Help the Bukit Bail Fund (which describes itself as “a coalition of individuals supporting those incarcerated in Allegheny County Jail”) by purchasing I keep my visions to myself, an album released on the Orb Tapes label by Pittsburgh-based harsh noise project Burnt-feathers.
The album is a punishing, discordant exploration of trauma, psychosis, and isolation. Overwhelming sheets of noise grind against each other like two concrete blocks being crushed by an immense force; the occasional howl of feedback rises, piercing, above the din, only to be swallowed again by the mayhem. Agonized shrieks and chilling spoken word passages give human voice to the pain that inspired the record. Check out a few tracks below.
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Some statistics about ACJ (found on Bukit’s website):
- 75% of the people in Allegheny County Jail have a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse or mental health issues. 48% have both.
- ACJ has the second highest rate of suicides across the 50 largest US jails.
- 81% of inmates have not been convicted of any crime.
- In 2015, ACJ had twice the national death rate of US Jails.
- Historically, deaths at ACJ occur in the first few days of arrival.
Bored In Pittsburgh 