KCRW Reports
1,500 miles from home: California prisoners in Mississippi
Daletha Hayden hasn't seen her son in almost a year. Her son, William Mitchell was sentenced to prison in California but is incarcerated in Mississippi. He's one of more than four thousand California prisoners in privately run out-of-state prisons. Hayden recently made the long trip out to visit him.
By George Lavender • • 7m ListenEleven years ago California's prison system was bursting at the seams. Gymnasiums were being used as dormitories -- inmates were sleeping in triple bunks. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency- allowing for urgent measures to be taken to bring down the population inside, including shipping thousands of inmates to prisons in other states. It was supposed to be a temporary solution- but more than a decade on from the emergency declaration, many prisoners are still there. KCRW's George Lavender takes us on a journey to visit one of them.