In this Rattling the Cages panel talk, Eric King speaks with former political prisoners Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, and Nicole Kissane. With nearly 200,000 women currently in jails and prisons, women make up 10% of those incarcerated in the US. As we saw with the recent closing of FCI Dublin, abuse and repression are rampant in women's carceral facilities. Learn more about the repression, the resistance, and the resilience of women fighting back in US prisons.

Published by AK Press, Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners is a project of abolitionists Josh Davidson and Eric King. The book is filled with the experience and wisdom of over thirty current and former North American political prisoners. It provides first-hand details of prison life and the political commitments that continue to lead prisoners into direct confrontation with state authorities and institutions.

If you missed the previous panel discussions you can watch the recordings here.

Linda Evans was an anti-imperialist political prisoner for 16 years, and before her imprisonment she was involved in many organizations, including Students for a Democratic Society, the Weather Underground, and the May 19th Communist Organization. She was captured in 1985 and convicted for her part in the Resistance Conspiracy Case. Her sentence was commuted by outgoing president Bill Clinton in 2001. Linda was imprisoned at various jails, including the DC jail and FCI Dublin. Since her release, she has co-founded All of Us or None, a grassroots civil rights organization of formerly incarcerated people and their families, and she works tirelessly with California Coalition for Women Prisoners, the Drop LWOP Coalition, the Immigrant Defense Taskforce of North Bay Organizing Project in Santa Rosa, and the successful campaign to free Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Along with her partner Eve Goldberg, Linda wrote The Prison-Industrial Complex and the Global Economy (PM Press, 2009).

Laura Whitehorn served almost 15 years in high security federal prisons for her involvement in the anti-imperialist armed actions that culminated in the Resistance Conspiracy Case of the mid-1980s. She served time at the Baltimore City Jail, the DC jail, FCI Lexington, FCI Alderson, FCI Dublin (then called Pleasanton), and the high security unit in Marianna, Florida. Laura was involved in anti-imperialist organizations including the Weather Underground Organization (WUO) and the May 19th Communist Organization, and rights and AIDS support groups. Since her release at the turn of the century, she has been involved in a number of causes including campaigns to free political prisoners and is a cofounder of Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), a community based organization founded and led by formerly incarcerated people and family members. Laura edited and wrote the introduction for The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison and Fighting for Those Left Behind (Feminist Press, 2010) and wrote the introduction to Victoria Law’s Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women. She and her partner, the writer Susie Day, participated in a prison, labor, and academic delegation to Palestine in 2016.

Nicole Kissane is a dedicated animal rights activist who was sentenced to 21 months at FCI Dublin for Animal Enterprise Terrorism. Since the mid-2000s, she has passionately advocated for animal rights. After a brief hiatus following her release, Nicole has expanded her focus, working with local groups on prison abolition and immigrant rights. Alongside her activism, she has also returned to school to further her knowledge and impact.

Eric King is a father, poet, author, and activist. In December 2023 he was released from the supermax ADX prison after spending nearly ten years as a political prisoner for an act of protest over the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. He was held in solitary confinement for years and was met with violence by guards throughout his incarceration. Eric has published three zines: Battle Tested (2015), Antifa in Prison (2019), and Pacing in My Cell (2019). His sentencing statement is included in the book Defiance: Anarchist Statements Before Judge and Jury (2019). Eric now works as a paralegal for the Bread and Roses Legal Center.