Press Information

Calls From Home: A National Radio Program for Prisoner Families airs December 12th

Calls From Home, produced in the coalfields of central Appalachia, reaches a national network of prisoners, their loved ones and public listeners through community radio.

Calls From Home, in its sixth year of broadcast, is produced by "Holler to the Hood," an arts project in Whitesburg, Kentucky committed to using community radio to raise public awareness about the growing U.S. prison population.

"'Holler to the Hood' began as a weekly radio show. We were getting piles of letters from prisoners, and a quick education about the U.S. criminal justice system," says Nick Szuberla, a co-founder of the group. Appalachian communities experienced a dramatic influx of prisoners in 1999 with the building of two supermax prisons. "Our new prisons were soon filled with young men from cities. Their letters to WMMT-FM radio told of physical abuse, and volunteers responded with programming to make their plight public and to put a little pressure on the Virginia Department of Corrections."

For the holidays, "Holler to the Hood," via WMMT-FM and a national collaboration of community radio stations, sends family messages through the walls of prisons such as Appalachia's Wallens Ridge and into more well-known prisons including Sing Sing, Angola, Folsom and beyond. The show's earnest public scrutiny brings hope for change during a special season through the simple airing of hundreds of prisoner-family members voices.

Organizations supporting Calls From Home include prison reform advocates National CURE, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, and the November Coalition, an organization dedicated to addressing mass incarceration due to the war on drugs.

Nora Callahan appreciates what the group is doing. "We got involved last year," says the co-founder of the November Coalition a national nonprofit based in rural Colville, Washington. "Back in the early 1990's after a 2,000 mile flight, I rented a car and drove 65 miles through farmland to visit my incarcerated brother sent to far-off central Wisconsin," explained Callahan. "Prisons are hidden in cornfields and coalfields, and such confinement demands public scrutiny."

With a growing rural and urban collaboration, this year's Calls From Home participation should exceed last year's -- airing in 2006 on 120 radio stations across the country. Valerie Cartonio, a volunteer radio programmer on WMPG in Portland, Maine, says of the program, "I volunteer with the Maine Native Prison Project that serves incarcerated Native Americans throughout the state of Maine. I see how difficult it is for families, especially those with children, to maintain relationships with their loved ones. When I broadcast the program this year, I know that those who hear it will know they are not forgotten behind the walls."

WMMT-FM in Whitesburg, KY will be taking calls from family members on December 12th from 7-11PM (Eastern) for broadcast live on the Internet and on community radio stations throughout the holiday season. The toll-free number is 888.396.1208.

For more information contact Nick Szuberla at 606-633-0108 or nick@appalshop.org or Nora Callahan at 509-684-1550 or nora@november.org

"Holler to the Hood" and WMMT-FM are programs of Appalshop Inc. Appalshop is a 36-year-old media arts center serving Appalachia communities.