Bidhan Roy | Helping Light Shine Out of Darkness Through Restorative Justice

The Lesson: Prisons in the U.S. bury people. And they rely on the burying of those people to sever the connection they have with society's knowledge of their existence, which in turn allows the prisons to bury them in a vicious cycle. But it turns out that even if it's mere voices that escape those walls; poems, songs, art, all escaping without a person on stage or on the street attached to them, that's enough to create a two-way connection with society that leads to a life and a voice beyond prison, and restorative justice, and not justice by diminishment. 

Notable Excerpt: "I would say 'yeah I'm starting this program in a prison,' and the first question everyone asks is 'are you scared?' and I'm like 'why would I be scared?' So seeing this disjunction between what people were thinking about what I was doing, and what I was experiencing in there, for me I started to think this whole system of burying people, like "the disappeared", depends on people not knowing who these people are in a deeper way, and so it became a kind of calling really to say 'how can I play some small part in, not shining a light on, but allowing this light to come out?"

The Guest: Bidhan Roy received his Ph.D. at Goldsmith College, University of London, where he studied English literature and post-colonialism He is the founder of Words Uncaged, an organization which provides a platform for incarcerated artists and writers to engage with the public through book publishing, art exhibits and digital media. Words Uncaged has programs in 5 prisons and on death row in the U.S., serving more than 2,000 men and women, and uses storytelling to foster empathy for and understanding of, others, and to promote collective and individual healing. Dr. Roy is also the director of the Calstate Prison Graduation Initiative, which allows incarcerated men and women to receive BA degrees while serving time.

Episode Resources:

Words Uncaged | Website

Words Uncaged | LinkedIn

Words Uncaged | Instagram