WBEZ Chicago: Prisoncast!

This transcript accompanies the audio interview airing on Dec. 14, 2025. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  0:00
Even if you're not locked up, you probably know somebody who's been directly affected by incarceration. According to one study, nearly half of all Americans have had an immediate family member go to prison or jail. So for a couple of hours this holiday season, we invite you to get a glimpse inside a system that's designed to be invisible.

THOMAS GORDON  0:24
Okay, yeah, so sometimes I get a little sad inside, just because, you know, it's that time of the year and it gets a little tough sometimes.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  0:37
This is Thomas. He's a student with the Northwestern Prison Education Program inside Sheridan Correctional Center, about 70 miles southwest of Chicago. Prisoncast has been producing this year's holiday show with audio journalism students in the program, some from the school's Evanston campus, and some of them incarcerated at Sheridan. A lot of what you're going to hear today are their ideas in their words. One thing Thomas and the class wanted to explore was how to keep your head up during the holiday season, even when you're locked up.

THOMAS GORDON  1:07
Something that would help increase my mental health around that time is seeing snow, believe it or not.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  1:13
He says, sometimes it's just about finding these little ways to boost your spirit.

THOMAS GORDON  1:18
Um, I feel giddy inside. I love taking in big breaths of fresh air, like snow has a really peculiar smell, you know what I mean? And so that's for me, is something to look forward to, especially around the holidays.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  1:33
We began every Prisoncast radio show by mailing surveys to hundreds of folks incarcerated in Illinois, and this time we asked how they maintained their mental health during the holidays. We heard from people like Anton, who spends his holidays reading the bible inside Big Muddy River prison. Shannon, inside Taylorville Correctional Center, watches that 24-hour loop of A Christmas Story on TV. But you might be like Ananya in Danville prison. You keep your head down and just try to get through the day, we decided to ask some professional therapists with the group Grow Community, how to maintain your mental health during the holidays when you're locked away from your loved ones. Broderick Hollins says one thing not to do is sit there and ruminate.

BRODERICK HOLLINS  2:18
You all by yourself so you just imagining what your family doing, like playing cards, dominoes or charades or just dancing, but you just daring looking at this bars. So that's how that was when I was in there.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  2:33
Another therapist, Jason Jones, says, try to distract yourself.

JASON JONES  2:37
It's interesting because I always, you know, use mindfulness therapy as an approach, which is more about being fully present.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  2:44
You know, like live in the moment. But Jones says, not around the holidays.

JASON JONES  2:49
Around that time. You know, it's more like try to focus on the future. Focus on where you want things to be, as opposed to where they are now, you know.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  2:59
Hollins says, if you can find other people, you can talk to about how you're feeling, ask for help.

BRODERICK HOLLINS  3:05
We can't do it by ourselves, because you got the whole survival mindset in prison. You ain't thinking about your mental health. You thinking about surviving. Well, mental health is a major, major role in surviving, because if you ain't mentally sound, you will never survive.

ERIN ALLEN, HOST  3:22
Hollins and Jones both recommend breathing exercises, journaling, allowing yourself to just feel whatever emotions come up during the holidays. In previous years, Thomas says he would decorate a shelf in his cell with Christmas cards like it was a mantelpiece.

THOMAS GORDON  3:39
And that way, when I'm, like, hanging out in my bunk, I can just look over and glance at it and see the last one I received was like a really nice Christmas tree, and it was just gleaming with, you know, gold and silver, and I was just looking at the ornaments. And sometimes they'll have glitter on them. So for me, that's like, a big way to just okay. You know what? I still have somebody out there that loves me.

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