95 percent of the millions of American men and women who go to prison eventually get out. What happens to them? On this week's episode of The Prison Post Podcast, we have a conversation with immersion journalist, Lauren Kessler. She has taken a deep dive into looking at the Challenges of Life After Prison. Her book: 'Free' Two years, Six Lives and The Long Journey Home" is powerful, moving, emotional, and revealing. Lauren is both clear-eyed and compassionate, as she follows six people whose diverse stories paint an intimate portrait of struggle, persistence, and resilience.What is the road they must travel from caged to free? How do they navigate their way home?

Lauren Kessler is an award-winning author of ten works of nonfiction, all of which combine lively narrative with deep research and in-the-trenches immersion to explore hidden worlds. The creator of two graduate programs in creative nonfiction, she founded a writers’ group for those sentenced to life in prison at a maximum security prison.

There's Arnoldo, who came of age inside a maximum security penitentiary, now free after nineteen years. Trevor and Catherine, who spent half of their young lives behind bars for terrible crimes committed when they were kids. Dave, inside the walls for 34 years, now about to reenter an unrecognizable world. Vicki, a five-time loser who had cycled in and out of prison for more than a third of her life. They are simultaneously joyful and overwhelmed at the prospect of freedom. Anxious, confused, sometimes terrified, and often ill-prepared to face the challenges of the free world, all are intent on reclaiming and remaking their lives.

"FREE" is a gripping and empathetic work of immersion reportage, "FREE" reveals what awaits them and the hundreds of thousands of others who are released from prison every year: the first rush of freedom followed quickly by institutionalized obstacles and logistical roadblocks, grinding bureaucracies, lack of resources, societal stigmas and damning self-perceptions, the sometimes overwhelming psychological challenges.

Here's some of the reentry topics we discuss:

• The common challenges those recently released encounter in the first month that very few people truly understand?

• What being imprisoned means to your sense of self and how to reclaim that?

• What being surveilled, regulated, and managed does to your abilities to trust yourself and others?

• How you learn to function and reconnect, like understanding the latest technology?

• The rocky road of learning how to make so many decisions, big and small, every day?

• The staggering racial inequality behind bars (1 in 6 Latino boys and 1 out of every 3 Black kids will go to prison in their lifetime) and the overall “epidemic of mass incarceration” in the U.S., which accounts for 25% of the world’s prison population?

• What communities can do to help those returning from incarcerated life become a functioning part of that community

To purchase a copy of Lauren's book on Amazon visit this link: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Years-Liv...

Click this link to visit her website titled, "The Lauren Chronicles" and check out Lauren's other books at

Thanh Tran called me from the phones of San Quentin Prison 9 months ago. In my 21 years of incarceration, I have never met a more policy-minded incarcerated person. I was impressed by his perspectives, his language, and the freedom he held on the inside, not to mention his brilliant accomplishments all before the age of 28!

Episode 48 features Thanh Tran, a formerly incarcerated Filmmaker, Podcaster, and Organizer. He is the Co-Creator and Co-host of the Uncuffed Podcast. He is also Co-Creator of the incarcerated film crew Forward This Productions. He was released from prison almost 3 months ago and is now the Senior Policy and Comms Fellow with the Ella Baker Center.

Thanh was incarcerated at the age of 18. He was sentenced to 17 years. He was commuted by Governor Newsom after serving over 10 years. He survived the horrific conditions of Covid 19 in San Quentin. He had Covid three times and had to scream for medical attention through his door before a nurse finally showed some humanity and got him desperately needed medicine that helped him when he was at his worst. He rang the bell for the fellas on the inside and shared the story of how correctional officers refused to serve the incarcerated food because of their fear of contracting Covid. He shared how he heard the shrieks of men who were dying of Covid in their cells without receiving help for a month. He shared how he saw the dead bodies of those who succumbed to Covid, due to the lack of medical attention at the prison. This is the real trauma that is hidden from the public eye everyday.

We also covered how he transformed his life on the inside to become the podcaster, film producer, organizer, and policy minded man that he is today. Than shares the challenges of reentering society and how he's courageously facing them. I have full confidence that Thanh will lead from the front for prison reform for years to come. Thank you for watching this episode.

Please hit the like button, subscribe, and leave a comment or ask us or Thanh a question in the comments. We respond to everyone!

You can find Thanh Tran on Twitter at @RailroadedUnderground

Learn more about how CROP Organization is reimagining reentry by investing in people over punishment on our website at: https://croporganization.org/

Apply to be in our Ready 4 Life Reentry Programs in Oakland and LA here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdE8zUyZCy2MzL--mnBjYwKgSdr8wZPZvYB5_WlgjnZurfKNA/viewform

Learn more and reach out to The Ella Baker Center at https://ellabakercenter.org/ Ella Baker was a brilliant, black hero of the civil rights movement. Following in her footsteps, Ella Baker Center organizes with black, brown, and low-income people to shift resources away from prisons and punishment, and towards opportunities that make our communities safe, healthy, and strong.

We’re super excited to have our first guest from New York now residing in Ohio on our show today. Donald Wiggins Jr. holds a JD, MPA and is the Co-Founder & Director of Strategic Initiatives & Policy at Ohio Families Unite for Political Action and Change (OFUPAC). He’s a writer, a researcher, reformer, futurist, and abolitionist, but when I asked him to describe himself, he said, “It’s not about me. It’s about we! I’m just doing my part in the grand cog of history!"

In this episode we discuss Donald and OFUPAC's vision to make fundamental shifts in America by creating national legislation that would allow the incarcerated and those who are 16 and older to vote. We have a deep conversation about universal suffrage and restructuring society by caring about our future we could have 20-30 years from now and what it would take to make that happen.

OFUPAC builds and harnesses the political power of impacted families across Ohio, providing them with a space to leverage their power and drive policy to enact lasting change. Their mission is to end state violence against communities in Ohio by uplifting and amplifying the voices of impacted families to transform the criminal and civil justice landscape in Ohio.

They do this by engaging in effective public advocacy, legislative outreach, and public education activities. They center the voices of those most impacted by systemic racism, oppression, police violence, and systemic violence in the criminal and civil justice systems. Our vision is for us all to live in a space where one's income, race, public school, neighborhood, air quality, orientation, spirituality, and very identity do not determine your treatment, your life, and your livelihood by the criminal and civil justice systems in Ohio. OFUPAC holds space, organizes, and mobilizes those directly impacted by police brutality, the carceral system, and the juvenile justice system, to respond to immediate and emergent threats to our lives and our humanity.

Learn more about Ohio Families United for Political Action and Change here: https://www.ofupac.org/

Follow Donald on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DWigginsJ3

Join their universal suffrage campaign by signing up at https://www.votingishuman.us/