2004 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal

Abstract

An evolving media archive of recorded conversations with incarcerated women, their families and communities, a website with an 800 number that will allow prisoners and the public to "call-in" by phone to record and publish their views on-line, a public graphics program, a public installation and live webcast "call-in" event that will allow incarcerated women to participate in public conversations, and record and publish their views, on imprisonment as a cultural and political solution to violence, addiction and poverty. The expansion of the prison system is buoyed by the ignorance of a majority of the public about what imprisonment really means to individuals and communities. JustVoice will challenge the assumptions of mainstream society about crime and punishment that fuel a commitment to prisons as the primary solution to our most pressing social problems.