Produced by Alice Maiden
On Thursday, October 12th and Friday, October 13th, Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR) held its annual performance protest in which students occupied a 7′ x 9′ space for 23 hours, representing the 23 hours a day that many incarcerated people are held in 7 x 9 cells. 46 students and faculty participated.
Ameya Hadap (2021): “They talk about the lost generation of African American men. So many different things are broken within the justice and incarceration system. The idea that someone could be there for 23 hours a day — I was in there for one hour, and that was tough enough to get through.”
“I did debate in high school. When the topic was private prisons — most of the other times, I couldn’t decide which side I was on, but — this was the one topic where I knew just how broken the prison system was. On most issues, I come in not believing either side. This was the exception.”
