Can incarcerated women dye their hair? Do they have enough tampons and pads? What makes them happy, and how realistic is “Orange Is the New Black”? Ear Hustle listeners have questions about life inside a women’s prison, so we head to the California Institution for Women for answers.

Thanks to listeners Sonia Gonzalez, Liz Keeler, Haley Morgan, Amy Fletcher, Missouri Ammons, Kathi Sanchez, Teresa Casado, Amy Schuff, Laura, Andrea Archer, and Sue Glew for sending us their questions, and to Katrina Hovie, Sarah Rothchild, Annemarie Harrison, Nicole Carroll, Michelle Cato, Kier Anderson, Gladys Ortiz, Angel Navarro, Quesah Williams, Leroy Robinson, Aerin Shamitz, Holly Gustafson, Miccal Martinez, Cassidy Porter, Loraine Serrano, and Laurie McConnell at the California Institution for Women for answering them.

Book donations:

To learn more about donating books to the library at the California Institution for Women, contact Ricky Dela Cruz or Ashleigh Lewis at CIW.
To learn more about donating books to San Quentin, visit the Friends of the San Quentin Prison Library.
To learn more about donating books to other prisons, check out the Prisoners Literature Project and this list of organizations from the American Library Association.

Episode artwork by Megan Piontkowski.

This episode was scored with music by Rudy Van, David Jassy, Antwan Williams, Earlonne Woods, and Rhashiyd Zinnamon.

Big thanks to Guim’Mara Berry and Warden Ron Broomfield for their support of the show, as well as to Lieutenant William Newborg at the California Institution for Women for welcoming our team inside.

Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX.

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You can download the episode here and get the transcript here.

Episode 89: Catch a Kite 8