Anita reconnects with the woman who changed her thinking on incarceration: her beloved college thesis adviser Ashley Lucas. Ashley reflects on her father's 20-year prison sentence and the untold stories of families navigating incarceration from the outside. Journalist Sylvia A. Harvey also shares how losing her mother to asthma and her father to a life sentence in prison before she was 6 years old led her to investigate the carceral system as a whole.

Meet the guests:

- Ashley Lucas, professor of theatre and drama at the University of Michigan, talks about how her experience growing up with an incarcerated father informs her research and led to her play "Doin' Time: Through the Visiting Glass"

- Sylvia A. Harvey, a journalist and author, examines the intersection of the carceral, education and child welfare systems and investigates some of the larger forces shaping the experiences of families with an incarcerated loved one

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Dive deeper:

My Dad Went to Prison When I Was 5. Now I Write About Families Like Mine by Sylvia A. Harvey

Resources from SAH

An article Ashley wrote about Russell Maroon Shoatz, who served 49 years in Pennsylvania prisons and was the father of seven children

An interview Ashley did with Maroon’s son, Russell III, “Tell a Tale of Two Fathers”

A virtual panel featuring Ashley called “What Prison Does to Children”

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