Diana Claitor of the Texas Jail Project participated in the fall workshop series, “Listen for a Change: Oral History and Social Justice” presented by ADAPT of Texas and Wire Cutter. Layla Fry and Shannon Elizondo, other workshop participants, conducted this short interview of Diana as part of the training. Read Diana’s interview for ideas on how you, too, might want to use oral history for social change.
Virginia Raymond transcribed this interview and shared it with Diana, who made some corrections and clarifications. These corrections are not marked within this transcript. (At a future workshop, we can discuss under what conditions, why, and how you might decide to mark or not mark narrator post-interview changes.)
By the way, check out Diana’s recent cover story for The Texas Observer, “Babysteps: Can Texas’ new approach to prisoners with newborns help keep families together?” Read the story in the actual paper Observer (!), at the Observer website, or at the website of the Texas Jail Project. Congratulations, Diana, and thank you for your ongoing work on behalf of all inmates, especially pregnant inmates and inmates in need of medical attention.
Thank you Diana, Layla, and Shannon, for this interview! Maybe it was “just a training exercise” to you, but I learned a lot!
Copyright Diana Claitor 2011 Used with permission
Read the entire Diana Claitor interview here.