Life of the Law #106: Mother and Son
From Life of the Law | Part of the Life of the Law series | 37:45
What’s it like to be a teenager sent to prison for what may be forever, and what’s it like to be his mom?
Our story is Mother and Son.
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Prison is a walled off, secret world, where inmates and officers live a sort of altered reality. For the past 10 years Life of the Law’s Executive Producer, Nancy Mullane, has been reporting on the people inside San Quentin State Prison in Northern California and over those years, some of the men she’s been reporting on have themselves become journalists — writing print stories for the San Quentin News and producing audio stories for the San Quentin Prison Report, stories told by reporters from the unique perspective of life inside prison looking out, rather than from the perspective of free journalists outside looking in. One day after a meeting of the Society of Professional Journalists San Quentin, reporter Greg Eskridge mentioned he was going to miss the next Sunday meeting. He said his mom was coming to San Quentin for a visit. How long had he been in prison, Mullane asked? More than 21 years. He said he was sent to prison at the age of 19 after being convicted of murder, attempted murder, and assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to 65 years-to-life and two life terms. What’s it like to be a teenager sent to prison for what may be forever, and what’s it like to be his mom? Production Notes Mother and Son was reported by Nancy Mullane and edited and produced by our Senior Producer, Tony Gannon with assistance from Ian Coss. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Our engineer was Howard Gelman of KQED Radio in San Francisco. Music in this episode was composed and produced by Ian Coss. Special thanks to Greg Eskridge, Patricia Eskridge, and the San Quentin Prison Report. This episode of Life of the Law was funded in part by grants from the Open Society Foundations, the Law and Society Association, and the National Science Foundation.
Twenty-one years ago, at the age of 19, Greg Eskridge was sentenced to 65 years-to-life plus two life terms in prison. Greg’s mom, Patricia Eskridge, was in the courtroom that day to hear the judge announce what, in many ways, would be her future.
Life of the Law #89: Live Law Philadelphia - Beyond the Walls: Prison Positive
From Life of the Law | Part of the Life of the Law series | 01:01:58
For 22 years, Philadelphia FIGHT has hosted an entire month of free workshops, trainings, and outreach about HIV and AIDS. This year, Life of the Law traveled to Philly on June 15th to take part in Philadelphia Fight’s inspiring work by presenting LIVE LAW -- Beyond the Walls: Prison Positive...stories told by people have done the testing and been tested in the city’s jail and prison.
If you’ve had unprotected sex the only way to know if you’ve been infected with the HIV is to take a quick saliva or blood test. It’s free and it’s easy. And then whether you’re negative or positive you can get on with life and, if you test positive, start the really important early treatment.
Today people with HIV who get treatment can live a normal life. But if they don’t — if they avoid the test and treatment — in around 10 to 15 years HIV so severely damages their immune system that AIDS develops.
It hasn’t always been so easy to get tested and treated for HIV.
For 22 years, Philadelphia FIGHT, a comprehensive health services organization providing primary care, consumer education, research, and advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS has hosted an entire month of free workshops, trainings, and outreach about HIV and AIDS. This year, Life of the Law traveled to Philly to take part in Philadelphia Fight’s inspiring work. On June 15th we presented LIVE LAW – Beyond the Walls: Prison Positive…stories told by people who have done the testing and been tested in the city’s jails and prison.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Live Law Philadelphia – Beyond the Walls: Prison Positive was a co-production of Life of the Law and Philadelphia FIGHT. The event was produced by Jessica Falcon, Philadelphia FIGHT and Nancy Mullane with special thanks to Hannah Zellman. Sound design by Jonathan Hirsch. Production support was provided by Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle. Howard Gelman was our engineer.
Music in this episode was from Blue Dot Sessions.
This episode of Life of the Law was funded in part by grants from the Open Society Foundation, the Law and Society Association, the Proteus Fund and the National Science Foundation, and was sponsored by FreshBooks.
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