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Life Jolt

Life Jolt

By: CBC
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About this listen

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.

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Episodes
  • Introducing: Ear Hustle

    Introducing: Ear Hustle
    Sep 13 2021

    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. What does it mean to live a meaningful life when nearly all of it is spent behind bars? More episodes of Ear Hustle are available at https://www.earhustlesq.com/listen
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Episode 9: Legacy

    Episode 9: Legacy
    Jun 14 2021
    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. They talk about the challenges of being together after Rosemary’s release and learning to trust that she wasn’t going to leave them again. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/life-jolt-transcripts-listen-1.6857863
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    30 mins
  • Episode 8 : Surviving the Hole

    Episode 8 : Surviving the Hole
    Jun 7 2021
    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. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/life-jolt-transcripts-listen-1.6857863
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    25 mins
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