<a href="http://spinacademy.org/" target="_blank">SPIN Academy</a> Tactic Team:
LLuis Aguilera Garcia: <a href="http://elcambio.webs.com/" target="_blank">El Cambio</a>, Boonville, NC
Laura Cahue: <a href="http://www.sc-coalition.org/" target="_blank">SC Immigration Coalition</a>, Columbia, SC
Francisco Chavez: <a href="http://www.unitingnc.org/home/" target="_blank">Uniting NC</a>, Raleigh, NC
Pamela Gomez: <a href="http://www.hispanicservicescouncil.org/" target="_blank">Hispanic Services Council</a>, Tampa FL
Luis Romo: <a href="http://bnhr.org/" target="_blank">Border Network for Human Rights</a>, El Paso TX

Edited by Will Coley, <a href="http://aquifermedia.com/" target="_blank">Aquifer Media</a>

Beacon Of Light: SPIN Academy South 2014

For years, journalists and advocates have raised questions about medical care inside private federal prisons for noncitizens, especially in the wake of riots that inmates said were sparked by medical negligence. 

This segment exposes the truth behind those complaints, relying on extensive medical files obtained by Investigative Fund reporter Seth Freed Wessler. The files show case after case in which lower standards and less-qualified, less expensive workers together create a medical disaster.

Relying on those files and the testimony of inmates and prison workers, Reveal's Stan Alcorn and Wessler tell the story of one of those medical disasters: the case of Nestor Garay. 

Medical Negligence In Immigrant Prisons

While politicians debate border security, criminal charges for crossing the border have been steadily increasing for decades. More people are prosecuted for immigration-related federal crimes than for all other categories combined – white-collar crime, drugs, weapons, etc. This population makes up 40 percent of the inmates in private prisons for noncitizens. 

This segment explains how these prosecutions work and how they became so prevalent through the story of one man, tracked down by Investigative Fund reporter Seth Freed Wessler. 

Eloy Flores ended up incarcerated at a private prison in Big Spring, Texas, but he got there through a circuitous journey. Retracing his steps takes us through Baltimore, a Border Patrol processing center and a courtroom proceeding that is like nothing you've heard before. 

Through interviews and exclusive audio obtained from the U.S. District Court, Reveal's Stan Alcorn tells the story of Flores and his family.

When Crossing The Border Is A Federal Crime

Over the last five months, as part of the Anacostia Unmapped project, three people in the Southeast D.C. neighborhood have been recording interviews with their neighbors. It’s a place where families can often trace their roots back several generations to a single block or house. In this installment, poet and playwright John Johnson visits LaTeashea Lofties, a friend whose family has a long history in Anacostia. We find out about her Aunt Helen, who sat in the window all day "watching everything and everybody. And I when I say everybody, I mean you could not hook school. You couldn’t have boys over. Because she would tell. She had everybody’s numbers on a pad and she’d use that rotary phone.”

Aunt Helen's Eyes On The Street

September 3rd, 1967, also known as H-Day, is etched in the collective memory of Sweden. That morning, millions of Swedes switched from driving on the left to driving on the right. The changeover was an unprecedented undertaking, involving both national infrastructural overhauls, extensive educational campaigns and pop music.

215- H - Day

Benches in parks, train stations, bus shelters and other public places are meant to offer seating, but only for a limited duration. Many elements of such seats are subtly or overtly restrictive. Arm rests, for instance, indeed provide spaces to rest arms, but they also prevent people from lying down or sitting in anything but a prescribed position. This type of design strategy is sometimes classified as "hostile architecture," or simply: "unpleasant design."

Gordan Savičić and Selena Savić, co-editors of the book Unpleasant Design, are quick to point out that unpleasant designs are not failed designs, but rather successful ones in the sense that they deter certain activities by design.

219- Unpleasant Design

The largest body of water in California was formed by a mistake. In 1905, the California Development Company accidentally flooded a huge depression in the Sonora Desert, creating an enormous salty lake called the Salton Sea. The water is about twice as salty as the Pacific Ocean. The ground beneath the southern end of the sea is volcanic and water bubbles to the surface in muddy pools. The only fish that can live in Salton Sea are tilapia, but even they struggle to survive. This sea—this gurgling, sometimes stinky, accident of a sea—is actually in danger of drying up and disappearing. And you may be thinking: "good riddance!" It doesn’t sound all that nice. But the Salton Sea needs us. And we need it.

224- A Sea Worth its Salt

Collaborative radio project between residents, Katie Davis, @WAMU885 @AIRmedia & @WeActRadio about the forgotten bottom of DC

Aunt Helen's Eyes On The Street

AnacostiaUnmapped

Recent comments

NASA. DOT1-12-2015-8-59-41-AM-3019921

dj mighty mike midget

Related tracks