WYSO has started a radio class at Dayton Correctional Institution (DCI), a women's prison on the west side of Dayton. Our Community Voices courses teach people to tell their own stories; this one does that with people who are incarcerated at one of just three women's prisons in the state.
Here's some of the audio we've already produced at DCI:
Dayton Correctional was converted to a women’s prison in 2011, and around 900 people live there, double the population from when it was a men's prison. Earlier this year it was written up by state inspectors for major problems with mental health services, contraband and inappropriate staff behavior, although a more recent inspection found some improvements.
The women in DCI are at every security level, come from all over the state and reflect a huge range of life experiences. But, for context, black women are incarcerated at twice the rate of white women in Ohio. And, Ohio has the fourth-largest women’s prison population in the country, a population that's been growing steadily for years now.
We picked ten class members through a very competitive application process, and the class runs through mid-January. Tune in later this winter for more stories from Dayton Correctional, produced by and about incarcerated women with the support of Community Voices volunteers Venita Kelley and Renee Wilde.
