Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Liat Ben-Moshe about deinstitutionalization and Prison abolition.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently voted unanimously to close the notorious LA Men’s Central Jail – part of the largest jail system in the country that prison abolition activists have often dubbed the nation’s largest psychiatric ward.

A whopping 20% of inmates have struggled with mental illness in what may be the strongest indication of the intersection of disability and incarceration.

Now a new book tackles how the discourse on mass incarceration needs to be centered on disability.

Liat Ben-Moshe, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is co-editor of Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada. Her latest book is Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition.

Rising Up with Sonali is a radio and television show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience. 

Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman. 

RUS airs on Free Speech TV every weekday.

Missed an episode?  Check out Rising Up on FSTV VOD anytime or visit the show page for the latest clips.

#FreeSpeechTV is one of the last standing national, independent news networks committed to advancing progressive social change. 

#FSTV is available on Dish, DirectTV, AppleTV, Roku, Sling and online at freespeech.org.

disability LA Men's Central Jail Liat Ben-Mosche Los Angeles County Rising Up with Sonali Sonali Kolhatkar