stories and the realities of prison life, and explores a wide range of issues including parenting behind bars, segregation, the over-representation of Indigenous women, addiction, trauma and the many obstacles of reintegration.
What is Nahlah Ayed's idea?
Ideas with Nahlah Ayed is a deep-dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history. No topic is off-limits. In this episode, you’ll hear from PhD student Rachel Fayter who was incarcerated for more than three years. She draws from her experience and the relationships she formed in jail to inform her ‘groundbreaking’ research into the resilience of criminalized women. More episodes of Ideas are available at smarturl.it/cbcideas
Introducing: Ear Hustle
Leslie has served more time in prison than anyone ever interviewed on Ear Hustle: over half a century, for a crime committed when she was 19. Four times, the parole board has deemed her fit for release. Each time, California’s governor denied it.
Episode 9: Legacy
Prison isn’t just painful for the person sent away. Rosemary left four children behind when she was locked up. She sits down with her two oldest twins for a difficult conversation about what her incarceration and absence was like for them.
Episode 8 : Surviving the Hole
The hole, the shoe, segregation. Whatever you call it, many human rights advocates consider solitary confinement a form of torture. Rosemary recounts her experience in solitary – what she describes as the most difficult moments of her life, and how the experience haunts her to this day.
