Survivor Chronicles: Free Them All
Welcome to Survivor Chronicles: Free Them All, a podcast by Survived & Punished NY. We are a collective by and for survivors, organizing for the abolition of prisons and policing with the understanding these systems do not protect survivors, but further endanger them. Since 2017, we’ve been organizing with criminalized survivors in NY State prisons.
This podcast is part of our mass clemency campaign. Survivors who were criminalized for their acts of survival are now banding together to demand clemency from Governor Kathy Hochul, who can free anyone she wants with the stroke of a pen. Despite proclaiming herself pro-survivor, she refuses to grant them clemency, offering survivors nothing but policing and cages.
Together, we're saying: enough. These are the stories of survivors and their loved ones who have been abandoned and betrayed by the state of New York. These are also stories of resistance, resilience, connection across prison walls, and of refusing the logic of disposability underlying the US prison system.
Throughout the season, we’ll put calls to action in our show notes as episodes come out. We want you to learn about the harms of the carceral system and the re-victimization survivors are subject to, but we also want you to join us in the fight. Please look out for ways to get involved and follow our campaign on Instagram and Twitter at survivepunishny, or visit www.survivedandpunishedny.org/. Survivor Chronicles was made possible by the support of NYC Connect and Focus for Health. Writing and producing by Jade Abdul-Malik. Podcast art by Mon M.
Survivor Chronicles: Free Them All
Survivor Chronicles: Sara's Story
As a heads up, this episode contains discussions of sexual abuse/assault, self-harm, and domestic abuse.
Sara Kielly is a trans woman and criminalized survivor serving a 25 years to life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. From inside, Sara works as a journalist and a jailhouse lawyer, speaking out on prisoners’ rights and advocating for herself and her peers.
In this episode, Sara tells her own story about how the sexual and physical abuse she suffered starting from an early age and later in her intimate relationship ultimately led to the incident for which she was criminalized. Growing up, Sara’s gender expression made her a target. Sara’s story shows how incarceration further compounds the violence that trans people are subjected to and the abuse that survivors suffer prior to incarceration.
Sara’s clemency application has been sitting on Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk since 2021. Despite support from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Legal Aid, the Osborne Association, Parole Preparation Project, and Senator Julia Salazar, Sara seeks clemency from the Governor to return to her family— both biological and chosen.
- Read Sara’s reporting on the HALT Solitary Act here.
- Read the essay "Building an Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement with Everything We've Got" by Morgan Bassichis, Alexander Lee, and Dean Spade
- Read Survived and Punished’s report, “Punished by Design: The Criminalization of Trans & Queer Incarcerated Survivors”
If you enjoy this episode, please like and subscribe. We'll be releasing episodes bi-weekly about survivors in our mass clemency campaign, and we'll have occasional episodes stepping back for history and context from organizers and leaders fighting the criminalization of survival.
Written by Linda Luu and Jade Abdul-Mallik. Produced by Jade Abdul-Mallik. Photo courtesy of Sara Kielly.