The most recent episode of Naptown People’s Radio, a weekly podcast by PSL Indianapolis that’s recorded at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, features a discussion between one of the show’s co-hosts and Benson.
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The conversation between Derek, a community organizer and teacher, and Benson, occurred just ahead of the official launch of “The Solitary Justice Project.”
Before pivoting to the launch, which will take place at the Shri Thanedar Community Center in Detroit on February 28, they discuss the unfortunate circumstances that brought Leon to Indianapolis this weekend: the celebration of for comrade Kwame Shakur. About three years his junior, Leon recalls them growing up together. He tells one particular story in which Kwame attacked to Correctional Officers for mistreating a prisoner. He was charged with attempted murder and beat the case pro se. After his release, they kept in touch and Kwame dedicated his autobiography to Leon.
Leon served 25 years incarcerated for a crime the IMPD knew he didn’t commit and was the first person exonerated after the Marion County Conviction Integrity Unit’s founding. Much of that time was spent in solitary confinement, which brings the two to a discussion about the terror and trauma of the practice that is widely regarded as a human rights abuse and a violation of the UN’s Mandela Rules. While the stories of making it through solitary are inevitably triumphant, the degradation and suffering the state subjects our people to must be put to an end.
Leon and Derek discuss their own trauma as Leon breaks down the different kids, including chronic and vicarious, as well as collective.
Photo: Leon (rightt) and Derek (left) at the launch of Shaka Shakur’s book, Manifestations of Thought: When the Dragon Comes (1804 Books, 2025), at The People’s Forum in New York City. Credit: The Peoples Forum.