Everyday Injustice: Recent Episodes
Davis Vanguard
Davis Vanguard Podcast will be covering criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and more.
On Everyday Injustice Episode 336, host David Greenwald speaks with Valena Beety, a nationally recognized wrongful convictions litigator, former federal prosecutor and law professor, about how stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality can contribute to innocent people being convicted and imprisoned. Beety, who has spent roughly 15 years representing people challenging wrongful convictions, explains how her own experience as a prosecutor led her to question whether the criminal legal system consistently protects victims, survivors or public safety.Beety focuses on the intersection between wrongful convictions and the criminalization of women and LGBTQ+ people. She argues that prosecutors can exploit longstanding stereotypes portraying queer people as dangerous, deceptive or deviant, particularly when those assumptions are combined with faulty forensic evidence or tunnel vision about who committed a crime. Beety points to cases in which women and queer defendants were prosecuted even when she argues no underlying crime occurred, illustrating how identity can become part of the prosecution’s theory of guilt.The conversation also explores Beety’s new book, “Pink Crime: Fighting Against the Criminalization of Motherhood, Pregnancy, and Queer Identity,” which examines what she describes as an accelerating criminalization of women and queer people following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. Beety discusses women investigated following miscarriages, stillbirths or suspected abortions, along with the treatment of pregnant women behind bars and transgender people in prison. She describes inadequate medical care for incarcerated pregnant women, women giving birth without timely assistance and transgender prisoners being placed in prolonged segregation rather than housed in environments appropriate to their circumstances.Beety also discusses cases involving discredited forensic evidence, including bite-mark testimony, and her earlier book, “Manifesting Justice: Wrongly Convicted Women Reclaim Their Rights.” Throughout the conversation, she emphasizes that proving innocence does not necessarily mean someone will quickly — or ever — leave prison, noting that reversing an existing conviction can be substantially more difficult than obtaining one. Despite those barriers, Beety ends on a measure of optimism, arguing that recognizing how women, pregnant people and LGBTQ+ people can be targeted through stereotypes may create common ground for challenging wrongful convictions and broader abuses within the criminal legal system.
In Episode 334 of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Massachusetts criminal defense attorney Ernie Stone about the growing importance of trauma-informed criminal defense and why understanding clients’ life experiences is essential to effective representation. Drawing on nearly two decades of legal practice, Stone argues that what is often called “trauma-informed” lawyering should simply be considered good lawyering, emphasizing that attorneys must understand how trauma shapes communication, memory, decision-making, and trust.The conversation explores the prevalence of trauma among people involved in the criminal legal system and the challenges attorneys face when clients struggle to tell their stories in a linear fashion or respond predictably under stress. Stone explains that criminal charges themselves can be traumatic events, particularly for individuals already facing housing instability, mental health challenges, substance use disorders, or other forms of adversity. He discusses how lawyers can better serve clients by recognizing trauma symptoms and adjusting their communication strategies accordingly.Greenwald and Stone also examine the rise of holistic defense models that combine legal representation with social services, housing assistance, mental health support, and other interventions designed to address the root causes that often bring people into repeated contact with the justice system. While acknowledging resource limitations facing public defender offices across the country, Stone argues that investing in supportive services is both more humane and more cost-effective than relying on incarceration as a substitute for social policy.The episode concludes with a broader discussion about empathy, legal education, and professional responsibility. Stone contends that understanding trauma should be viewed as an ethical obligation for attorneys, much like technological competence has become a professional requirement. For listeners interested in learning more, he recommends The Body Keeps the Score as an accessible introduction to trauma research. Together, Greenwald and Stone make the case that a more trauma-informed approach can improve outcomes not only for defendants, but for the justice system as a whole.
In Episode 333 of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with journalist and author Justine van der Leun about her new book, Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment and Extraordinary Survival. The conversation explores a troubling reality within the criminal legal system: how survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse are often criminalized rather than protected. Drawing on years of investigative reporting and extensive research, van der Leun examines the stories of women whose attempts to survive violence ultimately led to their incarceration.Van der Leun explains how her investigation began with the case of Nikki Addimando, a New York woman convicted after killing her abusive partner while claiming self-defense. The case prompted a larger question: How often are survivors punished for acts committed in the context of abuse? To find answers, van der Leun conducted a groundbreaking survey of approximately 10,000 incarcerated women, receiving more than 1,000 responses. Her findings suggest that a significant portion of women in prison are there because they acted to protect themselves or loved ones from violence, while many more carry extensive histories of abuse that went unaddressed by social institutions before they entered the criminal legal system.The episode highlights the stories of three women featured in the book: Tanisha Williams of Michigan, who became entangled in a murder case after being coerced by an abusive partner; Gemma Heffernan of Missouri, who fought back against a husband who subjected her to years of violence; and TC Brooks of California, who killed her abusive stepfather after enduring years of sexual abuse and witnessing ongoing violence against her mother. Through these stories, van der Leun argues that the legal system often struggles to recognize the realities of coercion, trauma, and survival, instead relying on rigid categories that separate victims from offenders.Throughout the discussion, Greenwald and van der Leun examine broader questions about accountability, systemic failure, and reform. Van der Leun contends that many of the women filling America’s prisons were failed long before they entered the criminal legal system and that their cases reveal deep structural shortcomings in how society responds to abuse. The conversation offers a powerful look at the intersection of gender, violence, trauma, and incarceration, challenging listeners to reconsider who the justice system punishes—and why.
On this week’s episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Dr. Elizabeth Ostler, founder of the Communal Theater Company and creator of the upcoming play “SisterPlay,” a deeply personal work inspired by the death of her sister Lisa while detained in the Salt Lake County Jail.Ostler recounts how her sister, who struggled with addiction for years, died in custody in 2016 after repeated pleas for medical attention were ignored. Through court records and wrongful death litigation, Ostler learned the extent of the neglect her sister endured while suffering from a perforated ulcer and sepsis-like symptoms inside the jail. She explains how transforming that experience into theater became both a painful and healing process, allowing her to finally tell a story she could not previously discuss publicly.The conversation expands into a broader examination of incarceration, medical neglect, punishment versus accountability, and the importance of restoring dignity to incarcerated people. Ostler and Greenwald discuss how dehumanization fuels systemic abuse inside jails and prisons, while emphasizing the role storytelling and art can play in fostering empathy and reform. Ostler argues that incarcerated individuals should be viewed as vulnerable populations deserving care and humanity, not merely punishment.The episode also explores the potential of theater programs and restorative justice approaches within correctional settings. Ostler shares details about “SisterPlay,” which premieres in New York this September, and discusses her hope of eventually bringing the production into prisons and jails themselves. Greenwald highlights the shared mission between journalism and theater: humanizing people too often reduced to stereotypes within the criminal legal system.
On Episode 330 of the Everyday Injustice podcast, host David Greenwald examines one of the most overlooked yet devastating aspects of the criminal legal system: the widespread use of fines and fees as a mechanism of punishment and revenue generation. Joined by Joanna Weiss and Priya Sarthy-Jones of the Fines and Fees Justice Center along with Tiffany Shaw of JusticeLink, the discussion explores how court-imposed debt traps millions of Americans in cycles of poverty, instability and repeated contact with the justice system.The episode highlights the distinction between punitive fines and the growing array of fees imposed simply for interacting with the legal system. The guests explain how people can be charged for public defenders, probation appointments, incarceration and other mandatory services, effectively transforming the justice system into a system financed on the backs of poor people. Weiss argues that while some monetary penalties may be appropriate if proportionate, fees themselves have “no place in the justice system,” particularly because they disproportionately burden low-income communities and communities of color.Much of the conversation centers on the real-world consequences of court debt. Shaw shares her own experience navigating incarceration, probation and thousands of dollars in fines and fees while struggling to maintain housing, employment and basic stability. The guests describe how driver’s license suspensions for unpaid debt often create a downward spiral in which people lose employment opportunities, continue driving out of necessity and face additional criminal charges simply because they cannot afford to pay. According to the discussion, reforms advanced by the Fines and Fees Justice Center have already generated at least $37.5 billion in relief nationwide, though the speakers argue the true economic and human costs remain far greater.Throughout the episode, the panel argues that the current system undermines public safety rather than promoting accountability. Research discussed during the interview suggests that unaffordable fines and fees are associated with higher recidivism rates and deeper economic insecurity, while reforms eliminating debt-based driver’s license suspensions and justice system fees have broad bipartisan support across the country. Greenwald closes the episode by emphasizing that meaningful accountability should help people rebuild their lives rather than permanently trapping them in debt and instability.
In Episode 329 of Everyday Injustice, the podcast features a wide-ranging and deeply probing conversation with UCLA professor Terrence Keel, a leading scholar examining the intersection of race, science and public institutions. The discussion centers on his new book, The Coroner’s Silence, which investigates how death investigations—particularly in cases involving police custody—can obscure rather than illuminate the truth. Drawing from years of research and analysis of hundreds of autopsy reports, Keel argues that official records often contain narratives that deflect responsibility away from law enforcement and toward the bodies of those who have died.Keel explains that his work was partly inspired by national reactions to the killing of George Floyd, particularly the controversy surrounding the autopsy findings that created ambiguity about the cause of death. That moment raised broader questions about how medical examiners frame deaths in less visible cases—those without video evidence or public scrutiny. According to Keel, these patterns are not isolated but systemic, revealing how forensic language, institutional relationships and embedded biases can shape outcomes in ways that undermine accountability.Throughout the episode, the conversation expands beyond individual cases to examine structural issues within the death investigation system. Keel highlights how medical examiners and coroners, often portrayed as neutral scientific authorities, operate within political and bureaucratic frameworks that may influence their conclusions. He points to conflicts of interest, including situations where law enforcement agencies are directly involved in or present during autopsies, raising serious concerns about independence and transparency. These institutional dynamics, he argues, contribute to a broader failure to accurately document deaths in police custody.The episode ultimately situates these findings within a larger critique of the criminal legal system, emphasizing how gaps in mental health care, housing and social services have led to increased reliance on policing as a default response. Keel underscores that many of those who die in custody are among society’s most vulnerable, and he calls for systemic reform that includes independent oversight, improved transparency and a rethinking of public safety itself. The conversation offers both a sobering assessment of current realities and a framework for understanding how institutional practices shape public narratives about justice and accountability.
On Episode 328 of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Matilde Hernandez, a wellness consultant, author and speaker whose life was transformed by incarceration and the long journey that followed. Hernandez shares how a first-time case in Georgia led to a prison sentence she says she did not fully understand, and how the experience forced her to confront trauma, shame and the challenge of rebuilding her life after release.In a deeply personal conversation, Hernandez explains that incarceration is not only a physical place but also a mindset that can continue long after someone returns home. She describes the emotional toll of separation from her children, the burden of self-doubt and the years it took to truly forgive herself. Her story highlights the hidden barriers many formerly incarcerated people face, including stigma, housing insecurity, employment discrimination and untreated mental health struggles.The discussion also centers on resilience and purpose. Hernandez talks about writing her book, Beyond These Walls, and the message behind its title: the internal walls people build out of shame, fear and pain can be dismantled. She reflects on how mentorship, therapy and faith helped her move forward, and why healing often begins when people believe they are still worthy of growth and opportunity.Now nearing completion of her doctoral program, Hernandez is focused on helping justice-impacted youth build stable futures through mentorship, life skills and guidance. Episode 328 is both an inspiring personal testimony and a broader conversation about what true reentry should look like when society chooses restoration over punishment. It is a powerful reminder that people are more than the worst thing that has happened to them—and that every story can be rewritten.
In a wide-ranging conversation on Everyday Injustice, economist and policy researcher Jennifer Doleac argued that criminal justice reform should be driven less by ideology and more by evidence. Discussing her book The Science of Second Chances, Doleac said policymakers often adopt programs that sound compassionate or politically attractive without testing whether they reduce crime, improve lives or save money. Her central message was direct: governments should be willing to try new ideas, measure outcomes honestly and “fail fast” when programs do not work.Doleac, now with Arnold Ventures, explained how economists use natural experiments to study policies that cannot ethically be tested through randomized trials. She pointed to research showing that increasing the certainty of being caught can deter crime more effectively than simply increasing sentence lengths. Using state expansions of DNA databases as one example, she said evidence suggests stronger detection tools may reduce repeat offending more than long prison terms, which she described as costly and often less effective once people age out of crime.The interview also explored reforms that have fallen short. Doleac said research on “ban the box” hiring policies found unintended consequences, including increased racial disparities in hiring, while clean slate record-sealing laws have shown little measurable impact on employment outcomes so far. Rather than removing information and hoping behavior changes, she argued policymakers should identify what employers fear and directly address those concerns through better incentives, training and risk-sharing mechanisms.Despite those critiques, Doleac struck an optimistic note. She said many effective reforms are practical, bipartisan and already within reach, from improving crime clearance rates to expanding interventions that help people avoid repeated system involvement. The larger challenge, she said, is cultural: rewarding leaders who admit when something is not working and pivot quickly toward better solutions. For a justice system often trapped between punishment politics and reform slogans, the interview offered a different framework — humility, experimentation and results.
A newly discussed investigative report is drawing renewed attention to allegations that contaminated water and failing infrastructure at Mule Creek State Prison may be harming both incarcerated people and residents in the nearby town of Ione. Journalist Emily Nonko said the issue has received far too little public scrutiny despite what she described as a major environmental and infrastructural breakdown. She noted that state agencies, prison officials and even many people directly affected appear to know little about the full scope of the problem.According to Nonko, the reporting began after incarcerated sources raised concerns about unusual illnesses, foul-tasting water and widespread sickness inside the prison. She said the investigation gained traction when prior litigation forced admissions that key infrastructure systems had broken down, giving reporters documentary evidence to pursue a deeper story. Nonko and co-reporter Dave Razorbab then expanded the investigation through interviews with attorneys, local officials, staff members and town residents.The report alleges decades of plumbing failures, wastewater mismanagement and possible contamination linked to prison operations. Nonko said residents with private wells found chemicals such as caffeine and dry-cleaning compounds that appeared tied to industries operating at the prison. She also described a broader accountability vacuum, saying multiple public agencies redirected responsibility rather than clearly identifying who was responsible for protecting water quality.Nonko said the story remains ongoing, with additional residents and former staff continuing to come forward. She argued that the crisis illustrates how prison conditions do not remain behind prison walls, but can directly affect surrounding communities as well. As public pressure grows, the investigation raises larger questions about environmental oversight, transparency and whether California officials will be forced to confront a problem critics say has been ignored for years.
In the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with historian Professor Josh Clark Davis of the University of Baltimore to explore a critical but often overlooked dimension of the civil rights era—organized resistance to police violence. Drawing from his new book Police Against the Movement, Davis challenges conventional narratives that frame police brutality as something endured rather than actively resisted, arguing instead that civil rights activists across the country directly organized against policing practices and state repression.The conversation situates contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter within a deeper historical lineage, pushing back against the common media framing that modern activism represents something entirely new. Davis explains that while iconic images of police violence in Birmingham and Selma are widely remembered, far less attention has been paid to the ways civil rights groups—particularly organizations like CORE and SNCC—mobilized protests, sit-ins, and campaigns specifically targeting police misconduct and surveillance.A key theme of the discussion is the role of local police departments—not just federal agencies like the FBI—in suppressing justice movements. Davis highlights the widespread use of “red squads,” local intelligence units that conducted surveillance, infiltration, and political repression across the country. These efforts, he argues, were national in scope and often more pervasive than commonly understood, reshaping how historians should interpret state power during the civil rights era.The episode concludes by connecting these historical patterns to present-day concerns, including the expansion of surveillance technologies and the persistence of aggressive law enforcement tactics. Davis emphasizes that both the methods of repression and the strategies of resistance—such as documenting police actions and organizing community defense—have deep roots in the civil rights movement, underscoring the enduring relevance of this history in understanding today’s struggles for justice.
In Episode 324 of the Everyday Injustice podcast, host David Greenwald sits down with Kandia Milton, government affairs director at Dream.org, for a wide-ranging conversation on criminal justice reform, reentry, and the persistent structural barriers facing people returning from incarceration. Milton brings a rare dual perspective to the discussion, combining more than two decades of policy experience with lived experience of incarceration—an intersection that shapes both his advocacy and Dream.org’s mission to “close prison doors and open doors of opportunity.”The conversation centers on a critical but often overlooked issue: how systemic barriers—particularly in housing—undermine public safety by making successful reentry nearly impossible. Milton explains how federal policy dating back to the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act allows landlords to deny housing based solely on prior drug convictions, a restriction that continues to affect millions of people today. He argues that repealing these provisions through the proposed Fair Future Act would not only restore basic rights but also reduce recidivism by removing one of the most significant obstacles to stability after incarceration.Greenwald and Milton also explore the surprising, if fragile, potential for bipartisan cooperation in criminal justice reform. Despite deep political polarization, Milton points to areas of shared concern—housing affordability, public safety, and access to opportunity—as entry points for cross-partisan collaboration. While acknowledging the challenges of advancing reform in a polarized political climate, he notes that support for removing barriers to reentry has emerged across ideological lines, suggesting that pragmatic solutions may still be possible even amid broader dysfunction.Ultimately, Episode 324 underscores a central theme: if society is serious about safety, it must invest in people rather than punishment. From housing access to job opportunities and mental health care, the episode makes a compelling case that reducing recidivism—and strengthening communities—requires a shift away from punitive systems toward policies that enable stability and success. As Milton puts it, the question is not whether people will return to society, but whether they will be given a real chance to succeed when they do.
In Episode 323 of the Everyday Injustice podcast, host David Greenwald sits down with Eric Morrison-Smith, Executive Director of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, for a wide-ranging conversation on criminal justice reform, systemic inequality, and the urgent need to rethink how society responds to harm. The discussion traces Morrison-Smith’s personal journey into advocacy, from his early experiences as a college athlete to a political awakening shaped by the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and the broader movement for racial justice.Morrison-Smith describes how his initial exposure to structural analysis—particularly through Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow—shifted his understanding from individual responsibility to systemic causation. That shift ultimately led him into organizing, policy work, and leadership in a statewide network advancing anti-racist reforms. His trajectory underscores a central theme of the episode: meaningful change requires not only personal commitment but also a deep engagement with the institutional frameworks that shape outcomes across education, policing, and economic opportunity.A significant portion of the conversation focuses on youth justice, including efforts to end “endless probation” for young people in California. Morrison-Smith explains how prolonged system involvement often worsens long-term outcomes, reinforcing cycles of instability rather than promoting rehabilitation. He highlights firsthand accounts from incarcerated youth and emphasizes the importance of clear pathways out of supervision, noting that hope and a defined endpoint are critical to any meaningful reform effort.The episode also explores broader policy initiatives, including campaigns to reduce reliance on punitive systems, expand community-based responses to crises, and address the root causes of violence—particularly intimate partner violence and economic instability. Morrison-Smith argues for a dual strategy of dismantling harmful institutions while investing in “life-affirming” alternatives, from youth employment programs to community-led safety initiatives. As the political climate shifts toward more punitive rhetoric, the conversation highlights both the challenges and the necessity of continuing reform efforts grounded in equity, accountability, and systemic transformation.
A groundbreaking Oklahoma law intended to provide relief to survivors of domestic violence serving long prison sentences is revealing just how difficult it remains for the criminal legal system to grapple with trauma, accountability, and mercy. Investigative journalist Pamela Colloff, who reported on the issue for ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, said the Oklahoma Survivors Act was designed to allow courts to reconsider sentences for people whose crimes were directly connected to abuse they endured. Yet despite the promise of reform, the law’s implementation has exposed deep resistance within the system.The law emerged from a recognition that many people—particularly women—are imprisoned for crimes committed in the context of domestic violence. Some cases involve survivors who killed their abusers, while others involve people coerced into criminal activity or charged in “failure to protect” cases where a partner harmed a child. The statute requires judges to determine whether abuse was a “substantial contributing factor” to the offense and allows courts to reconsider lengthy sentences imposed during the tough-on-crime era of the 1980s and 1990s.Early hopes that the law might provide meaningful relief have largely gone unrealized. Lisa Moss, who served more than three decades for her role in the killing of her abusive husband, remains the only person released under the statute so far. Numerous other petitions have been filed, but many applicants—some elderly and incarcerated for decades—have been denied resentencing after contentious courtroom hearings that often scrutinize the details of their abuse.Colloff’s reporting suggests that prosecutorial resistance has become a central barrier. Prosecutors have argued the law could invite exaggerated claims of abuse and open the door for sentence reductions in violent felony cases. Advocates, however, contend the law is intentionally narrow and requires corroborating evidence. The broader debate highlights a deeper question confronting the criminal legal system: whether courts can meaningfully recognize the role of trauma in shaping criminal behavior while still balancing accountability and justice for victims.
A new episode of the Everyday Injustice podcast examines the controversial case of Curtis Davis Jr., a Mississippi man whose conviction is raising troubling questions about prosecutorial conduct, plea bargaining and the withholding of potentially exculpatory evidence. The episode features a conversation with Maurice Clifton, a criminal justice advocate who has been investigating the case and pushing for a closer review of the circumstances that led Davis to accept a plea deal.According to Clifton, Davis accepted the plea while under intense pressure from investigators who warned that he could face far more serious charges if he went to trial. Clifton describes a system in which prosecutors stack charges and threaten lengthy sentences in order to secure guilty pleas, even in cases where the evidence may be weak or incomplete. Once a plea is entered, Clifton explains, it becomes extremely difficult to reopen the case—even if new evidence later emerges.The podcast discussion highlights what Clifton says are serious inconsistencies in the Davis case, including forensic evidence that reportedly fails to connect Davis to the crime scene. According to the interview, DNA and fingerprint evidence did not implicate Davis, and key physical evidence was not disclosed until months after the plea was entered. Clifton argues that these circumstances raise questions about whether Davis fully understood the evidence—or lack thereof—before agreeing to the plea.The episode also situates the case within a broader pattern of alleged prosecutorial misconduct in parts of Mississippi. Clifton points to the record of former district attorney Doug Evans, whose prosecutions—including the widely known Curtis Flowers case—have repeatedly been overturned due to withheld evidence and other violations. Advocates say the Davis case reflects deeper systemic issues in the criminal legal system, where pressure to secure convictions and plea agreements can sometimes overshadow the pursuit of justice.
On the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with historian Stuart Schrader of Johns Hopkins University to examine the political rise of police unions and their growing influence in American public life. Schrader’s forthcoming book, Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves, traces how police organizations transformed themselves from fraternal associations into formidable political actors capable of shaping legislation, contracts and public narratives about crime and public safety. The conversation situates that evolution within a broader history of the “war on crime” and the bipartisan embrace of tough-on-crime politics.Drawing on his earlier work, Badges Without Borders, Schrader explains how federal crime legislation in 1968 and the creation of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration poured resources into local police departments. What began as a moment of federal expansion became a catalyst for police leaders and rank-and-file associations to see political advocacy as essential to protecting institutional power. The episode explores how national organizations such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police and later police unions leveraged Washington relationships while simultaneously reshaping local politics.The discussion moves city by city—from Detroit and New York to Baltimore, Milwaukee and San Francisco—to show how police labor organizations refined tactics ranging from contract battles and strike threats to media campaigns and coordinated political pressure. In Baltimore, a failed experiment with an AFSCME-affiliated union and a subsequent strike reshaped the trajectory of police representation. In Milwaukee, a combative relationship between union leaders and a powerful chief helped export organizing strategies nationwide. Across these cases, Schrader identifies a consistent pattern: police organizations blending labor-style mobilization with a distinctive form of political leverage rooted in public fear of crime.In the final segment, Greenwald and Schrader turn to the present moment, including the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests and the renewed politics of “law and order.” They analyze how police groups use news cycles, viral incidents and public safety narratives to assert bargaining power, even as other unions have declined. The episode offers a historically grounded framework for understanding contemporary debates about crime, reform and accountability—highlighting how decades of organized political engagement have positioned police institutions at the center of America’s justice discourse.
Meditation, Redemption and the Promise of ReentryIn the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald revisits the transformative power of meditation inside prison walls, bringing back longtime meditation teacher Doina Durbin and introducing Doug, a formerly incarcerated man whose life was reshaped by the practice. The conversation moves beyond theory, grounding itself in lived experience as Doug recounts how meditation helped him navigate years inside the Texas prison system and ultimately face the daunting realities of reentry with resilience and clarity .Durbin, who has practiced meditation for 45 years and has taught it for four decades, launched her prison program in Texas in 2019 after decades of hoping to bring the discipline behind bars . Her work emphasizes meditation not as dogma but as a practical tool for cultivating awareness, managing anger and developing inner stability. Inside facilities often defined by noise, tension and trauma, she found surprising receptivity. According to the transcript, even correctional staff observed noticeable changes in participants who emerged from sessions calmer and more centered .Doug’s story provides a powerful case study. In and out of prison three times for a combined eight years, he describes arriving with what he calls a “racing mind” and leaving with a sense of inner peace that he refuses to surrender, even amid the structural barriers of reentry such as housing discrimination and limited employment opportunities . Meditation, he explains, gave him tools to interrupt anger, manage stress and confront existential questions about identity and purpose. Rather than framing incarceration solely as punishment, he describes the experience—through the lens of disciplined practice—as an opportunity for profound personal recalibration.For a podcast grounded in criminal justice reform, the episode raises a broader question: can institutions structured around control make space for transformation? Both Durbin and Doug argue that meditation programs offer practical benefits for correctional systems, from reducing conflict to fostering emotional regulation, while also addressing the deeper trauma many incarcerated people carry. As Durbin prepares to see her program continue through other teachers, and as Doug hopes his voice will reach someone currently sitting in a cell feeling isolated and hopeless, the episode underscores a central theme: even in confinement, there remains the possibility of interior freedom.
This week, Everyday Injustice brings listeners a special episode, featuring an installment of the podcast Women Beyond Walls, a series that centers the voices and lived experiences of women directly impacted by incarceration. Rather than relying on stereotypes or abstractions, the podcast foregrounds real stories of harm, survival, and resistance—while asking listeners to imagine what a more humane vision of justice could look like. This special episode fits squarely within Everyday Injustice’s mission of exposing systemic failures and elevating voices too often erased from public debate.At the center of this episode is Pamela Winn, an Atlanta-based activist who was incarcerated while pregnant and subjected to brutal and neglectful conditions behind bars. Her story lays bare how carceral systems routinely fail pregnant people—through shackling, denial of medical care, and indifference to human dignity—often with devastating consequences. Winn’s account is not only painful, but searingly precise, offering a firsthand record of how institutional decisions translate into bodily harm and lasting trauma.But this episode is not only about suffering. It is also about memory, survival, and the refusal to be silenced. Winn’s determination to live—to stay awake, to bear witness, and to tell her own story—becomes an act of resistance against a system that would prefer her experience remain hidden or misrepresented. Her voice challenges listeners to confront the everyday violence embedded in prisons and jails, particularly for women and pregnant people whose needs are treated as exceptions rather than obligations.Today, Pamela Winn is working to ensure that what happened to her does not happen to others. Through advocacy and legislative reform, she has become a leading force in the movement to end the shackling of pregnant women and to demand dignity, care, and accountability in incarceration. This episode of Women Beyond Walls is both a warning and a call—to listen, to remember, and to recognize that justice begins with acknowledging harm and acting to prevent it from happening again.If you like what you hear, check out Women Beyond Walls here: https://www.womenbeyondwalls.org/pod
Jerry “JD” Mathis on Reentry, Shame, and Finding a VoiceOn this episode of the Everyday Injustice podcast, host David Greenwald speaks with Jerry “JD” Mathis, an award-winning author, PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, and formerly incarcerated writer whose work centers on mass incarceration, reentry, and the redemptive power of storytelling. Mathis’ life arc—from decorated National Guard soldier to federal prison camp to acclaimed writer—offers a stark case study in how a single mistake can permanently alter a life, and how narrative becomes a way to survive what comes after.Mathis recounts how, at age 20, he was convicted in federal court for his role in covering up the theft of a machine gun from his National Guard unit, a crime that resulted in a two-year prison sentence while the primary offender was never charged. Once celebrated as a top gunner and model soldier, Mathis found himself publicly branded, prosecuted as a dangerous figure, and thrust into a criminal legal system that treated him not as a young person who made a grave error, but as a permanent threat. The punishment, he explains, did not end with his release.The conversation centers on reentry as what Mathis calls the “hidden punishment” of incarceration: the long afterlife of stigma, unemployment, restricted housing, and social exclusion that follows people long after they leave custody. Drawing on his own struggles—and comparative models like Norway’s—Mathis argues that the United States systematically undermines public safety by making successful reentry nearly impossible. Rather than addressing trauma, addiction, or the structural causes of harm, the system relies on exclusion and moral judgment, pushing people further to the margins.Ultimately, Mathis describes how writing became a way to reclaim a stolen narrative. Through the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, he finally found the language to tell his story without shame—first to the public, and then to his daughters. That act of storytelling, he says, was not only personal catharsis but political intervention: a refusal to let prosecutors, headlines, or stigma define who he is. The episode is a powerful meditation on punishment, identity, and what it actually takes to rebuild a life after prison.
In this episode of the Everyday Injustice Podcast, host David Greenwald is joined by Jeffrey Deskovic, Oscar Michelen, and Andre Brown for an unvarnished conversation about a wrongful conviction case that nearly resulted in a second, devastating return to prison. Brown, who spent 23 years incarcerated for a crime he maintains he did not commit, had his conviction vacated in 2022, only to face the threat of being sent back to prison after the appellate court reversed that ruling nearly two years later .The discussion traces the extraordinary procedural twists of the case, including last-minute surrender orders, emergency motions, a denied appeal to New York’s highest court, and a clemency petition left undecided. Ultimately, a resentencing motion based on ineffective assistance of counsel resulted in Brown being resentenced to concurrent terms that recognized the time he had already served, allowing him to remain free. The episode lays bare how appellate courts’ deference to “finality” can override compelling evidence and how narrowly justice can turn on timing, discretion, and institutional posture .Brown speaks candidly about living in legal limbo—free but never secure—describing sleepless nights, the strain on his family, and the psychological toll of knowing he could be returned to prison at any moment. At the same time, he reflects on the community, legal advocates, and family members who sustained him, and on the work he undertook while free: mentoring youth, participating in education programs, and becoming an advocate within the wrongful conviction community .The conversation broadens into a systemic critique, with Deskovic and Michelen examining how courts handle claims of innocence, ineffective counsel, and newly discovered evidence, particularly in non-DNA cases. The episode underscores how rare corrections remain, how much persistence they require, and how much depends on actors willing to look beyond the record toward real-world justice. It is a sobering reminder that even when freedom is regained, the fight for exoneration—and for a more accountable legal system—often continues .
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Tracy Miller, a veteran prosecutor whose career inside one of the nation’s largest district attorney’s offices ended not with honors, but with retaliation, isolation, and a landmark lawsuit. Miller spent 25 years at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, rising to senior leadership and building one of the country’s largest gang prevention programs, before becoming one of several employees who reported sexual harassment by a politically powerful insider.What followed, Miller explains, was not institutional self-correction but institutional protection. Despite multiple reports, a county investigation, and widespread internal knowledge of the misconduct, the alleged harasser was promoted while those who spoke out faced marginalization. Miller recounts being stripped of her office, pushed into a conference room during the final days of her career, and denied the basic dignity routinely afforded to departing senior staff. The experience, she says, revealed how easily stated commitments to justice collapse when power is threatened.Miller ultimately filed suit against Orange County, a decision she describes as deeply painful and disorienting, akin to “suing herself” after a lifetime of public service. When the case finally went to trial in 2025, the sitting district attorney spent days on the witness stand, an extraordinary public reckoning for an office tasked with enforcing the law. For Miller, the trial was not just about damages, but about forcing the truth into the open in a system accustomed to silence and deference.In the conversation, Miller reflects on vulnerability, courage, and the double standard prosecutors impose on victims while often failing to protect their own. She frames her case as part of a larger struggle over accountability inside the criminal legal system, where misconduct persists not only because of bad actors, but because too many others look away. Now working as an executive coach and consultant, Miller sees truth-telling as both a professional obligation and a form of resistance—and hopes her story helps others understand they are not alone.
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Kate Chatfield, executive director of the California Public Defenders Association, about the mounting crisis in California’s public defense system and what it reveals about deeper structural failures in the criminal legal system. Chatfield explains that public defenders now represent roughly 90 percent of people charged with crimes, yet remain chronically underfunded and overwhelmed, a reality that directly undermines the constitutional promise of meaningful legal representation .Chatfield describes how excessive caseloads make it nearly impossible for defenders to provide the level of advocacy required even in so-called low-level cases. She notes that misdemeanors routinely carry severe collateral consequences, including loss of employment, housing instability, and immigration harm, and that many clients are navigating homelessness, mental illness, or substance use disorders. These underlying conditions, she argues, are routinely criminalized rather than addressed through social services, placing public defenders on the front lines of systemic neglect .The discussion also turns to SB 1437, the landmark 2018 reform that narrowed California’s felony murder rule. As the bill’s lead drafter, Chatfield recounts how survey and appellate research revealed that felony murder disproportionately impacted young people, particularly young Black and Latino men, and frequently sentenced accomplices who were not the actual killers to life terms. She emphasizes that resentencing data following SB 1437 show extremely low recidivism rates, undercutting claims that such reforms threaten public safety .Finally, Chatfield weighs in on Proposition 36 and broader claims that increased incarceration can be justified as “treatment.” She argues that such measures are disingenuous, expanding jail populations while diverting resources away from housing, health care, and voluntary treatment—the very investments proven to prevent harm. True public safety, she concludes, will not come from deeper entanglement with the criminal legal system, but from sustained commitment to meeting human needs before people ever enter it .
Choosing Yourself Before Life Forces the ChoiceOn the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Hakeem McFarland, a motivational speaker, wellness coach, author, and the founder of the Choose Yourself Movement, a philosophy built around reclaiming identity, integrity, and purpose in a culture driven by external validation. McFarland’s message is direct and uncompromising: before chasing achievement, status, or approval, people must first confront who they are when no one is watching and take responsibility for the systems that shape their daily lives.McFarland traces the origins of his work to repeated personal breaking points marked by grief, loss, addiction, and incarceration, culminating in a period of enforced solitude that forced him to confront himself without distraction or numbing. Rather than framing transformation as a sudden epiphany, he describes it as a disciplined process built through small, repeatable actions—sleep routines, mindful consumption, accountability, and habits that prioritize delayed gratification over instant relief. Choosing oneself, he argues, is not an abstract affirmation but a measurable practice rooted in what a person consistently does for their own well-being.At the center of this philosophy is the Choose Yourself Movement, a community designed as what McFarland calls an “integrity loop,” where participants publicly commit to personal goals and support one another in following through. Through weekly meetings, challenges, retreats, and daily accountability, the movement seeks to disrupt cycles of self-neglect and avoidance by replacing them with structure, honesty, and shared responsibility. McFarland emphasizes that community is not about motivation alone, but about creating conditions where excuses become harder to sustain.In the conversation, McFarland also reflects on authenticity as the foundation of lasting change, arguing that people often struggle because they are living versions of themselves shaped by conditioning rather than conviction. The episode explores why guilt, fear of judgment, and consumption-driven habits keep people stuck, and how confronting discomfort—rather than avoiding it—is essential to reclaiming agency. For listeners navigating burnout, identity loss, or a sense of stagnation, the discussion offers a stark but grounded challenge: no one is coming to save you, but the tools to begin are already within reach.
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Shazad Carbaidwala, a longtime volunteer and board member with Prisoner Visitation and Support, a national organization that provides consistent, face-to-face visits to incarcerated people in federal facilities across the country. Carbaidwala has spent nearly a decade visiting people inside prisons, offering something both simple and rare in the modern correctional system: human connection. His work reflects a broader effort to counter isolation, neglect, and dehumanization within federal incarceration.Carbaidwala describes how he first became involved with Prisoner Visitation and Support while living in Philadelphia, answering a call to serve in a way that aligned with his belief in helping people wherever possible. What began as volunteer work grew into a long-term commitment that now includes board leadership and regular visits to federal institutions, most recently in Chicago. Over time, he says, the experience reshaped his own understanding of prisons, revealing not only the hardship of confinement but also the resilience, growth, and humanity of the people inside.The conversation explores what it is like to walk into a federal prison for the first time—the rigid procedures, the emotional weight, and the stark contrast between public perceptions of incarceration and lived reality. Carbaidwala emphasizes that while the environment can be intimidating, the interactions themselves are often deeply affirming. People inside are eager for conversation, connection, and recognition. Visits routinely involve ordinary human exchanges—discussing sports, family, politics, or faith—moments that restore a sense of dignity in a system that often strips it away.Greenwald and Carbaidwala also reflect on the broader implications of visitation for rehabilitation and reentry, particularly in a federal system where people are frequently housed thousands of miles from their families. They discuss shifting attitudes toward incarceration, the importance of recognizing trauma and deprivation in people’s backgrounds, and the role of volunteers in bridging the gap between prison and society. At its core, the episode underscores a central theme of Everyday Injustice: meaningful change begins by seeing incarcerated people not as abstractions, but as human beings deserving of empathy, attention, and connection.
Women are now the fastest-growing population in the criminal legal system, yet policy, practice and public understanding continue to lag behind that reality. On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Stephanie Akhter, director of the Women’s Justice Commission at the Council on Criminal Justice, about why women’s involvement in the system is rising, how their experiences differ from men’s, and what meaningful reform actually requires.Akhter brings a perspective grounded in direct practice and national policy work. Trained as a social worker, she began her career working with people returning home from prison before moving into state-level reentry policy, philanthropic criminal justice reform, and ultimately the launch of the Women’s Justice Commission. Throughout the conversation, she emphasizes that women entering the system are often driven there by circumstances—trauma, poverty, housing instability, untreated mental health needs and coercive relationships—rather than by violent criminal behavior.The discussion explores why women are not simply a smaller version of men in the system. Akhter explains that women experience higher rates of trauma and victimization, are more likely to be primary caregivers, and generally present lower public safety risk, yet are processed through a system largely designed without them in mind. As a result, reforms that have reduced incarceration for men have often failed to benefit women, even as women now account for roughly one-quarter of all adult arrests nationwide.The episode also looks forward, examining where change is possible. Akhter outlines the Commission’s focus on reducing women’s system involvement where safely possible and improving outcomes when women do enter the system, from pretrial decisions to sentencing and reentry. The conversation highlights trauma-informed, gender-responsive approaches and growing recognition among justice professionals that real public safety depends on helping people leave the system healthier and more stable than when they entered it.
The newest episode of Everyday Injustice features three powerful voices from Represent Justice’s ambassador program, each sharing deeply personal experiences with trauma, incarceration and healing. Emmanuel Noble Williams, John Medina Jr., and Angelique Todd describe how childhood violence, systemic neglect and survival-driven choices pushed them into the legal system—but also how storytelling and filmmaking have become pathways toward accountability, dignity and repair. Their conversation makes one thing clear: before the system labeled them “offenders,” they were children trying to survive experiences no one helped them process.Each ambassador discusses how trauma shaped their worldview long before a courtroom or prison cell entered the picture. Noble recalls witnessing a murder before age eleven and learning early that speaking to police could mean violence or death. That fear—and lack of emotional support—became a “mask” he wore into adulthood. John describes years of instability and coping through substances, and how the birth of his son forced him to confront the disconnect between wanting to protect life while participating in harm. Angelique explains how abuse, over-policing and mislabeling of Black girls funneled her toward criminalization, and how no one ever stopped to ask the simplest question: What happened to you?Despite their different stories, the message from all three is unified: the system did not rehabilitate them—community, healing and lived experience did. They argue that prisons prioritize control over treatment, punishment over safety, and compliance over growth. Their films and advocacy challenge institutions to recognize that accountability is not the same as suffering, and that most people behind bars were victims long before they were accused of harm. “Hurt people hurt people,” Noble says, emphasizing that until trauma is addressed, cycles of violence and incarceration will continue to repeat.Yet the tone of the conversation is not despair, but transformation. Represent Justice gave each ambassador a platform to reclaim narrative and power—something they say the system tried to strip away. Today, they mentor youth, teach restorative justice and help others break cycles they once lived inside. Their stories challenge the public to rethink assumptions about crime, punishment and who deserves redemption. And in their work, they make the case that change begins not with more prisons—but with listening, acknowledging harm and recognizing shared humanity.
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, we sit down with journalist and author Nell Bernstein, one of the nation’s leading voices on youth incarceration and the failures of the juvenile punishment model. Bernstein is the author of Burning Down the House and her newly released book, In Our Future We Are Free: The Dismantling of the Youth Prison. Her work challenges the mythology around “dangerous youth,” exposes the long-term harm of locking children in carceral environments, and reframes what true public safety looks like in America.Bernstein’s journey into youth justice began in the 1990s, during the height of the so-called superpredator era — a moment defined not by data, but by fear, racism, and political opportunism. She tells us how young people she worked with in San Francisco were funneled into arrests, courtrooms, and detention for low-level behaviors — not because they posed a threat, but because the system was built to criminalize them. What began as court accompaniment and juvenile hall visits evolved into decades of reporting, advocacy, and storytelling grounded in humanity rather than stereotype.In the conversation, Bernstein points to one of the most staggering realities: youth incarceration has dropped 75% nationwide since 2000, and more than two-thirds of youth prisons across the country have closed — including California’s entire state-run youth prison system. Yet at the same time, a backlash is underway. Politicians and media are reviving superpredator-style narratives, and several states — including California — are now pushing to try more children as adults. Bernstein warns that progress isn’t linear and the narratives driving fear often outpace the facts.This episode is both sobering and hopeful. Bernstein reminds us that youth incarceration is not inevitable — it is a policy choice driven by fear, inequity, and political gain. The alternatives already exist, and they work: community safety comes not from cages, but from education, support, housing, stability, and belonging. For anyone questioning whether change is possible, Bernstein’s message is clear — transformation has already begun. The question now is whether we will defend it.
For nearly 42 years, Gary Tyler lived with a sentence that was never rooted in truth, fairness, or genuine evidence. Arrested at age 16 in Louisiana and accused of killing a white teenager during a moment of racial violence in 1974, Tyler was quickly swept into a system determined not to find the truth, but to find someone to blame. “I was incarcerated…for 41 and a half years,” Tyler explains, underscoring the unimaginable time he spent behind bars for a crime he has always maintained he did not commit.His case was built on coerced statements, an all-white jury, and the climate of racism surrounding public school desegregation. Even the moment of his arrest was steeped in hostility. Tyler recalls being beaten by officers as a teenager and hearing parents outside the police station listening helplessly to his screams, unaware whether it was their child or someone else being brutalized. The violence didn’t end there—after being convicted of first-degree murder, he became the youngest death row prisoner in America.Inside Angola Prison—a place long synonymous with brutality—Tyler expected to be swallowed by fear and isolation. Instead, he found protection, mentorship, and unexpected humanity from men who had survived the harshest corners of incarceration. In his words, “The men who lived the life gave me the best of themselves, not the worst.” Over time, Tyler transformed his experience into purpose, developing programs, educating others, and becoming a deeply respected figure both inside and outside prison walls.Despite repeated recommendations for pardon and overwhelming documentation of injustice, it took decades—and a changing legal landscape—before Tyler was finally released in 2016. His freedom came not through exoneration, but through a legal compromise. Today, he continues to speak and write about systemic injustice, resilience, and healing. In this episode, he shares not only what happened to him, but what it means to rebuild a life after being stolen from it.
On this episode of the Everyday Injustice Podcast, host David Greenwald speaks with Josh Schwartz and Leon Parker of the Wren Collective, a policy and communications organization working to reform the criminal legal system and strengthen public defense nationwide. The conversation centers on a new statewide study revealing that California dramatically underfunds its public defense system—despite being one of only two states in the country that provides no statewide standards or funding for trial-level defense. The result, Schwartz explains, is a staggering imbalance: California spends 77 percent more on prosecution than on public defense, leaving roughly 1,000 fewer public defenders and nearly 4,000 fewer support staff statewide.Schwartz and Parker describe the human cost of this imbalance—attorneys overloaded with hundreds of felony cases, clients left without investigators or social workers, and communities paying far more to incarcerate people than to prevent crime. “Counties spend six times as much on incarceration as they do on public defense,” Schwartz notes, arguing that investing in defense and early intervention not only improves outcomes but ultimately saves money. Parker adds that these disparities reflect misplaced priorities, with local governments equating public safety solely with policing and prosecution instead of addressing addiction, trauma, and the root causes of harm.The discussion also delves into California’s controversial “flat fee” contract system—where private attorneys are paid a fixed amount regardless of how many cases they handle. The Wren Collective’s recent report calls for banning the practice, warning that it incentivizes minimal representation and leads to wrongful convictions. Both guests emphasize that while many contract lawyers are dedicated, the system itself is “set up for mediocrity,” discouraging thorough investigation and favoring plea deals over justice. Assembly Bill 690, now before the Legislature, would outlaw these contracts and move California toward a more equitable public defense model.Ultimately, Schwartz and Parker argue that reform requires not only funding but a fundamental shift in narrative. “California likes to see itself as a model of progress,” Parker says, “but when it comes to how we treat those with the least, we’re failing.” By investing in public defense and rejecting outdated, punitive systems, they contend, California could finally live up to its ideals—and create a model of justice that other states might follow.
In a new episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with three formerly incarcerated filmmakers — Dana Dickerson, Heather Jarvis, and Naje “Gigi” Webster — to explore the emotional and systemic realities of life after prison. Produced in partnership with Represent Justice, the conversation shines a light on the women behind the films The Trauma We Carry, It’s Not Okay, and The Truth Behind the Mask, each a deeply personal exploration of survival, stigma, and transformation after incarceration.Dickerson, a founding member of the Offender Alumni Association and outreach coordinator for the Alabama Prison Arts and Education Program, speaks candidly about how unhealed childhood trauma shapes pathways into the criminal legal system — and why true rehabilitation must begin long before release. Jarvis, a journalist and advocate from West Virginia, shares how writing became her way back to herself, describing reentry as a daily emotional struggle that too few understand. Webster, who served eight years in Illinois, uses film to expose the quiet pain behind “successful” reentry — the hidden battles with housing, employment, and self-worth that continue long after freedom.Across their stories, the women uncover the same truth: America’s reentry system isn’t designed for success. Each describes a process riddled with barriers — from limited programming and housing discrimination to the constant need to “prove” their humanity to landlords, employers, and even their communities. As Dickerson puts it, “Society’s our second prison,” where people carry lifelong sentences of stigma and exclusion even after they’ve served their time.But the episode is also about hope, power, and storytelling as justice work. Through their films and voices, Dickerson, Jarvis, and Webster invite listeners to see beyond labels and into the full humanity of people rebuilding their lives. Their message is clear: healing and reform begin with understanding — and with asking not “what’s wrong with you,” but “what happened to you.”
In this week’s episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Alissa Skog, a researcher at the California Policy Lab, about her team’s new report on California’s expansive re-sentencing policies and their impact on recidivism. Skog explains that California has gone further than most states in reviewing long sentences imposed under older laws, such as Proposition 36 and Proposition 47, and felony murder reform — all aimed at bringing past sentences in line with current standards.Skog highlights that many of those resentenced are older individuals who have served a decade or more behind bars. “Most people age out of crime,” she notes, pointing out that the data confirm this trend. For example, people resentenced under Proposition 36 had a three-year conviction rate of 25 percent, far below the statewide benchmark of 41 percent for all people released from state prison. For those resentenced under felony murder reform, only 10 percent were convicted within three years, with most new convictions being misdemeanors.The discussion underscores the humanitarian and fiscal logic of re-sentencing. Older incarcerated people, Skog adds, pose little public safety risk but high costs to the state. She cites nearly 15,000 people in California prisons who are over 50 and have served more than 15 years — a population that could be safely reviewed for release under new policies being considered by the Board of Parole Hearings.Greenwald and Skog conclude that California’s experience offers a model for other states, showing that releasing long-incarcerated people can be both safe and just. “These are people that should get a review because generally they’re a low risk,” Skog says, urging continued study and expansion of early review mechanisms across the system.
In this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald talks with former federal prosecutor Jared Fishman, author of Fire on the Levee: The Murder of Henry Glover and the Search for Justice after Hurricane Katrina. Fishman revisits the 2005 killing of Henry Glover by New Orleans police officers in the chaotic days following Hurricane Katrina, a case he investigated and brought to trial early in his career. Twenty years later, he reflects on what the tragedy revealed about institutional breakdown and systemic failure in American policing.Fishman, who now leads the Justice Innovation Lab, discusses how Katrina exposed not just a natural disaster, but “a disaster of real human proportions.” The aftermath of Glover’s killing, he explains, underscored the collapse of accountability in law enforcement—when “all forms of accountability were crushed” and a culture of silence protected wrongdoing. His work later helped spur major reforms in the New Orleans Police Department, but he cautions that the department’s progress remains incomplete.The conversation also traces how awareness of systemic police misconduct has evolved since those early post-Katrina years. Before Ferguson and George Floyd, Fishman says, most Americans viewed police abuse as isolated incidents—“bad apples” rather than symptoms of a broken system. Today, he argues, there’s wider recognition that true reform means confronting the institutional incentives, recruitment models, and training failures that perpetuate injustice across jurisdictions.Finally, Fishman links these lessons to current debates over federal militarization of cities. Drawing on his experience in both war zones and American courtrooms, he warns that the sight of National Guard troops in U.S. streets should “alarm everyone,” calling it evidence of “how fragile our institutions are.” Real public safety, he concludes, depends on addressing root causes—poverty, mental health, and inequality—not on “arresting more people” or treating social problems through the criminal legal system.
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Doreena Durbin, founder of a transformative prison meditation program in Texas. A former musician turned meditation teacher, Durbin’s path has been as unconventional as it is inspiring. Her book, An Inner Life: Freedom Is Found Within, and her work behind prison walls share a single message — that peace and self-understanding can take root even in the most unlikely places.Durbin began teaching meditation in Texas prisons after decades of studying and teaching wellness and mindfulness. “I walked into a room of 200 men and thought—this is the perfect place for me,” she recalls. What began as a small idea grew into a program that now reaches hundreds. Though her work was paused by the pandemic, it has since flourished, offering participants breathing and mindfulness techniques that help them navigate anger, fear, and conflict. “They don’t have to do it long to get the benefits,” she says. “It gives them something no one can take away.”Greenwald and Durbin discuss how meditation changes not only the people practicing it, but also those who teach it. “Every time I go in, it changes me too,” Durbin reflects. She describes how the men she works with are learning to let go of old patterns, find compassion, and develop awareness that transforms their interactions inside and outside of prison. Some continue their practice after release, teaching the same methods to family members and children.Durbin’s work also exposes the limits of a system focused on punishment rather than healing. “It’s not about punishment—it’s about rehabilitation,” she says. Her program brings a rare kind of stillness to a place defined by noise and control, proving that the path to peace—and even freedom—can begin in the quiet of one’s own breath.
In this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Daniel Forkkio, CEO of Represent Justice, a national organization that amplifies the voices of formerly incarcerated people through storytelling. Forkkio explains that Represent Justice partners with filmmakers, advocates, and ambassadors across the country to humanize those impacted by the criminal legal system and shift public perception. “It’s all storytelling all the time,” he says, emphasizing dignity, authenticity, and lived experience as central to systemic change.Forkkio traces the organization’s origins to the Just Mercy campaign in 2019, when screenings of the film inspired powerful audience reactions and led him to found Represent Justice as a permanent platform for narrative change. Today, the nonprofit supports projects like Chasing Redemption, which explores life-without-parole sentences, and A Million Dollar Cage, a film exposing the staggering costs of youth incarceration in Los Angeles. Through these campaigns, Represent Justice uses stories to influence legislation, reshape culture, and empower communities to envision a justice system rooted in transformation rather than punishment.Throughout the conversation, Forkkio challenges the myths surrounding crime, punishment, and safety, calling for broader public understanding of trauma, housing insecurity, and mental health as drivers of incarceration. He urges greater media literacy and a rejection of fear-based narratives that dominate headlines, reminding listeners that “authentic stories can shift beliefs by the thousands.” His advocacy for restorative justice reflects a vision of reconciliation and healing — a vision that contrasts sharply with America’s overreliance on prisons and punishment.Forkkio concludes by inviting audiences to take action: watch a film, learn about its campaign, and support the storytellers who are reshaping the conversation around justice. “Everyone has a role to play when it comes to narrative,” he says. “Take a stand by watching something and changing the way that you think.” Represent Justice, through its growing network of ambassadors, films, and partnerships, is redefining how stories of incarceration and redemption can move a nation toward empathy and reform.
A Conversation with Courtney TeasleyOn this episode of Everyday Injustice, attorney and activist Courtney Teasley shares her journey from growing up in East Nashville during the crack epidemic to becoming what she calls a “legal disruptor.” Teasley defines this role as going beyond the bare minimum in the legal system—intervening proactively to prevent unjust outcomes before they are sealed by guilty pleas or convictions.Her story begins with personal experience. Raised by her grandmother while her mother struggled with addiction and incarceration, Teasley witnessed firsthand how the system punished users as if they were dealers. Watching her mother receive inadequate legal defense sparked her determination to become an attorney who fights differently—challenging the systemic complacency that fuels mass incarceration.Today, Teasley has expanded her work beyond the courtroom. She coaches lawyers on building independent practices, lectures on legal literacy, and organizes court watch programs. Her book series, The Easy Way to Learn Your Rights, seeks to empower families, churches, and schools to teach communities how to protect themselves against systemic abuse. “Every lawyer is not an advocate, and every advocate is not a lawyer,” she emphasizes, urging people to step into the fight for justice regardless of professional title.Throughout the conversation, Teasley underscores the urgent need for systemic change. From highlighting the low threshold for probable cause that drives mass incarceration to calling for more transparency in prosecutorial practices, her work reflects a vision of empowerment and accountability. At its core, her message is clear: building justice requires disrupting the status quo and equipping disproportionately affected communities with the knowledge and tools to defend themselves.
The latest episode of Everyday Injustice takes on one of the least understood but most destructive aspects of the criminal legal system: fines and fees. Host David Greenwald speaks with Lillian Patil and Tanisha Pire of the Fines and Fees Justice Center about their new report, Imposing Instability: How Court Fines and Fees Destabilize Government Budgets and Criminalize Those Who Cannot Pay. Their research exposes how state and local governments across the country rely on fines and fees not only as a tool of punishment, but also as a hidden and unstable source of revenue.Patil and Pire explain how fines and fees are imposed at nearly every stage of the system—from traffic tickets and public defender applications to probation supervision—and how this creates what they describe as a “hidden tax” on low-income communities. Over five years, courts in just 24 states imposed nearly $14 billion in fines and fees. Yet much of this debt is uncollectible because the people charged cannot pay, leaving families destabilized and governments still facing budget gaps.The conversation highlights the human toll: people losing driver’s licenses, facing arrest warrants, being pushed into cycles of debt, and even incarceration because they lacked the ability to pay. As Pire notes, courts rarely conduct ability-to-pay assessments, meaning people are penalized not for their actions but for their poverty. Patil points out that governments often spend more trying to collect this money than they ever receive, making the practice both unjust and fiscally unsound.Despite these harms, reform has been slow. Some states, like California, have eliminated license suspensions and discharged uncollectible debt, but many continue to depend on fines and fees even as revenues decline. Patil and Pire argue that sustainable, equitable funding must replace this failing system. Their report makes clear that fines and fees are “bad for people, bad for budgets,” and that bold reform is urgently needed.
On the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with David Gaspar, CEO of The Bail Project, for a powerful conversation about the inequities of America’s bail system. The discussion opens with an exploration of how cash bail disproportionately punishes poor and marginalized communities, while offering little real protection to the public. As Gaspar explains, the system often criminalizes poverty, untreated trauma, mental health crises, and substance use, leaving people jailed not because they pose a danger, but because they cannot afford freedom.Gaspar shares his own remarkable journey through the criminal legal system. At 22, he was arrested and pressured into accepting a plea deal he didn’t fully understand, leading to a wrongful sentence and a decade behind bars. While incarcerated, he earned his GED, taught himself the law, and eventually won his own freedom through a self-written appeal to the state Supreme Court. That experience, he notes, fuels his determination to ensure others don’t face the same despair without access to support and fairness.The conversation highlights the devastating ripple effects of pretrial detention. Losing a job, housing, or custody of children can happen within days or weeks behind bars, destabilizing lives long after release. Gaspar underscores that what people need most is not punishment, but stability and opportunity to move forward. He points to the $14 billion spent annually on detaining legally innocent people as a moral and fiscal failure, arguing those resources could be redirected toward real solutions like housing, treatment, and community support.Throughout the interview, Gaspar makes the case for reimagining pretrial justice—moving away from “assembly line” bail hearings toward meaningful due process and investments in services that actually promote safety. With stories of resilience and redemption, including clients who have rebuilt their lives after release, Gaspar emphasizes that human potential doesn’t vanish because of a mistake or hardship. Instead, with compassion and support, people can and do thrive.
Mac Muir, former senior investigator with New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board and author of Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing, joined Everyday Injustice to discuss his years of investigating misconduct and the systemic failures he witnessed firsthand. Muir, who later directed Oakland’s Police Oversight Agency, explained that his book grew out of a desire to document what he and co-author Greg Finch saw daily: officers engaged in misconduct, victims left without justice, and an accountability system designed to protect the institution rather than the public.Reflecting on the years after George Floyd’s murder, Muir described the public conversation as focused on extreme incidents like Derek Chauvin’s, while the more pervasive harm lies in “everyday injustice.” He highlighted the stops, frisks, harassment, and surveillance that disproportionately target Black and Brown communities. These practices, he said, create a culture where officers become cynical, disconnected from public service, and shielded from accountability—even when their actions cause unnecessary harm.Muir also spoke about the limitations of asking police to serve as default first responders to mental health crises, family disputes, and social problems they are neither trained nor equipped to handle. He emphasized the importance of investing in alternatives—such as community safety programs and mediation—rather than relying on police as a blunt instrument in situations that require empathy and specialized care. “We’re asking a single profession to do everything,” he noted, calling for structural reforms that expand community-based responses.The conversation closed with Muir outlining six proposals from his book, including hiring more women in policing, ending the war on drugs, expanding civilian oversight, and building truth and reconciliation processes between communities and officers. These ideas, he argued, move the debate beyond slogans like “defund the police” toward practical reforms that could reduce harm and rebuild public trust. For Muir, real accountability means both exposing misconduct and creating conditions where good officers can thrive while communities feel safe and respected.
On this week’s episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with Adam Clausen, director of Innovation and Social Impact, whose life story embodies both the failures and possibilities of the American justice system. Once sentenced to 213 years in federal prison, Clausen not only found a way to survive the impossible but has since emerged as a national leader advocating for reform and second chances.Clausen’s journey began with a troubled adolescence in New Jersey, marked by probation at 11 and escalating encounters with the justice system. By 18, he was a standout athlete with scholarship offers, but his life unraveled into crime and drug use, ultimately leading to lengthy incarceration. When federal prosecutors stacked mandatory firearm charges against him, he was handed a sentence that amounted to multiple lifetimes. Rather than allow despair to consume him, Clausen chose optimism, discipline, and eventually transformation.During more than two decades in prison, Clausen poured his energy into fitness, introspection, and building community. With the support of forward-thinking administrators, he helped establish the nation’s first program of incarcerated life coaches, turning prison into a space for growth and preparation for life beyond the walls. That work laid the foundation for his role today in Social Purpose Corrections, where he collaborates with leaders to reshape correctional culture, promote wellness, and ensure that people leave prison better prepared than when they entered.Now free through compassionate release after the First Step Act opened a legal path, Clausen is dedicated to using his story to inspire change. He works alongside national organizations, testifies before policymakers, and continues to press for reforms that recognize dignity, opportunity, and accountability. His conversation with Everyday Injustice is a powerful reminder that behind every sentence, no matter how long, is a human being capable of redemption—and that a justice system focused on restoration can serve both individuals and society far better than one built on punishment alone.
Martha Arevalo, executive director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles, described an atmosphere of fear and chaos as federal authorities escalate enforcement in immigrant communities. Speaking on Everyday Injustice, she said residents are facing armored vehicles, masked officers, and indiscriminate detentions that sweep up people regardless of their immigration status.Arevalo warned that Los Angeles has become a “testing ground” for aggressive tactics that could soon spread nationwide. “What we’re seeing is an administration that is not following the law,” she said, pointing to raids where individuals are detained without warrants, dialogue, or regard for constitutional protections.She emphasized that those being targeted include not only undocumented individuals but also lawful residents, DACA recipients, and even U.S. citizens. “If you look Latino, if you look like you could be an immigrant, they might get you,” she said. The impact has rippled across the city, leaving schools half-empty, businesses deserted, and families uncertain about the whereabouts of loved ones.Despite the escalating crisis, Arevalo said her organization remains committed to defending immigrant rights through legal services, rapid response, and advocacy. She stressed that the broader public should see this not only as an immigrant issue but as a test of democracy itself: “Today is this community in Los Angeles and the immigrant community. Tomorrow it could be you”.
In the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, Tony Viola, a former Cleveland real estate professional, shares his story of being wrongly accused and convicted in what was billed as the nation’s largest mortgage fraud case. Viola was indicted in both state and federal court, accused of stealing $46 million, and cast in the media as the architect of a massive scheme that he says never existed.Viola described how prosecutors pressed forward despite banks stating they suffered no losses and despite evidence showing he had no connection to the companies at the center of the case. He said the government relied on informant testimony, pursued a faulty narrative, and engaged in intimidation and misconduct. Missing evidence, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and the destruction of key materials made it impossible for him to mount a fair defense, he said.The case shifted when Dawn Pella, a staffer inside the prosecutor’s office, came forward with evidence of misconduct, including emails that showed prosecutors knowingly relied on false testimony. Viola used that material to secure a victory in a second trial, though he spent 10 years in prison before being released. Pella, who was expected to testify on his behalf, later died under suspicious circumstances, and her computer containing key documents disappeared.Now exonerated, Viola has turned his experience into advocacy, calling for accountability and an end to prosecutorial immunity. He said his case highlights how systemic misconduct in the justice system is not limited to street-level crimes but extends to complex financial cases as well. “If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone,” Viola said. More information is available at FreeTonyViola.com and JusticeForDawn.com .
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with Kara Gotsch, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, for a wide-ranging conversation about the ongoing challenges—and hard-won progress—toward ending mass incarceration in the United States. Gotsch opens with a stark but measured assessment: while the prison population has declined since its peak in the late 2000s, there are troubling signs of political backsliding, with states like Louisiana reversing youth justice reforms and a broader erosion of bipartisan momentum.Throughout the conversation, Gotsch underscores a central paradox: the U.S. imposes some of the longest prison sentences in the world, yet there is little evidence those sentences improve public safety. In fact, most people who serve decades behind bars—especially those who were young at the time of their offense—pose minimal risk of reoffending upon release. Gotsch calls for capping sentences at 20 years and stresses the importance of “second look” legislation that gives incarcerated people a meaningful chance at rehabilitation and release.The episode delves into youth justice reform and recent breakthroughs in state courts, which are increasingly recognizing the science behind emerging adult brain development. These rulings challenge life without parole for people under 21 and show the growing influence of evidence-based policy grounded in neuroscience and compassion.Ultimately, Gotsch argues that data alone won't change hearts and minds. What’s needed, she says, is storytelling—bringing the public closer to the lives of those impacted by incarceration. “There’s no compassion for a number,” she says. “But there is compassion for a human being.” It’s a moving call to reframe justice not as retribution, but as restoration.
Anna Vasquez on Everyday InjusticeOn the latest episode of the Everyday Injustice podcast, host David Greenwald speaks with Anna Vasquez, a survivor of wrongful conviction and now Director of Outreach and Education for the Innocence Project of Texas. Vasquez was one of four women—collectively known as the San Antonio Four—who were falsely accused and convicted in the 1990s amid a wave of homophobia and “Satanic panic.” Now exonerated, she dedicates her life to helping others avoid the same fate.Vasquez recounts the harrowing experience of being accused of sexually assaulting two young girls, an accusation rooted not in evidence but in hysteria. The case was fueled by homophobic stereotypes, flawed forensic testimony, and a social climate gripped by fear of devil worship and child abuse. A pediatrician’s now-discredited interpretation of supposed trauma and vague allusions to Satanic influence helped seal their fate. “It didn’t matter that we weren’t even there when they said it happened,” Vasquez explained. “It was all part of the panic at the time.”The podcast delves into the broader implications of junk science in wrongful convictions. Vasquez highlights how unproven medical theories—like the belief that hymenal “scarring” indicated abuse—were accepted as fact in courtrooms, despite no scientific foundation. “That wasn’t science. It was a belief,” she says. Her case mirrors countless others where lives were destroyed by outdated or erroneous forensic assumptions.Despite spending more than a decade behind bars, Vasquez emerged not only free but determined to make change. She shares the emotional journey of rebuilding trust—first with a filmmaker whose documentary Southwest of Salem helped raise awareness, then with legal advocates who fought for her release. Her story is a powerful reminder of the human cost of wrongful convictions—and the extraordinary courage it takes to keep fighting for justice.
A Sacramento Lawsuit and the Fight for Police AccountabilityIn the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with civil rights attorney Marissa Hatton of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and community activist Meg White to examine a pivotal case against the Sacramento Police Department. The lawsuit, stemming from police violence during the George Floyd protests in 2020, sheds light on the city’s response to racial justice demonstrations and the long road toward accountability and reform. Despite a monetary settlement, plaintiffs and advocates remain deeply frustrated by the court’s refusal to impose lasting injunctive relief.Hatton recounts the harrowing details behind the legal battle, which challenged the Sacramento Police Department not only for excessive force—including the widespread use of chemical agents and rubber bullets—but also for viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment. While the court ruled that the department had violated the Fourth Amendment by using unlawful force and failing to train or discipline its officers, it stopped short of mandating policy changes to prevent future misconduct. For many, including the plaintiffs, that decision leaves them vulnerable to repeat abuse.Meg White, one of six plaintiffs, offers an unflinching firsthand account of what it felt like to be maced, beaten, and traumatized during what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. White’s experience—shared by hundreds of demonstrators—illustrates a pattern of police escalation and indiscriminate retaliation. The contrast between the violent crackdown on racial justice protesters and the relative restraint shown to Stop the Steal demonstrators is a key element of the case, revealing a disturbing double standard in how law enforcement responds to dissenting voices.Though the court acknowledged a pattern and practice of unconstitutional conduct, the ruling left systemic change off the table—deepening public distrust. As the conversation turns toward ongoing protests and growing authoritarianism across the country, this episode is both a sobering postmortem of one city’s failures and a warning about what happens when legal victories don’t translate into institutional reform. Hatton and White make one thing painfully clear: without accountability and structural change, the injustice will repeat itself.
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with journalist and legal scholar Jessica Pishko about her acclaimed book The Highest Law in the Land, a deep dive into the growing political and institutional power of elected sheriffs in the United States. Pishko explains how sheriffs—often overlooked in criminal justice reform circles—have quietly become key enforcers of a right-wing populist agenda, rooted in a dangerous blend of electoral legitimacy, constitutional distortion, and unchecked local authority.Pishko, whose book has become increasingly relevant amid the Trump administration's renewed embrace of “tough-on-crime” policies and anti-immigrant enforcement, shares how her reporting evolved over time. Initially approaching the topic as a straightforward study of criminal legal institutions, she soon realized she was documenting something far more urgent: the rise of a far-right movement within law enforcement, powered by sheriffs who see themselves as the ultimate arbiters of the Constitution—especially its Second Amendment—and defenders of an idealized, exclusionary vision of America.The conversation touches on the alarming resurgence of programs like 287(g) task force agreements, the disproportionate policing and incarceration of poor, rural, and white communities, and the disturbing feedback loop between constitutional sheriffs and Trump-era authoritarianism. Greenwald and Pishko also discuss the moral and political implications of an elected law enforcement official wielding both symbolic and literal power, often with little oversight and immense local control.Pishko’s thesis is both clear and controversial: the office of sheriff, as it currently exists, should be abolished. Drawing on a mix of legal history, investigative reporting, and on-the-ground interviews, she argues that reform has proven inadequate in the face of a deeply entrenched and ideologically driven system. As she puts it, every attempt at reform is met with a backlash "50 times the ask." This episode offers a chilling but essential look at how rural law enforcement has become a front line in America’s ongoing battle over democracy, race, and power.
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Patrice Sulton, founder of the DC Justice Lab, attorney, professor, and nationally recognized criminal justice reform advocate. As the organization marks its fifth anniversary, Sulton reflects on its origins—launched by law students seeking change in the wake of George Floyd’s murder—and its evolution into a major force for reform in Washington, D.C.Sulton discusses a pressing dilemma facing the justice reform movement: how to reconcile the “no new jails” movement with the needs of incarcerated D.C. residents, many of whom are housed far from their families due to the city’s lack of statehood. For those serving time under local D.C. laws, proximity to loved ones and more humane conditions are desperately needed, even if it means building a new facility—an idea that conflicts with broader abolitionist aims.The conversation explores Sulton’s advocacy for data-driven, risk-based firearm policies as an alternative to punitive approaches that often fail to prevent violence. She critiques the superficial success metrics used by law enforcement and highlights the need for a public safety strategy rooted in evidence, equity, and prevention. Sulton also offers pointed insights on the ethical responsibilities of prosecutors, the federal overreach into D.C.'s governance, and the politicization of justice under recent U.S. Attorneys.Ultimately, Sulton remains hopeful. While acknowledging the cyclical nature of progress and backlash in criminal justice reform, she emphasizes the importance of long-term organizing and movement lawyering. With the D.C. Justice Lab fostering the next generation of advocates, she calls on listeners to get involved, study the issues, and help build a more just and equitable legal system.
On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with distinguished Rutgers University professor Todd Clear, a leading scholar on mass incarceration and its social consequences. With a career spanning over five decades, Clear has been at the forefront of research showing how incarceration harms communities, especially in already-disadvantaged neighborhoods. In this deeply reflective conversation, he shares insights from his landmark work Incarceration and Communities and opens up about his intellectual journey—from aspiring prison reformer to abolitionist thinker.Clear recounts the moment that shifted the trajectory of his career: the 1971 Attica Rebellion, which occurred just as he began graduate school. That event led him to question not only the effectiveness of prison rehabilitation but the very purpose of prisons themselves. Over time, his work evolved into a broader critique of the justice system’s failure to promote community well-being. Rather than making neighborhoods safer, Clear argues, mass incarceration has torn them apart, leaving behind social, emotional, and economic devastation.Throughout the interview, Clear emphasizes the moral and practical failures of a system that punishes excessively while ignoring rehabilitation and human dignity. He argues for a reimagining of justice—one that centers the health of communities and recognizes that risk is not static. Incarceration, he notes, often continues long after any actual threat has diminished. Education, aging, and personal transformation all suggest that many people currently behind bars no longer pose a danger. “If the reason they’re in prison is us, not them,” Clear states, “then we owe them something better.”This episode also highlights a crucial but often overlooked point: the growing crisis in rural America. Clear warns that incarceration rates in economically distressed rural communities are now rivaling or surpassing those in urban areas, exacerbating cycles of poverty and political alienation. As public discourse remains focused on urban crime, this rural dimension remains underexplored. In a conversation that spans history, policy, and moral philosophy, Clear calls for bold reforms—and perhaps most urgently, a reckoning with the damage we’ve done in the name of public safety.
This week on Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Corinna Lane, a former prosecutor and author of the compelling new book Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection. Lane's career took a dramatic turn from prosecution to death penalty advocacy, driven in part by personal experience with the juvenile justice system and a deep awareness of the power prosecutors wield. Her book—and this conversation—dives into one of the darkest, most hidden aspects of the American criminal legal system: the disturbing realities of execution by lethal injection.Lane explains how the U.S. death penalty system, once perceived to be in decline, has seen a troubling resurgence—even as new death sentences remain low and public support continues to erode, especially among younger generations. As a legal historian, she draws on past political moments, such as the 1990s "tough on crime" era and the Clinton administration's death penalty posturing, to make sense of today's contradictions: states moving away from executions on paper while still pursuing death penalty prosecutions in practice. The United States, she reminds listeners, remains an international outlier among modern democracies when it comes to capital punishment.In the interview, Lane unpacks the pharmaceutical crisis that upended lethal injection—how European governments and drug companies essentially boycotted U.S. executions by refusing to sell drugs used in state killings. This triggered a cascade of sourcing problems that exposed the deeply flawed, often torturous mechanics behind lethal injection. And when confronted with the common argument—why should we care if people sentenced to death suffer during execution?—Lane responds with a powerful moral and constitutional rebuttal: the Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment not for the sake of the condemned, but to preserve the dignity of the society that punishes them.Finally, the conversation turns to the humanity of those on death row. Lane recounts the story of Brian Dorsey, a Missouri man sentenced to death whose execution was opposed by over 70 prison staff—including two wardens—because of who he had become after nearly two decades of incarceration. Once a man who committed a terrible crime, Dorsey had transformed into a trusted barber in the prison's honor dorm, respected and even liked by the very people charged with guarding him. Lane's insight is clear: the death penalty does not merely punish people for who they were—it ignores who they have become. And that, she argues, is a grave injustice.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we sat down with Philip Jacobs, the founder and CEO of Rebel Firm, a creative consultancy and production company tackling racial inequity through storytelling, entrepreneurship, and community engagement. Born in Los Angeles but raised across multiple states, including Nebraska and Washington, Jacobs brings a lived understanding of the challenges that shape young Black men in America—and the systems that often limit their potential. His journey from hip-hop artist to author to innovator in racial equity work forms the foundation of Rebel Firm’s mission to help people not just talk about race, but act on it.Jacobs’ signature project is “Reveal the Elephant,” a board game he created to break down the barriers that often derail meaningful conversations about race. Drawing on childhood memories of family board game nights, Jacobs envisioned a format where people could engage deeply but collaboratively, using prompts to explore topics like white privilege, bias, and systemic injustice. The game challenges participants to reflect on their own experiences and perspectives while earning “peanut points” to gradually uncover a hidden elephant—symbolizing the truths we often ignore. It’s part gamified dialogue, part facilitated self-inquiry, and all about shifting mindsets.What makes Jacobs’ approach stand out is the balance he strikes between compassion and candor. While he's clear-eyed about white fragility and the backlash to equity efforts, he also believes in creating space for discomfort and growth—without shame. “I’ve learned that even this game is still barely scratching the surface,” Jacobs said. “But I created it to take one more excuse off the table. If someone won’t even play a game to start these conversations, then they’re probably not serious about change.” That insight, delivered without bitterness, underscores his goal: to give people the tools and the courage to confront racism head-on.Jacobs’ work doesn’t stop at gameplay. His broader message is about building new systems—not just tearing down old ones. Whether through literature, music, or hands-on facilitation, he’s pushing for a culture where people from different backgrounds can learn from each other, challenge their assumptions, and contribute to lasting institutional transformation. As he told host David Greenwald, “We need both approaches—the direct confrontation and the collaborative effort. And most importantly, we need to find where we align, not just where we differ.”
On this week’s episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Maria Foscarinis, a former Wall Street lawyer who left corporate law in the 1980s to become one of the nation’s leading advocates for homeless rights. Foscarinis, who helped found the National Homelessness Law Center, joins the podcast to discuss her forthcoming book, Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America. The conversation tracks the roots of the modern homelessness crisis, beginning with the Reagan-era cuts to federal housing programs and continuing through today’s growing reliance on criminalization rather than care.Foscarinis emphasizes that the United States has faced multiple waves of homelessness—from the explosion in the 1980s to the fallout from the 2008 foreclosure crisis and now the worsening crisis driven by the commodification of housing. Despite increasing visibility and public discourse around homelessness, she argues that the fundamental issue—access to safe, affordable housing—remains unresolved. “Housing is a human right,” Foscarinis insists, referencing both international law and decades of advocacy. The U.S., she notes, has never fully embraced that principle, instead relying on market-driven solutions that leave millions behind.The episode explores the harmful myths that continue to shape public perception and policy, particularly the idea—originating with Reagan—that homelessness is a choice. Foscarinis addresses the link between homelessness and substance use, cautioning against narratives that blame the individual while ignoring structural failure. She discusses how criminalizing homelessness—through encampment sweeps, arrests, and anti-loitering laws—has become a bipartisan failure, citing the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision as a dangerous turning point that has sparked a surge in local anti-homeless ordinances.Finally, Foscarinis shares powerful stories from her book, including that of Danny, a Denver resident who lost limbs after being forced to live outside in the cold. She urges listeners to move beyond charity and become vocal advocates for systemic change: “Use your voice. Tell your representatives: housing is a human right.” As the episode makes clear, solving homelessness isn’t about removing people from view—it’s about creating a society where everyone has a safe place to live.
In this episode of Everyday Injustice, we sit down with Emily Salisbury, Director of the Utah Criminal Justice Center and associate professor in the University of Utah’s College of Social Work. Trained as a criminologist with a background in forensic psychology, Salisbury has spent her career focusing on justice-involved women and the unique pathways that lead them into—and out of—the criminal legal system. Her early mentorship in graduate school, she explains, inspired her to pursue gender-responsive research and advocate for policy reforms that meet women where they are.Salisbury breaks down why women are the fastest-growing population in U.S. carceral systems, pointing to decades of tough-on-crime policies, mandatory minimums, and drug sentencing laws that disproportionately ensnare economically marginalized women of color. She underscores how trauma, mental illness, and unhealthy relationships often drive women into the system—noting that traditional correctional strategies, built with men in mind, fail to account for these realities. Salisbury stresses that trauma affects women differently than men, often manifesting as internalized harm rather than outward aggression.A central part of her work has been developing the Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA), a validated, trauma-informed tool that identifies the specific challenges and strengths of justice-involved women. Unlike traditional assessments, WRNA includes questions on trauma, unhealthy relationships, and personal resilience—offering a more holistic picture of what women need for successful reentry. Salisbury shares how correctional institutions are beginning to embrace gender-responsive probation models and notes the importance of rigorous research, including randomized controlled trials, to ensure these approaches are effective and evidence-based.The conversation concludes with a powerful takeaway: women in the criminal legal system pose far less risk to public safety than men, yet they continue to be over-incarcerated. Salisbury discusses the broader implications of abolitionist thinking, international models of humane incarceration, and the urgent need to invest in early intervention and community-based support. As Salisbury puts it, the key to justice reform isn’t more surveillance or punishment—but understanding, compassion, and policies that treat people with dignity.
In this week’s episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with author and researcher Delani Bartlette about her new book, The Dumond Affair, which unpacks a little-known but profoundly disturbing case that exposed the dangerous collision of criminal justice, politics, and conspiracy theory. At the center of the story is Wayne Dumond, a man convicted of raping a 17-year-old Arkansas cheerleader who happened to be distantly related to then-Governor Bill Clinton. Despite a conviction and sentencing by a jury, Dumond became a cause célèbre among evangelical and right-wing circles who claimed he was a political prisoner — a narrative that ultimately led to his release under Governor Mike Huckabee.Bartlette traces how Dumond’s wife and a network of evangelical figures, including a powerful Baptist radio preacher, weaponized conspiracy theories to frame Dumond’s imprisonment as a Clinton vendetta. This pressure campaign found a receptive audience in Huckabee, who had benefited politically from that same religious network. When Huckabee took office, he pushed the parole board to release Dumond — despite protests from law enforcement, prosecutors, and the original victim. Tragically, Dumond went on to rape and murder two women in Missouri, a fact that still haunts the case and raises questions about the cost of political intervention in the justice system.What makes The Dumond Affair so relevant today, Bartlette argues, is its eerie foreshadowing of the disinformation-fueled movements that have come to dominate American politics in the Trump era — from Pizzagate to QAnon to January 6. She connects the dots between 1990s Arkansas, the right-wing media ecosystem that took root there, and the modern conspiracy infrastructure we see now. The same rhetorical strategies and manufactured outrage that once fueled attacks on the Clintons now animate the broader assault on democracy itself.At its core, the story is also a cautionary tale about the erosion of legal standards when ideology eclipses evidence. As Bartlette emphasizes, the justice system failed not because of a lack of process, but because of pressure to subvert it. From the sheriff who kept Dumond’s testicles in a jar, to the media’s complicity in elevating tabloid claims to national prominence, to the chilling aftermath of Dumond’s release, The Dumond Affair offers a compelling narrative of how justice goes awry — and what that means for our politics today.
Today on Everyday Injustice, we revisit a case that has haunted the justice system for nearly half a century—the case of Chief Douglas Stankewitz. Back on the show is attorney Alexandra Cock, who has devoted years to fighting for Chief’s release. Her legal work has uncovered a disturbing pattern of official misconduct, evidentiary irregularities, and racial bias that cast deep doubt on the integrity of the conviction. As someone who was just five years old when Chief went to prison—and is now over 50—I find it unconscionable that this case is still unresolved.We first covered Chief’s habeas hearings in 2024, which raised compelling questions about forensic evidence, trial testimony, and lost or mishandled evidence. Despite these serious concerns, the judge ultimately denied the habeas petition—mischaracterizing key facts and offering little accountability. With the habeas route closed, Chief’s legal team is now turning to a full re-sentencing hearing and two Racial Justice Act motions that may finally open the door to his release. These motions highlight the deeply racialized context of the prosecution and trial, including the removal of the only Native American juror and inflammatory rhetoric used during sentencing.In this episode, Alexandra walks us through the latest legal developments and the broader implications of this case. From questions about prosecutorial overreach to the sheer human toll of decades in solitary confinement, we examine what it means when a justice system refuses to correct its mistakes—even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Alexandra’s insights also touch on Chief’s life behind bars, his extraordinary resilience, and the powerful support network rallying for his freedom.This conversation is not just about one man’s fight for justice—it’s about what kind of society we are willing to be. It asks whether courts are capable of acknowledging past wrongs, and whether political expediency will once again override moral clarity. As we prepare for a critical re-sentencing hearing, this episode serves as both a legal update and a call to action. Because after 47 years in prison, the question isn’t whether Chief deserves freedom—it’s what excuse the system will offer next for denying it.
In this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald welcomes Raj Jayadev, founder of Silicon Valley De-Bug, to discuss the grassroots origins of one of the most transformative movements in criminal justice today: participatory defense. Originally launched as a worker collective to give voice to the overlooked communities of Silicon Valley’s booming tech economy, Silicon Valley De-Bug evolved over the years into a hub of grassroots organizing for families facing the carceral system. Jayadev recounts how their early efforts to create community-driven platforms laid the groundwork for deeper engagement with issues of racial profiling, police violence, and court advocacy.A pivotal moment in De-Bug’s evolution came with the police killing of Rudy Cardenas in 2004, an act of mistaken identity that galvanized the organization to support families seeking justice. As more families affected by police brutality and prosecution turned to De-Bug, the group realized that courtrooms, not just city streets, needed to be sites of community organizing. What began as informal meetings with families soon formalized into a national movement known as participatory defense—where community members actively support and reshape court outcomes by working alongside public defenders and their loved ones facing charges.Jayadev shares how participatory defense has grown far beyond Silicon Valley, inspiring over 55 hubs nationwide and producing tangible results: shortened sentences, case dismissals, and strengthened communities. He explains how this approach, rooted in collective problem-solving and storytelling, has even bridged long-standing divides between public defenders and the communities they serve. Social biography packets, court support, and direct advocacy have transformed what once seemed like solitary battles against overwhelming odds into collective campaigns for justice.Throughout the episode, Jayadev underscores a powerful lesson: real systemic change doesn’t require waiting for permission or institutional reform. It starts with families and communities refusing to be bystanders and instead inserting themselves into the process—with courage, audacity, and relentless hope. He encourages listeners to find or build participatory defense hubs in their communities, and to believe that even in the face of daunting systems, ordinary people have the power to bend the arc of justice back toward humanity.
This week on Everyday Injustice we speak with Bianca Tylek from WorthRises. In her new book The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits, Bianca Tylek pulls back the curtain on the vast network of corporations, investors, and government actors that profit from human incarceration. Drawing on her background in both Wall Street and public interest law, Tylek reveals how the $80 billion prison economy monetizes every aspect of imprisonment—from phone calls to healthcare—and disproportionately exploits Black, brown, and low-income communities. While private prisons are often the face of the system, Tylek emphasizes they represent only a fraction of the problem. Far more insidious are the industries that operate within prisons, profiting off captive markets with little oversight.The book traces financial connections to powerful private equity firms like H.I.G. Capital and Platinum Equity, which invest heavily in prison telecom and healthcare services, often delivering substandard care while reaping massive profits. Tylek recounts organizing divestment campaigns, including one in which a public school worker demanded her pension not be invested in incarceration. With the looming possibility of renewed mass immigration enforcement and expanded detention under a second Trump administration, Tylek warns that these financial actors are preparing for a “gold rush” fueled by human suffering.Yet the book isn’t just an exposé—it’s a blueprint for resistance. Tylek highlights divestment campaigns, legislative advocacy, and public pressure as tools to make incarceration less profitable and more transparent. Through vivid storytelling and firsthand accounts, The Prison Industry humanizes those caught in this web of exploitation and urges readers to see incarceration not as an inevitable system, but as a constructed one that can be dismantled. Tylek’s message is clear: “Justice and profit are incompatible.”
This week on Everyday Injustice, former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price reflected on her tenure and the broader political moment during a wide-ranging interview. She spoke candidly about the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S., drawing parallels between Trump’s second term and historical fascist regimes, particularly Nazi Germany. Price warned of escalating attacks on immigrants and civil liberties, citing Guantánamo deportations and racialized immigration enforcement.She detailed systemic trauma within the DA’s office, describing outdated technology, lack of wellness support, and the emotional toll on prosecutors handling violent cases. She emphasized the need for trauma-informed approaches and internal reform in the justice system.Price also addressed the media’s hostile treatment of her, noting that she received nearly triple the coverage of her predecessor—most of it negative. She connected this media scrutiny to her identity as a Black woman and a reform-minded prosecutor. She criticized local media for ignoring major stories, like the jury discrimination scandal in Alameda death penalty cases, which she believes triggered backlash against her reforms.She defended her policy legacy, including the use of enhancements and the launch of a public DA Dashboard. Price argued that real change in criminal justice must come from within, despite fierce resistance, and she highlighted the work of fellow reform prosecutors across the country.Looking ahead, she introduced her podcast, Pamela Price Unfiltered, as a platform for open dialogue about local politics, national uncertainty, and the future of justice.
On a recent episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sat down with Francisco Ugarte, immigration attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, to discuss the chilling escalation of immigration enforcement under the renewed Trump administration—and why Ugarte sees hope and resistance rising in response.Ugarte described how mass deportation rhetoric, arrest quotas, and threats to send migrants to places like Guantánamo are being used as deliberate distractions from deeper political agendas. “It’s about getting the country to fight each other so [those in power] can get away with what they’re trying to get away with,” Ugarte said.While not much has changed legally yet, fear and panic have surged. Ugarte emphasized that immigrants still have rights—especially due process rights—and that power lies in organizing, challenging unlawful actions in court, and telling the real human stories behind these policies. “We’re being gaslit by the national media,” he said, urging people to look beyond Trump’s provocations and see the strength of local resistance, such as San Francisco’s robust sanctuary protections.The conversation also examined the intersection of immigration and criminal justice. Ugarte explained that immigrants—including green card holders—can face deportation for minor offenses. He discussed how public defenders like himself are fighting back, drawing on California law that allows representation for those unjustly persecuted even in civil matters like immigration.Perhaps most powerful was Ugarte’s insistence on optimism. Reflecting on his own family’s history of migration from Ireland and Spain, he reminded listeners that the U.S. has always been a nation of immigrants—and that resistance has worked before. “Trump tried to end DACA. We fought back, and we won,” he said.The podcast ended with a call to action: to resist fear, fight misinformation, and build bridges between immigrants and working-class citizens. “We have to transform how we think about this,” Ugarte said. “We can step up—we’ve done it before, and we can do it again.”
In a new episode of Everyday Injustice, sociologist and author Brittany Friedman discusses her new book Carceral Apartheid, exposing the racialized architecture of the U.S. prison system and its deep historical roots.Friedman coined the term “carceral apartheid” to describe how modern systems of incarceration enforce racial division and social control. Drawing parallels to South African apartheid, she argues that the U.S. relies on prisons, jails, detention centers, and policing not simply for punishment but to uphold a racial hierarchy. “Apartheid is alive and well,” she says, “and it’s enforced through carceral systems.”Her journey to this research began with her family history—her grandmother participated in a protest of evicted sharecroppers in 1939 Missouri. That legacy of resistance led Friedman to study the roots of the prison movement in California and the formation of racially segregated prison gangs—developments she links directly to the state’s own design and complicity.At the heart of Friedman’s critique is the economic exploitation of incarcerated people and their families. She exposes how “carceral debt”—from pay-to-stay policies to overpriced commissary goods—traps families in cycles of poverty. “States force communities to pay for the consequences of mass incarceration,” she explains, detailing how attorney generals have even sued people for unpaid incarceration fees.Friedman also highlights the continuity between today’s prison system and historic racial oppression, from Black Codes and convict leasing to Jim Crow and mass incarceration. “It’s not a coincidence,” she says. “This is a system designed with racist intent—on purpose, not collateral.”Yet Carceral Apartheid isn’t just a diagnosis; it’s a call to action. Friedman ends her book with what she calls an “Invitation to Awaken,” encouraging readers to recognize their role in perpetuating or challenging carceral logics.“People survived,” she reminds us. “And they’re still organizing. Still pillars in their communities. That’s human resilience—and it gives us hope.”Carceral Apartheid is available now through independent booksellers.
In this episode of Everyday Injustice, we hear from Kwaneta Harris, currently incarcerated at the Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville, Texas — the largest women’s state prison in Texas. With nearly 40,000 women incarcerated across the state, Harris’s story sheds light on a justice system that often fails to see the humanity behind each case.Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Harris shares her journey from a nursing career and life overseas to becoming a survivor of domestic abuse. After returning to the U.S., a violent relationship in Texas turned deadly. Harris describes killing her boyfriend in an act of self-defense, only to receive a 50-year sentence despite having no prior criminal record.Her time inside Texas prisons has included eight and a half years in solitary confinement following what she calls an “escape attempt” — an effort to seek isolation rather than flee. It was during those years in solitary that Harris found her voice, turning to writing and journalism to tell her story and expose the broader injustices faced by incarcerated women.Her experience is a powerful reminder that behind every sentence is a human story — one shaped by abuse, survival, and a system that too often silences the voices of those most affected.
In this episode of Everyday Injustice, we sit down with Rachel Barkow, a law professor at NYU and an expert on criminal justice reform. We discuss President Biden’s final clemency actions, the larger implications of mass incarceration, and her upcoming book, Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration. Barkow offers a critical look at the failures of our criminal legal system, the role of progressive prosecutors, and the Supreme Court’s role in shaping mass incarceration.Professor Barkow offered a critical look at the state of criminal justice reform, the failures of the Supreme Court, and President Biden’s last-minute clemency decisions.Barkow expressed disappointment with Biden’s handling of clemency, noting that while he commuted 37 federal death row sentences and granted some relief for nonviolent drug offenders, he ignored hundreds of cases recommended by the Justice Department. She criticized the flawed clemency process, which requires prosecutors to review their own past cases, making positive recommendations rare.Discussing the political backlash against criminal justice reform, Barkow argued that progressive prosecutors like Chesa Boudin and Pamela Price were vulnerable because they failed to enact structural reforms. While some jurisdictions elected reform-minded prosecutors, the movement faced well-funded opposition and public fear over crime rates. She noted that lasting change requires legislative reforms, not just individual elections.Barkow’s upcoming book, Justice Abandoned, examines six Supreme Court cases that fueled mass incarceration, including Terry v. Ohio, which enabled stop-and-frisk policing, and U.S. v. Salerno, which allowed pretrial detention based on “dangerousness.” She argued that the Court has repeatedly ignored constitutional principles in favor of political expediency, contributing to the rise of mass incarceration.Despite setbacks, Barkow remains hopeful that public awareness and political momentum can lead to long-term reforms. She urged advocates to focus on institutional changes that can outlast political cycles and to challenge harmful Supreme Court precedents that continue to shape the justice system today.
On this week’s Everyday Injustice interview, Chesa Boudin, former San Francisco District Attorney and now Executive Director of the Berkeley Criminal Law and Justice Center, reflects on his experiences in office, the state of criminal justice reform, and his current work at UC Berkeley.Boudin highlights how political power matters more than individual electoral victories. He notes that during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, corporations and politicians rushed to embrace reform, only to later pivot as the political landscape shifted. He emphasizes the importance of long-term organizing to sustain meaningful change.Discussing the reform prosecutor movement, Boudin acknowledges setbacks in California, where he, George Gascón, and Pamela Price faced significant opposition. However, he points out that nationally, many reform-minded prosecutors have remained in office, such as Larry Krasner in Philadelphia and José Garza in Texas, proving that the movement is still active.On homelessness and public safety, Boudin criticizes the criminalization of unhoused people, calling it ineffective and counterproductive. He argues that cities like San Francisco push policies that fail to address the root causes, like skyrocketing housing costs and economic inequality.Now at Berkeley Law, Boudin leads initiatives focused on policy reform, litigation, and research. He discusses a class action lawsuit against CDCR, challenging illegal deductions from the $200 “Gate Money” given to people released from prison. The case underscores systemic failures that make reentry difficult and increase recidivism.Ultimately, Boudin remains committed to reform, advocating for data-driven policies and institutional accountability while training the next generation of legal professionals at UC Berkeley.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Jamarr Brown, a seasoned campaign strategist, proven political executive and commentator. Jamarr serves as the Executive Director of Color Of Change PAC where he leads the fundraising and program operations to support candidates that will bring about essential and transformative changes within the criminal justice system.In the second Trump administration, President Trump initiated a series of executive actions aimed at dismantling Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across federal agencies and contractors. The Trump administration justified the rescission by labeling DEI programs as “radical and wasteful,” asserting that they fostered preferential treatment and deviated from merit-based hiring practices. The impact of these executive orders extended beyond the federal government, influencing private sector entities and educational institutions. Many organizations, in response to the administration’s stance, began reevaluating or scaling back their DEI efforts to align with the new federal directives.Listen as we discuss with Jamarr the importance of these moves and the importance of DEI in general, and the misperceptions of the programs that lead to the rollback by the right.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Nasser Eledroos, Policy Strategist at Color Of Change, where he spearheads initiatives to develop and implement technology policies aimed at safeguarding the rights of Black individuals across the United States at both federal and state levels. Eledroos has played a pivotal role in the creation of the Black Tech Agenda, where he was responsible for conducting extensive research and writing. His work focuses on ensuring that technological advancements contribute positively to Black communities and address systemic injustices. Through his efforts, Nasser aims to create a more equitable technological landscape that uplifts and protects marginalized groups.Color Of Change (COC), the largest online racial justice organization in the U.S., has unveiled its updated Black Tech Agenda, a strategic initiative aimed at ensuring that technology and artificial intelligence (AI) systems serve, rather than harm, Black communities. This new agenda builds on COC’s 2022 framework, addressing pressing issues such as protecting Black workers from biased AI, ensuring fair compensation for Black artists, and preventing harmful infrastructure projects in Black neighborhoods.The agenda calls for robust regulations that define how AI should be ethically employed and outlines consequences for tech companies that fail to comply. COC emphasizes that technology should be a tool for justice, advocating for equitable access, representation, and control over technological developments across all communities.Listen as Nasser discusses the Black Tech Agenda and its importance for the Black communities.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with UC Davis Law Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin about the new Trump administration, Court Challenges, and potential unconstitutional actions.Chin is a teacher and scholar of Immigration Law, Criminal Procedure, and Race and Law. His scholarship has appeared in the Penn, UCLA, Cornell, and Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties law reviews and the Yale, Duke and Georgetown law journals among others.Among the areas of discussion: (1) birthright citizenship, (2) the Trump administration’s policies, (3) USAID, (4) mass deportation.One question that emerges to what extent the courts will choose to stop Trump’s agenda and to what extent the Trump administration will succeed in altering the balance of power.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Amanda Hall, who as the Senior Director of National Campaigns, she leads strategic efforts to shape national drug policy within expansive coalitions and advocates for the voices of those directly impacted.Hall recounted her journey to incarceration, sharing how witnessing her mother’s arrest as a child negatively impacted her mental health and led her to experiment with drugs. Amanda struggled with drug-related charges throughout her late teens and early twenties, frequently finding herself in jail. Now, as a member of Dream.Org, she is spearheading the national Public Health is Public Safety Campaign, advocating for legislation that focuses on people and promotes recovery rather than harshly punishing individuals without offering them a chance at rehabilitation.Listen as Amanda Hall talks about the opioid crisis, how we can utilized smart on crime tactics, and the barriers to such solutions.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Johanna Lacoe, research director at the California Policy Lab on a recent study that looked at the short-term impacts of bail policy on crime in Los Angeles. There has been an emergency bail schedule instituted twice in Los Angeles since 2020.Lacoe also co-authored a report for California Policy Lab on the effect of bail reform in San Francisco after the Humphrey decision.“The In re Humphrey decision required the San Francisco County criminal court to set bail levels based on defendant ability to pay rather than the county bail schedule. Under this new policy, the rate of pretrial detention fell by 11%,” the study found.“We find defendants released pretrial were less likely to be convicted (a decline of 3 percentage points) in the post-Humphrey period. This decline in conviction rates was driven primarily by a reduction in the likelihood of plea bargaining,” it continued.Finally the study found, “There was no consistent, statistically significant change in subsequent arrests or convictions post-Humphrey across the estimation strategies.”Listen as Johanna Lacoe discusses the policy implications of the bail findings in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, and their applicability to California and bail policy in general.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Katie Dixon, head of Closure is Possible campaign, and Renae Badruzzaman project director at Health Instead of Punishment nonprofit about the problems facing women who are incarcerated at women’s prisons.The Crisis to Care Report ( https://humanimpact.org/hipprojects/healthnotwomensprisons/) was released in February 2023, and represented a collaboration with “Californians United for a Responsible Budget; California Coalition for Women Prisoners; and Transgender, Gender-variant, and Intersex Justice Project to create a research report, fact sheet, and social media tiles about the harms of women’s prisons.”This report exposed “the catastrophic health harms of incarceration in women’s prisons and provides evidence in support of investments in health-promoting social determinants of health instead of incarceration.”From Crisis to Care outlines how incarceration worsens health via multiple pathways: •Medical neglect — including failure to provide medical examinations, stopping needed prescriptions, and long delays in treatment — is common in prison.•Alongside the violence of the criminal legal system itself, people incarcerated in women’s prisons also experience and witness high rates of interpersonal physical, emotional, and sexual trauma and violence.•Environmental conditions in prisons seriously endanger the health of incarcerated people, by exposing them to infectious disease, extreme heat and cold, inadequate food, foodborne illness, mold, toxic drinking water, and more.•The use of solitary confinement can lead to increased psychological distress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, paranoia, agitation, sleep deprivation, and prescription of sedative medications, alongside physical ailments.•Separating people from their families and communities has destructive and far-reaching consequences that harm health.Listen as our guests discuss this report, the problems of trauma and misconduct in women’s prisons that led to the closure at FCI Dublin, why women’s prisons have more harm and trauma than in men’s prisons and why we should aim ultimately at abolition.
The November 2024 Election was a wipeout for progressives on criminal justice reform. Joining Everyday Injustice to discuss it is Michael Collins from Color of Change.Listen as Michael Collins discusses the recall of Pamela Price in Alameda County. What it means for criminal justice reform. The larger picture formed by the results of the national election and the loss of George Gascon in Los Angeles. And this means for the future of criminal justice reform.
Elizabeth Hinton along with several other esteemed academics and scholars recently agreed to serve as advisors for the Vanguard Carceral Journalism Guild.Ten incarcerated writers will be trained and platformed as part of the guild.Hinton is a Professor of History and African American Studies at Yale University and a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She is the Co-Director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, and the author of America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960’s (2021), and From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (2016).Hinton talks with Everyday Injustice about the upcoming project and her role in it.As Hinton explains: “the Vanguard Carceral Journalism Guild is something that is completely one of a kind and that it's amplifying original on the ground reporting by people who reside in confinement.”She adds, “I think one of the things that's really exciting about it is that it's not just targeting people on the outside, but it's also seeking to inform and ground conversations and movements, ideas that are happening on the inside. “Because there are intentional barriers erected between people who reside in the carceral state and those of us who live outside of it. It's really hard to get a sense of what is going on. I think most people who aren't connected to people who are incarcerated have no idea the kinds of conditions that are maintained, have no idea the kinds of violence that structures the entire system in every iota and every form. Have no idea the kinds of human rights abuses that are happening and the politics that are happening, as well as the amazing initiatives, the self activity that's going on inside prisons.”Listen as Elizabeth Hinton discusses the importance of carceral journalism and what this project will mean.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Alissa Skog, who was lead author on the October report that found that nearly 2.5 million Californians are eligible to have their convictions automatically relieved under a little know law that allows for automatic expungement.“A criminal record can have profound and lasting impacts on people, affecting key areas of their life such as employment, parental rights, stable housing, access to safety-net benefits, and voting,” California Policy Lab noted.To address these “follow-on” punishments, the California legislature has enacted the most comprehensive automatic record relief laws in the country. Under these laws, all non-convictions (arrests that do not lead to a conviction), most misdemeanor convictions, and many low-level felony convictions are eligible for automatic relief after people complete their sentences and specified waiting periods.On Everyday Injustice, Alissa Skog discussed the upside of the law allowing people to get out from under collateral consequences of past convictions, but also some of the drawbacks including the lack of notifications.The report estimates the number of people likely to maintain a clean slate over the following five years.
In 2015, Jill Leovy wrote a book: Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America.” “Ghettoside,” a blend of street reporting and scholarship, introduced and elaborated the idea that high-crime communities are simultaneously under-policed and over-policed. It further broke ground by locating the causes of urban violence in problems of law, not in family structure, culture, psychological differences or other familiar scapegoats. “Listen as Jill Leovy talks about her book nearly a decade later, talks about crime reporting and the problems of policing urban violence.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talked once again with Amika Mota of the Sister Warriors. This past election saw the defeat of Prop 6 which would have ended forced labor in carceral institutions. We also talked about the passage of Prop 36 which rolled back some of the criminal justice reforms under Prop 47.What went wrong from Amika’s perspective? What needs to be done differently in the future.On key point we agreed on – the need to uplift the stories of those impacted by the system to humanize them. Listen as Everyday Injustice and Amika Mota engage in a critical conversation about how to move forward.
In October, Jose Olivares, a 39-year-old man wrongfully incarcerated for 13 years in the death of his girlfriend’s son was released after a Los Angeles County judge vacated his conviction. Lawyers from two Innocence Projects and a unit of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office had filed together to overturn his conviction.Olivares was arrested in 2011 following the tragic death of his girlfriend's almost four-year-old son from an accidental short fall.Dr. Judy Melinek, a renowned forensic pathologist, authored a report in 2023 after a thorough review at NCIP’s request, and stated that an accidental short fall was the “reasonable and likely explanation” for the decedent’s injuries.Everyday Injustice talks with Lauryn Barbosa Findley of the Northern California Innocence Project who worked to free Olivares.“Mr. Olivares’ case is both extraordinarily unique and tragically common because faulty medical testimony has been used for too long to convict far too many loving parents and caretakers,” said NCIP Clinical Supervising Attorney Lauryn Barbosa Findley. “The facts always showed that Mr. Olivares was innocent but the medicine needed time to catch up and prove it. We strongly urge the DA’s office to heed the medical evidence and not try him erroneously a second time.”
On October 10 and 11, San Quentin held its first ever Film Festival. 150 people from the outside, including Everyday Injustice, got to go inside San Quentin and hang out with around 100 or so incarcerated people, many of them intimately involved in the production of various films.Incarcerated Films competed with films submitted from the outside. One of the big winners was The Strike, which was a documentary about the hunger strike held over a decade ago against solitary confinement at Pelican Bay.A few days after the film, Everyday Injustice walked with the production team.Lucas Guilkey – Director/Producer of the The StrikeJoeBill Muñoz – Director/Producer of The StrikeDolores Canales – Film protagonist, founder of CA Families Against Solitary Confinement, organizer on behalf of her son who was in solitary confinement during the hunger strikesJack Morris – Film protagonist, spent over 30 years in solitary confinement, participated in the hunger strikesArticle: https://davisvanguard.org/2024/10/the-strike-wins-first-san-quentin-film-festival-award-highlights-horrors-of-solitary-confinement-at-pelican-bay/Listen as the production team walks us through the horrors of Pelican Bay’s SHUe during the hunger strike from 2014.
This week on Everyday Injustice we have a conversation with Louis Baca, who as a youth committed a murder and was sentenced to Life without Parole.Baca discusses how he came to commit a crime, and also how he has been able to address his childhood trauma and educate himself without any promise that he will ever get out.He talks about what we have learned about juvenile brain development and how California laws have slowly adapted to the science.Baca also discusses how he is giving back, helping other youths who are from a similar background and how he can back to the community even if he remains incarcerated.
On November 5, 2024, the California voters passed Prop 36 by an overwhelming margin, partially rolling back Prop 47 passed a decade ago.Everyday Injustice discusses with Sikander Iqbal of the Urban Peace Movement exactly what this means for California and the future of criminal justice reform.As Iqbal told us, a key factor in the passage of Prop 36 was the role of viral videos of smash and grabs - even though for the most part, such crimes would not be impacted by the change in law.Voters were repeatedly told that Prop 47 has hindered the prosecution of retail theft, even though California remains one of the tougher states in terms of the felony threshold for grand theft, and California’s crime rate has paralleled that of states without such criminal justice reform.Listen as Sikander Iqbal talks about the electoral defeats for criminal justice reform across California and how they bode for the future.
In July 2024, a woman died from a heat-related illness while incarcerated at the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, California.According to California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), the woman's death was due to heat stroke and prison neglect. However, CDCR claims the cause was related to pre-existing health conditions.Elizabeth Nomura, state membership organizer for the CCWP told the Guardian, “I’ve had heatstroke before [while incarcerated] and I know what it feels like to be so dehydrated that you can’t see. They are sitting in a room, toasting in what feels like an oven. They’re all suffering.”Everyday Injustice talked to Amika Mota of Sister Warriors. Mota told everyday injustice that while the Chowchilla has swamp coolers that are meant to lower temperatures and fans, they weren’t working properly.As extreme heat increases with Climate Change, this figures to become an even larger problem.The Sister Warriors are a member-led organization of over 5,000 formerly and currently incarcerated and systems-impacted women and trans people of all genders, founded in 2017 at a convening of over 200 systems-impacted people in Oakland. “We improve conditions for women and trans people of all genders by fighting for – and winning – policies and systems change that center the needs and experiences of communities most impacted by systems of exploitation, criminalization, and incarceration throughout the state.”The answer that Mota offers isn’t better cooling systems – though they are needed – it is fewer incarcerated people.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk to McCracken Poston about the story behind Zenith Man - Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom.Poston, was a four term member of the Georgia House of Representatives who got caught up in the shift of Georgia Politics and lost a bid for the US Congress.Poston found himself representing a most unusual client - a man once revered as a natural TV repairman who had also suffered several downfalls, including being accused of holding his wife captive in their basement for almost three decades before killing her.When Alvin Ridley’s wife was discovered dead in her home, residents of the small town of Ringgold, GA assumed the recluse, hoarder, and odd figure naturally murdered her.Poston tells us the story behind the case and the man, Alvin Ridley.
This week Everyday Injustice talks with Kevin Cosney, the Associate Director and Co-Founder of the California Black Power Network.The CA Black Power Network is a united ecosystem of Black grassroots organizations working together to change the lived conditions of Black Californians by dismantling systemic and anti-Black racism.They have launched the Million Voters Project - a multi-racial, multigenerational coalition made up of nine community-driven state and regional networks, will launch the largest field campaign in the state to get out the vote for the November 5th election.Cosney talks about their efforts to mobilize for Prop 5 which they believe “will help local cities and counties meet the demand for affordable housing and kick start public improvement projects like schools, libraries, parks, transportation and water resources.” At the same time, they are attempting to stop Prop 36, an initiative they say “will eliminate vital mental health services and crime prevention programs approved by California voters a decade ago.”Regarding Prop 36, James Woodson, executive director of California Black Power Network, and MVP steering committee member says, “Proposition 36 is a lie. It will increase our prison and jail population and take away funding for mental health services, trauma recovery centers, youth programs, rehabilitation, and treatment, programs that are proven to promote community safety. That is why we are turning out our communities to vote No on Proposition 36.
This week on Everyday Injustice we interview our incarcerated writer, Ghostwrite Mike who is incarcerated at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California. We talk about the importance of prison journalism and our ongoing project with Ghostwrite Mike and other incarcerated writers.Listen as we discuss the importance of shining a light at what is going on behind the walls of prisons and all the work that incarcerated writers are now doing.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Nicole Lee, a 4-generation Oakland native the Executive Director of Urban Peace Movement (UPM), and Sikander Iqbal, the Deputy Director of Urban Peace Movement.The UPM is a grass-roots racial justice organization in Oakland that builds youth leadership to transform the social conditions that drive community violence and mass incarceration. UPM has three leadership programs -DetermiNation Black Men’s Group for young Black men, Leaders in Training Program, a multi-racial youth organizing program, and Lit Mob South County in Ashland/Cherryland.Urban Peace Movement (UPM) builds youth leadership in Oakland to transform the culture and social conditions that lead to community violence & mass incarceration in communities of color. UPM’s model of “Healing-Centered Youth Organizing” supports young people to feel self-confident & hopeful while empowering them to work for healing, social justice, and a brighter future for all!
A July ruling in New York marked a victory for the public and transparency. Federal judge Victor Marrero held that the public has a First Amendment right to know what authorities have done with allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. The court issued its July 22 decision in the case CRC v. Cushman, finding that the Second Department and Grievance Committees can no longer conceal from public view the decisions they have made, or will make, regarding 21 ethics complaints filed against current and former Queens prosecutors.In total, from 2021 to 2023, law professors and attorneys filed 50 ethics complaints alleging prosecutorial misconduct by New York prosecutors and published them online at AccountabilityNY.org. The ethics complaints include very serious misconduct allegations, such as providing secret benefits to a witness, allowing a witness to lie to the jury, concealing evidence of innocence, unlawfully discriminating against Black jurors, and misleading the jury about the evidence in the case. Following the recording of this interview, the state announced that it is appealing the federal court decision discussed in this episode.Everyday Injustice spoke with Peter Santina, the Managing Attorney of the Prosecutorial Accountability Project at Civil Rights Corps who talked about the problem of prosecutorial misconduct and the difficulty of exposing it to the public.
For years, Preston Shipp served as an appellate prosecutor in the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. While serving as a volunteer and teaching college classes for a conservative Christian College in Tennessee prisons, he became good friends with many people who were incarcerated, one of whom he had actually prosecuted.These relationships caused Preston to wake up to the many injustices that are present in the American system of mass incarcerationIn his book, Confessions of a Former Prosecutor: Abandoning Vengeance and Embracing True Justice, published in April 2024, he discusses meeting Cyntoia Brown.The amazing part of this start is that he had been the Attorney General who argued (successfully) against her appeal. But that all changed as she joined his class.Listen to this remarkable story of transformation as Preston Shipp walks us through how his thinking changed and how we went from a tough on crime prosecutor, to a crusader for reform.
Decades of allegations of sexual abuse at the women’s prison at FCI-Dublin led to the stunning decision by the Bureau of Prisons to shut down the prison altogether.A special master was appointed by the judge, who noted, “that some of the deficiencies and issues exposed within this report are likely an indication of systemwide issues within the BOP, rather than simply within FCI-Dublin.”Everyday Injustice sat down with two survivors: Darlene Baker and Kendra Drysdale along with staff attorney Susan Beaty, Senior Attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.“I think what happened at Dublin was horrendous and egregious and just the scale and sort of blatant … of the abuse that went on for years and years and dozens and dozens of people were assaulted and abused is pretty shocking,” she explained. “. I think though what anyone who’s been inside and folks who’ve worked alongside people in prison for long enough will tell you is that fortunately Dublin’s not unique. That abuse is inherent to our prison system. It’s happening in anywhere where people are incarcerated.”Drysdale said the retaliation was horrible – they fired her from her job, took her commissary rights for seven months, and “The biggest thing they took from me was my date – my (release) date. I was supposed to leave in October, and they raised my points, so I wasn’t unable to leave.”She ended up being over-incarcerated by four or five months.Listen to the stories of abuse, retaliation but also perseverance and ultimately strength and survival.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we have UC Berkeley Sociologist Stephanie Canizales - Faculty Director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative.Born and raised in Los Angeles – Canizales is herself the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants whose experiences growing up as unaccompanied youth in Los Angeles.She just published her first book: Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States.She interviewed 75 unaccompanied migrant children in Los Angeles to uncover their harrowing experiences and is eager to share their stories and ways to support them.Listen as Stephanie Canizales talks about her book on unaccompanied migrant youth and shares some of the remarkable stories and the insight she gained from doing this field research.
Joining Everyday Injustice Podcast this week is Beth Shelburne, a journalist and writer with more than 25 years of experience. In 2023, a podcast series she created, reported and wrote called “Earwitness,” the story of Tofest Johnson.As described:Toforest Johnson is a father, a son, a brother. He was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He has been on Alabama’s death row since 1998 for a crime he had nothing to do with. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy William G. Hardy. According to more than 10 witnesses, Toforest was across town at the exact time Deputy Hardy was killed. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime in any way. Prosecutors presented no eyewitnesses. And he has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested.Prosecutors could not make up their mind about who committed the crime. At five different court hearings, they presented five different stories about what they claimed happened. The State’s case against Toforest hinged on the testimony of one witness: a woman who did not know him and had never met him claimed to hear Toforest confess to the murder in an eavesdropped phone call. She was paid $5000 for her testimony, a fact that was not finally revealed to Toforest’s attorneys until almost two decades later, when prosecutors revealed paperwork they said had been “misfiled.”Listen as Beth Shelburne describes in detail the incredible story of Toforest Johnson, convicted on “earwitness” testimony.
This week on Everyday Injustice we have Erik Altieri, the Interim Director of Campaigns for the Clean Slate Initiative.The Clean Slate Initiative passes and implements laws that automatically clear eligible records for people who have completed their sentence and remained crime-free, and expands who is eligible for clearance.Their vision: “People will no longer be defined by their records and will have the opportunity to contribute to their community, have a fair opportunity to work, get an education, and achieve their full potential.”Listen as Everyday Injustice talks with Erik Altieri about the impact of low level convictions and the difficulty of getting jobs, housing, benefits and even being able to attend universities and colleges.
This week on Everyday Injustice we have Insha Rahman, the Director of Vera Action, a non-profit organization that harnesses the power of advocacy, lobbying, and political strategy to end mass incarceration, protect immigrants’ rights, restore dignity to people behind bars, and build safe and thriving communities.Listen as Rahman talks about Prop 36 in California – the effort to roll back Prop 47 – which penalties for low level and non-violent offenses. She discusses the issues of retail theft and fentanyl use.In addition, we discuss the ongoing Presidential election and the evolution of Kamala Harris from a traditional law and order DA in San Francisco toward a more progressive political leader on the cusp of her party’s nomination for President.Rahman talks about how Harris can navigate the space between tough on crime and progressive reform.
This week on Everyday Injustice we are joined by Ludovic Blain and Michael Daly of the California Donor Table.Ludovic was hired as CDT’s first full time staff-person in 2009. Michael Gomez Daly is the Senior Political Strategist for the California Donor Table.California Donor Table is a statewide community of donors who pool their funds to make investments in communities of color so they have the power and resources they need to (1) elect people who represent their values and needs and (2) help govern and hold decision-makers accountable.Listen as we talk about the election, progressive candidates, and criminal justice reform.
In July, the book - Dismantling Mass Incarceration was released edited by Premal Dharia, James Forman, Jr and Maria Hawilo.The book, which is an anthology of literature on mass incarceration and criminal justice reform, offers a variety of approaches to confronting the carceral state.Everyday Injustice was joined by Maria Hawilo, one of the co-editors, and a former public defender who is a distinguished professor at the Loyola University Law School in Chicago.She pointed out that the book rather than prescribing solutions, the book offers a forum for discussions—and disagreements—about how to best confront the harms of mass incarceration.The book features distinguished authors that, in addition to the editors include Angela Y. Davis, Clint Smith and Larry Krasner in addition to local organizers, advocates, scholars, lawyers, and judges, as well as people who have been incarcerated.Listen as Maria Hawilo discusses their project and what she learned about mass incarceration.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we sit down with LaToya Mitchell, Navigator Project Manager, CA Bridge Program and talked about the innovative program that helps get people from ER into drug treatment and reduce annual drug overdoses.A few weeks ago, she was part of a rally at the California Capitol to push for a package of bills that would improve access to programs such as the Bridge Navigator Project.The navigator program allows ER patients to connect with treatment medication and staff immediately.Mitchell explained, “What most people don’t know is that it is the easiest substance use disorder to treat because medication like buprenorphine, which is commonly known by the brand name Suboxone, acts fast to stop the withdrawals without euphoria and allows the patient to feel like themselves before the addiction.”Her job is to lower the barriers for patients to receive the treatment.She said that “there’s a lot of stigma for people who use drugs and that creates barriers like obtaining a Suboxone prescription from big chain pharmacies, so it’s essential that I know which pharmacies are Suboxone friendly and provide that list to the patients.”Mitchell noted, “We found that with the presence of the navigator, patients felt more comfortable coming in and saying, I’m here because I’m having opioid withdrawals, as opposed to them naming their symptoms and because they were afraid of admitting their substance use. Because of that, we’re able to get them treated and in and out in a couple of hours. Instead of spending six hours in the emergency room getting unnecessary and costly tests, we found that it actually saved resources and a lot of money.”Listen as Latoya Mitchell discusses the importance of harm reduction and the use of treatment over incarceration.
This week Everyday Injustice discussed the death penalty with Nathaniel Batchelder. Batchelder has spent over 30 years working with Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.He graduated from Oklahoma City University in the seventies. In 1984, he met the Sisters of Benedict who started the Benedictine Peace House, and he became involved there. He is now the director of the Oklahoma City Peace House, a center for education and non-violent action on issues relating to human rights.Listen at Nathaniel Batchelder discusses the recent history of the death penalty in Oklahoma, its prevalence in the state – one of only a handful of states currently executing people – and the ongoing problems with the death penalty including some recent high profile cases in Oklahoma that have created national attention – particularly Richard Glossip.
1974 marked a tumultuous time in Boston where white parents of school children pushed back – at times violently against the use of busing as a form of integration.This year, marking the fiftieth anniversary, the Boston Globe carried an investigative retrospective.They found, “50 years after busing decision, a school system still unequal, still segregated.”Further, “Busing was set in motion by rightfully furious Black parents making modest demands: equal educational opportunity for their children and good schools in their own neighborhoods. It never happened.”What went wrong? Everyday Injustice spoke recently to Melissa Barragan Taboada, editor the Globe’s award-winning Great Divide team, which investigates educational inequities in Boston and throughout the state, who spent 20 years as a reporter and editor in Austin, TX and Kris Hooks, who began his career in Sacramento.The team of reporters were able to track down many of the families involved in the lawsuit – most of whom were willing to speak about their experiences 50 years ago – their regrets and frustrations.Listen as Everyday Injustice talks about the injustices of 1974 and 2024 in Boston – what made this situation so volatile and why ultimately all the struggle and sacrifice produced no discernible change.
Through the telling of the story about William Freeman, Harvard Historian Robin Bernstein effectively rewrites an historical narrative. Whereas the recent narrative had it that convict leasing and prison for profit began in the post Civil War South, the story of William Freeman shows that the for profit prison system actually began much earlier and it happened in the North.Bernstein discusses with Everyday Injustice the story of William Freeman, what made his case so unusual and how his experience set the stage for numerous developing issues in the carceral system de facto slavery, black criminality, convict leasing, for profit prisons and more.
This spring, the Bureau of Prisons announced they were shuttering the women’s prison at FCI Dublin – after it was rocked with revelations of sexual abuse and whistleblower retaliation that led to the former warden to be indicted and convicted.Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), a criminal justice advocacy group, has been coordinating legal representation for women who were formerly incarcerated at Dublin.Everyday Injustice spoke with Shanna Rifkin, the deputy general counsel at FAMM. She discussed the situation at Dublin, the unique nature of this case, but called the overall situation a canary in the coalmine, believing that the problems at Dublin are likely systemic.Rifkin also discussed the poorly handled transfer and her efforts to gain compassionate release for many of the victims at Dublin.Listen as Shanna Rifkin of FAMM discusses the latest situation regarding the former FCI Dublin prison.
A decade ago, California voters passed Prop 47 which reduced the punishment of simple drug possession and petty theft to misdemeanors while raising the felony threshold from $400 to $950 for petty theft.From the start, the measure passed by the voters has garnered criticism from law enforcement and other tough on crime groups and has been blamed for the rise in fentanyl use as well as a rash of high profile retail thefts and smash and grabs.However, as Tinisch Hollins of executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, the state’s leading public safety advocacy organization told the Vanguard – this is a false narrative.“The troubling incidents we’ve all seen on television like smash and grabs were not changed by Proposition 47, nor are they implicated by this attempted repeal,” she said in a recent statement.Moreover, as discussed this week on Everyday Injustice – crime is down.“Since Proposition 47 passed property crime is down, recidivism is down, and racial disparities in the justice system are down,” Hollins said.Listen as Tinisch Hollins discusses Prop 47, efforts to roll it back, and the future of criminal justice reform, and how efforts to reform the system actually lead to enhanced public safety.
Rahsaan “New York” Thomas grew up in the notorious Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, where he faced gun violence, bullying, redlining, abusive policing policies, generational incarceration, and drug infestation.He ended up with a 55 to life sentence. But while at San Quentin, he turned his life around and became a writer, curator, director, producer, social justice advocate, restorative justice circle keeper, youth counselor, and runner.He is most known as “New York” on the Pulitzer Prize finalist and Dupont Award-winning podcast Ear Hustle. In February 2023, he earned parole and continues work to help others develop their talent and continues to co-host Ear Hustle, make films, and serve on boards.Listen as Everyday Injustice talks with New York about his life journey.
“Policing is violent. And its violence is not distributed equally: stark racial disparities persist despite decades of efforts to address them,” writes Texas Professor Michael Sierra-Arévalo in his recently published book, The Danger Imperative.In his book, Sierra-Arevalo delves into how police culture shapes officers’ perception and practice of violence.He conducted over 100 interviews and spent over 1000 hours on patrol.Everyday Injustice asks the Michael Sierra-Arévalo to describe a culture where the police are more focused on protecting themselves rather than the public as well as the war on cops myth.Can police culture be reformed? Is the violence something that can be extracted from police culture? Or do you think it must be abolished and reworked completely?
In April, four incarcerated people at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, Rhode Island died. Everyday Injustice, spoke with Melonie Perez and Brandon Robinson from Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), a non-profit that organizes low-income families in communities of color for social, economic, and political justice.Perez and Robinson expressed concern for the lack of training by staff and lack of urgency in some of the incidents that might have been preventable. Moreover, there has been an overall lack of transparency.In an April 29 letter from advocates, the groups wrote, “As organizations working for criminal justice reform and advocating for the rights of incarcerated individuals, we are deeply concerned about both the limited information that the Department has provided the families and the public about these deaths and the allegations that medical concerns raised by at least two of the individuals before their deaths were not treated with the urgency they deserved.”They add, “Under the circumstances, we believe it is essential that prompt steps be taken by the Department to address this situation, with the goal of promoting greater transparency and accountability in the reporting and investigation of these deaths.”Listen as Perez and Robinson speak about the need for a full investigation into the deaths at ACI in Rhode Island.
In April, an unprecedented lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of California challenging the state’s death penalty statute as racially discriminatory and unconstitutional under the Equal Protection guarantees of the California Constitution.The filers which include the ACLU, LDF (Legal Defense Fund), and the Office of the State Public Defender on behalf of OSPD, Witness to Innocence, LatinoJustice PRLDEF (Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund), the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and Eva Paterson, co-founder of the Equal Justice Society, claim, “This is the first time a petition of this nature has been filed with the court.”“Numerous empirical studies by leading social science experts reveal troubling disparities: Black people are about five times more likely to be sentenced to death when compared to similarly situated non-Black defendants, while Latino people are at least three times more likely to be sentenced to death.”The 95-page complaint stated, “The parties agree that persistent and pervasive racial disparities infect California’s death penalty system.”The Vanguard recently hosted a webinar to discuss this historic suit.Panelists:Avi Frey, Counsel from ACLU of Northern CaliforniaLisa Romo, Office of State Public Defender (OSPD)Morgan Zamora, prison advocacy coordinator at the Ella Baker Center for Human RightsKaren Munoz, from LatinoJusticeModerators:Madison Whittemore, Vanguard NewsSophie Yoakum, Vanguard News
Civil Rights Attorney John Burris announced a $7.5 million settlement against the Antioch, CA Police in the 2020 death of Angelo Quinto.Quinto, suffering from a mental health incident was killed when police held him in a prone position similar to George Floyd for over ten minutes despite pleas from his mother.John Burris said: “While no amount of money can make up for the tragic circumstances surrounding Angelos’s death, his family is to be commended for their unwavering commitment to improving the relationship between the community and Antioch police.”He added, “The Quinto family took their pain and anguish and immediately challenged the City to reform its approach to engaging the mentally and emotionally impaired. Their efforts at partnering with the City have resulted directly or indirectly with (1) body-worn cameras, a mental health crisis team, a mobile crisis unit, a police review commission, and state legislation outlawing excited delirium. The family efforts turned a heartbreak into a source of social justice activisms that will benefit the community for years to come. This is citizenship at its best.”Assembly Bill 360 was passed and signed into law, banning the term “Excited Delirium”, and its corollaries, like “Agitated Delirium” from being recognized as a valid medical diagnosis or cause of death in the State of California and prohibiting such terms from appearing on death certificates issued in the State of California.The Vanguard talks with Civil Rights Attorney Ben Nisenbaum and father Robert Collins about what the settlement means to them, but also the changes to law and policy they were able to get – due in large measure to the organization and activism of Mr. Quinto’s surviving family members (Cassandra, Isabella, Andrei, and Robert), in partnership with Assemblyman Mike Gipson.
In her introduction to Dorsey Nunn’s book, Michelle Alexander quoted Toni Morrison: “Just remember that your real job is that if your free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”Alexander notes, “I’ve known Dorsey for two decades. I’ve watched him grow and evolve into an extraordinary thinker and leader, someone who has helped to birth and shape movements that are changing the course of history.”Dorsey and others launched the “ban the box” movement, Alexander writes, “Because of the heroic work of Dorsey and all those in the organizations that he led or cofounded, and the powerful movements that he has helped to build, barrier to employment, housing, education and more have begun to fall away for millions of people…”This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk to Dorsey Nunn, who just released his memoirs, “What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly,” and he describes his story of going from a life sentence to a leader in criminal justice reform.
Shannon Bohrer, served 27 years in the Marland State Police – but it was a case where he was an investigator that caused him to re-examine the criminal legal system.He wrote the book Judicial Soup which “examines the need for criminal justice reforms through a case in which an innocent person was found guilty of a crime he did not commit.”As his book explains, “The story is simple, yet the judicial process evolved into a complex event. It is a crime story that featured too many players, some with individual motives, shoddy police work, prosecutors who would say anything to win, and a judge who seemed to ignore evidence that did not fit his mental model of the case. If this were a novel, no one would believe it.”The book addresses the larger need for criminal justice reform – listen as Shannon Bohrer describes his experience and what he learned through his involvement in this case.
When Michael Owens was an angry and traumatized young man, he committed a horrible crime and was sentenced to Life Without Parole (LWOP). For a long time, while in prison, he continued to engage in self-destructive behavior.But even while he has no guarantee he will ever see the outside of a prison again, Michael has been able to turn his life around. He has gotten education while behind bars. He has become a mentor to younger incarcerated people but also youths on the outside in danger of making the same mistakes he has.Listen to a remarkable story about transformation and rehabilitation by a man condemned to die in prison.
One of the problems with mass incarceration is that we end up incarcerating people who at one point committed violent and dangerous crimes long past the point at which they are no longer a danger to society.The case of Arturo Luna is instructive, raised in a tough environment, he committed crimes at a young age. But now has become a mentor, become educated is a completely different person from the one who entered prison.Listen as he tells an amazing first hand account of transformation and redemption.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Angie Gordon. Angie is a 39-year-old trans woman serving a 48-years-to-life sentence in the state of California. Convicted of multiple violent felonies in 2009; so, in April of 2024 she will have served fifteen years of her sentence.Before coming to prison, Angie was a high school dropout, but since her incarceration, she has devoted her time to furthering her education. She received her GED in 2013, completed multiple associate degrees in 2019, and in 2022 was part of the first graduating class in the Transforming Outcomes Project at Sacramento State, a bachelor's level program in communication studies offered to incarcerated students in California prisons. Despite the limited degree tracks available to incarcerated students, Angie also pursued an autodidactic trajectory in post-graduate level scholarship, focusing her attention on transgender studies, corrections, and queer criminology.A Department of Justice study found that, nationally, trans individuals report having been the victims of sexual assault while incarcerated at a rate ten times higher than non-trans prisoners.A study conducted in California prisons found that trans women housed in male-designated facilities report having been the victims of sexual assault while incarcerated at a rate thirteen times higher than male prisoners.A congressional study found that prison rape often goes unreported, and that "most prison staff are not adequately trained or prepared to prevent, report or treat sexual assaults."In 2013, Carman Guerrero, a trans woman incarcerated at Kern Valley State Prison, was murdered by her cellmate only nine hours after she was forced into the cell with her killer by prison staff against her will.In 2017 at Valley State Prison, an incarcerated trans woman was found dead in her cell, a pencil lodged into her ear and neck; subsequently, the local district attorney's office declined to pursue the case as a murder, claiming a lack of sufficient evidence. Listen as Angie Gordon explains why she chose to transition and why she chose to remain at a male prison.
It is described as: “A riveting and heart-wrenching story of violence, grief and the American justice system, exploring the systemic issues that perpetuate gang participation in one of the wealthiest cities in the country, through the story of one teenager.”Professor Laurence Ralph, tells the story of Sito, a relative of his and the tragedy of his life - first wrongly accused of murder and then five years later, the brother of the slain teen exacts his revenge.Listen as Professor Ralph describes this tragic account but also how he relates it to the overall tragedy and the need for transformational reform of the justice system.
Stephanie Marudas and Emily Previti have joined forces to launch the podcast series, Obscured.Marudas is the founder of Kouvenda Media and co-creator of Obscured. Prior to founding Kouvenda Media, she reported for WYPR in Baltimore and WHYY in Philadelphia.Previti is executive editor and co-creator of Obscured. Before joining Kouvenda Media, she covered voting rights and election administration for NPR affiliate WITF and The GroundTruth Project during 2019-2021.Listen as Marudas and Previti talk about the need for hard-hitting journalism projects focusing on under-reported topics and coverage gaps.They also explained what the series looks like and why they chose law enforcement trauma survivors as the subject for the first series of Obscured.
This week on Everyday Injustice Jarrett Adams – himself exonerated of a wrongful conviction – is seeking to undo a massive injustice in Virginia.Despite the fact that a jury found Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne not guilty of murder, a judge was able to sentence them to life in prison. They have currently spent 22 years behind bars, but Jarrett Adams is trying to free them, having recently argued before the Virginia Supreme Court.“The Court’s decision to sentence Terrence and Ferrone to life in prison despite being found not guilty robbed due process of its very meaning,” said Jarrett Adams. “The U.S. Supreme Court must do away with its ruling in U.S. v Watts, which gives a judge the discretion to make a jury’s finding meaningless, and prevent further miscarriages of justice from occurring like the one we see in this case.”Listen to Adams describing this remarkable and unthinkable injustice in the criminal legal system.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Dr. Paul Elam, chief strategy officer at the Michigan Public Health Institute & leads Advance Peace.There is increasingly an understanding that issues such as gun violence cannot simply be addressed in the criminal legal system and that we cannot arrest our way out of the problem.Elam discusses how gun violence is a public health issue and discusses the problem of cyclical gun violence and how other approaches can start to address this public health problem.
Having survived multiple recall attempts in his first term, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón officially launched his reelection in October at the SEIU Local 2015 office in front of a room full of supporters – many of them health care workers.The DA noted his mother, an immigrant from Cuba often had to toil, working for below minimum wages.That has translated into a commitment to fight for working people.“We don’t talk about one of the biggest crimes in our history,” he explained. “It’s a theft of wages. A theft of labor. Billions of dollars each and every year – which impacts all of us by the way, because when you steal from workers, you’re stealing from the tax base of our community. You’re stealing from families. You are taking food away from babies. You are often precluding people from having a roof over their heads.”Gascón also noted that despite the decline in crime, he is being attacked for being soft on crime.He said, “I find it interesting when Republicans like Ron Desante and fellow presidential run also out on TV and says, while he’s in la, he talks about how crime is out proportion here and how burglars are now being prosecuted and organized retail theft because of George Gascón.”He said one of his staffer Googled organized retail theft in Florida.“The first thing that pops up is videos of people storming stores in Miami and other parts of Florida. And then we went to Houston and we looked at some other southern cities. And guess what? It’s a national problem,” he said.He noted that they aren’t pointing this out because it doesn’t fit their narrative.He said, “We need to make sure that we do not embrace the narrative that the Republicans have been using for the last 40 years. You can go back to Nixon when we were talking about the war on drugs and the war on crime. And it’s the same thing. And it cycles over and over and over again. Even though today as a nation, we have historically some of the lowest numbers of crime that we’ve ever had.”He added, “Now we’re seeing crime going down at a very rapid rate and hopefully soon approaching pre pandemic times. And some people say, well, we don’t believe those numbers.”Gascón pushed back noting that those are the numbers from LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department.“You believe those numbers two years ago. Why don’t you believe it today? We don’t make the numbers,” he continued. He added, “But you know what it really tells us is that we can have reform and safety.”
This week on Everyday Injustice, we are joined by Jason Smith, Executive Director of the Michigan Center for Youth Justice.The Michigan Center for Youth Justice (MCYJ) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing policies and practices that reduce confinement and support trauma-informed, racially equitable, socio-economically and culturally responsive, community-based solutions for Michigan’s justice-involved children, youth and young adults.Listen as Jason Smith discusses their current legislative advocacy and projects, and the progress that has been made on age appropriate services.
This week on Everyday Injustice we have Caroline Isaacs, the Executive Director of Just Communities Arizona.JCA is an abolitionist organization that seeks to end the current punishment system and its emphasis on criminalization, surveillance, and mass incarceration.They envision a world in which prisons and jails are unnecessary.“We believe those directly impacted by the current punishment system are central to this discussion and must be leaders in the movement to end mass incarceration,” they explain.They add, “We believe local communities know best how to create safety and wellbeing for themselves; they should have agency in decisions that impact their lives, and these efforts should be fully supported and funded.”Listen as Caroline Isaacs discusses what that means and that can be accomplished.
Freddie Gray was one of the seminal police killings when it occurred in Baltimore in 2016, leading to protests and riots and calls for reform. The officers were charged with murder by SAO Marilyn Mosby, but not of them were convicted.Justine Barron in her book “They Killed Freddie Gray” following the work of her podcast, after sifting through thousands of documents and interviewing witnesses, concludes that the State Attorney and Media got the narrative and the killing completely wrong.The forward to her book notes, “The media just as uncritically turned an enarmored eye to State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who emerged as a hero on the national stage, having pressed charges against six officers in the death of Gray.”It added, “What the media failed to take notice of was that these superficially valiant prosecutions were based on the same false narrative the Baltimore City Police Department itself was hoping everyone would buy into” – and they did – “hook, line, and sinker.” The rough ride narrative, Barron debunks and arguing instead that police likely killed Gray when they threw him head first into the van at Stop 2.In her speech, Mosby issued a call for peace – and by announcing the prosecution, she stopped the protests and riots in their tracks – what Barrone argues was her actual goal.She came to believe that the prosecution “was not so much accountability as the manufacturing of consent and silencing of dissent.”Listen as Barron joins Everyday Injustice to discussion her book and its implications for police reform.
Listen to Everyday Injustices exclusive interview with Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón after he announced his reelection in front of an audience of workers at SEIU Local 2015.Gascón noted that crime was going down despite the news coverage that would lead the public to the contrary conclusion.“I would say one of the biggest challenges that we have is how can we get factual information in a way that people understand it, in a way that people see it,” he explained.He added, “There’s so much misinformation concerning crime, and as you indicated, we’re actually, crime nationally, but certainly LA County per capita is coming down faster than many other jurisdictions that continue to adhere to the old way of doing business.”Listen as Gascón talks about criminal justice reform, policing, and much more.
As more and more state have turned toward the legalization of cannabis, the federal government continues to lag. This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Christi Smith, a senior fellow for the R Street Institute’s criminal justice and civil liberties team.She is a former adult probation and parole officer and retired assistant professor of criminal justice.The war on drugs and the continued prohibition of cannabis has profound implications for mass incarceration.The puzzling questions is why does cannabis remain “illegal at the federal level, and its possession and use are subject to the most severe criminal penalties under the Controlled Substances Act.”As Smith finds, “More than 90 percent of Americans—on both sides of the political aisle—support legal adult use of medical or recreational cannabis.”In addition, “Legalization is also increasingly supported by law enforcement, with two-thirds of police supporting medical or recreational cannabis.”Listen as Christi Smith discusses the implications of federal cannabis policy and how federal legalization can restore police legitimacy while enhancing public safety.
Prison Education Programs are critical to incarcerated people being able to gain release and succeed once they have done so. Research demonstrates that correctional education is very effective at reducing recidivism.Sarah Allred, spoke with Everyday Injustice and discussed her research on prison education programs including the challenges with the ability to convene, group consequences for individual misconduct, limited resources and other factors.The carceral setting is not generally conducive to a good learning environment, and negative staff attitudes towards incarcerated individuals contribute to the prison environmentListen as Everyday Injustice speaks with Sarah Allred on benefits and challenges of prison education.
On October 19, the 2023 Vanguard Justice Awards Gala, the Vanguard will present Danielle Harris, of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Officer and the Freedom Project with a Vanguard Justice Award.The San Francisco Public Defender's resentencing unit, known as The Freedom Project, has assisted more than 100 people in their resentencing and parole hearings, and assisted in 77 family reunifications. These efforts have saved over 1,000 years of prison time.“The Freedom Project team was my lifeline—they saved my life,” said Belinda Anderson, who was represented by Danielle Harris and Stephen Liebb (winner of a Vanguard Justice Award in 2022) at the The Freedom Project. Anderson served 31 years before earning parole and being resentenced. “My second chance means I get to spend time with my family—especially my daughter and grandson—to celebrate the holidays together, along with other occasions big and small. I am successfully employed and I love the work that I do.”Listen as we talk to Harris about her work and the work that the Freedom Project does on resentencing and also representation on parole hearings.Join us in honoring Danielle Harris and the Freedom Project on October 19.Tickets start at $100 per plate. Sponsors at $250. To sponsor this event and support this incredibly important cause – please click here – http://tinyurl.com/Vanguard2023.
On October 19, the 2023 Vanguard Justice Awards Gala, the Vanguard will present Juliana Drous, with a Vanguard Justice Award for Distinguished Attorney.From Juliana Drous:“I have been practicing criminal defense since 1980. I have had cases in all levels of the court: trials in state courts and federal courts, appeals in federal and state courts, two arguments in the US Supreme Court (lost both - also had a third I didn't argue, it won but it was a white collar case.) I have been involved in many habeas cases, actual innocence cases. Lost some, won a few. Went on to file file clemency petitions. Actually had one granted. I couldn't have done this work without others who are committed to this work. There are many who should be honored for the wonderful wok they have done to forward social justice.”Join us in honoring Drous for her amazing work on behalf of the wrongly convicted and much more. Among others, she helped to free former Black Panther, Geronimo Pratt.Tickets start at $100 per plate. Sponsors at $250. To sponsor this event and support this incredibly important cause - please click here - http://tinyurl.com/Vanguard2023.
Note: This episode originally aired October 3, 2022In 2022, the Vanguard honored Stephen Liebb with an award for his work as a formerly incarcerated individual at the Vanguard Justice Awards Gala.Stephen Liebb spent 33 years behind bars for first degree murder. 19 of those years were spent at San Quentin.He earned his release on parole in 2013. Now he works as a legal assistant at the San Francisco Public Defender’s office on the Freedom Project, helping to free others from prison.Listen to Steph’s remarkable story – hired by the legendary Jeff Adachi in 2018, but a lawyer at the time of his arrest in the 1980s, and his work behind bars to help his fellow incarcerated people file petitions and writs, giving them a chance to challenge their detention.On October 19, the Vanguard in 2023 will present Danielle Harris and the Freedom Project a Vanguard Justice award. They will be among ten individuals honored.Tickets start at $100 per plate. Sponsors at $250. To sponsor this event and support this incredibly important cause - visit this website: http://tinyurl.com/Vanguard2023.
“In 2002, two men burglarized a house; the resident killed them both. I was neither the resident nor one of the burglars, but I was sent to prison for 18 years before the state finally unraveled it all and set me free,” Benjamin Frandsen explains.Listen as Benjamin Frandsen tells his remarkable story first narrowly avoiding the death penalty, then his conviction overturned and finally success going to UCLA and his podcast, Ben Free Podcast, where he “leads listeners on weekly interviews through the emotions, thoughts and processes of those who have survived their heavy handed sentences.”
On October 19, the Vanguard will Honor Phil Melendez for his work as a formerly incarcerated person. He is currently working with Smart Justice California to help reform the criminal legal system as well as help those who are system impacted.
He joined Everyday Injustice this week to discuss his remarkable story. With a difficult life growing up, his father stabbed, and he ended up killing two innocent people who had nothing to do with the attack on his father.
He was arrested on Oct. 25, 1997, and faced the possibility of the death penalty. He ultimately ended up at San Quentin and it was there through the rehabilitative culture that it helped to turn his life around.
He was finally granted parole due to changes in California State laws for youthful offenders and he is taking full opportunity of his second chance.
Listen as Phil Melendez tells his remarkable story of rehabilitation and redemption.
Join us as we honor Melendez and others for their work on behalf of justice and justice reform.
Tickets start at $100 per plate. Sponsors at $250. To sponsor this event and support this incredibly important cause - visit this website: http://tinyurl.com/Vanguard2023.
This week on Everyday Injustice is former public defender LaToya Bell who is now working at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center (OJPC). Bell discusses the need for second chance legislation and how this is critical for public safety.OJPC has two big projects.The Beyond guilt Project: “Beyond Guilt will see to do for over-punished prisoners who admit guilt what innocence projects have done for wrongfully convicted persons who claim actual innocence.”The Second Chance: “OJPC runs free legal clinic focusing on criminal record sealing and expungement for people who qualify.”We end up creating a system where 95 percent of all people incarcerated will one day be released, but once released we restrict their opportunities to jobs, education and housing leaving them vulnerable to recidivism and leaving public safety at risk.
Raymond E. Strawn III is starting law school in San Francisco this fall. It’s a far cry from where he was at the end of high school.
Just after 9/11 he had just moved to NY in high school – the only Asian student, and stood out, wearing all black with a shaved head.
One day, while talking to some girls, he showed them his notebook. His messages of despair and criticism of the school were twisted into plots to attack the school.
This leads to his arrest, his interrogation, and his 48 day detention as a juvenile. The judge does not set bail. His public defender was a divorce attorney, defending his first case, and he was pushed to take a plea deal because of lack of confidence.
However, Strawn refuses a plea deal and the judge eventually finds him not guilty at a bench trial.
Internal Affairs investigation but the statute of limitations passed. Strawn is continued to be harassed by law enforcement and suffers from PTSD.
Listen as he describes his ordeal and the steps to going to law school.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we are joined by former federal prosecutor Jared Fishman who is now the founder of Justice Innovation Lab.
He tells the remarkable story of Henry Glover’s murder in Hurricane Katrina–era New Orleans. Glover was killed by police officers following the hurricane, and his killing was thoroughly covered up.
According to the book description, “In 2009, Jared Fishman was a young prosecutor working on low-level civil rights cases in the Justice Department when a file landed on his desk.
“That folder contained two items: a story from The Nation magazine examining a mysterious death in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and an autopsy report for a man named Henry Glover, whose charred remains were found in a burned-out car two weeks after the storm. The autopsy report, bafflingly, listed no cause of death. But according to The Nation story, a gravely wounded Glover had last been seen in a car driven by a New Orleans police officer.”
Fishman eventually flies to New Orleans to learn about what happened, and teams up with a rookie FBI agent, and together they started to track down anyone with information about what had happened to Glover on that day.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Vincent Atchity. He is the CEO of Mental Health Colorado and a member of Colorado Jail Standards Commission.
One of the biggest problems facing the criminal legal system is that in many locations, the largest mental health facility is the county jail which is ill-equipped to properly treat and handle people suffering from a variety of trauma and mental illness.
Listen as Vincent Atchity discusses his work with the Commission, the Care Not Cuffs Campaign, and the impact of solitary confinement on people suffering already from mental illness.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we are joined by Kardell Sims, formerly incarcerated who has now become an expert on prisons and helps to coach incarcerated people in hopes of helping them avoid the recidivism trap.
Kardell Sims describes his journey through the criminal legal system, but also his way out and his program helping those attempting to exit prison avoid the barriers to reentry after incarceration.
The system so often sets formerly incarcerated people up for failure by restricting their job opportunities, education, and even housing.
Sims program helps to train people and put them onto a path for success.
This week on Everyday Injustice we are joined by Christi Smith of R Street, who argues that clean slate legislation both enhances public safety and helps to stimulate the economy.
One of the problems with mass incarceration is that large numbers of people are churned in and out of the criminal legal system, incarcerated, then they are released but their criminal records prevent them from getting access to the things they need to succeed – jobs, services, housing and education. Clean slate legislation allows for people convicted of certain offenses to have their records sealed, so they can qualify for things like jobs, education and housing.
As Smith puts it in one of her published reports, “One in three Americans, roughly 70 to 100 million, have a criminal record that limits their earning capacity and options for suitable housing, as well as makes it more challenging to remain law-abiding.”
In a lot of cases, we are not talking about serious or violent crime, “but rather due to the ever-widening net of ‘tough-on-crime’ legislation that criminalizes poverty, substance use and mental illness.”
Listen as Christie Smith talks about the problem and how clean slate legislation helps to solve that problem and the success they have had so far.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we spoke with Emma Williams, who recently wrote a piece with the Prison Policy Initiative on the little known and often misunderstood practice of civil commitment.
The 20 states include California and Illinois.
Shoe noted that 20 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons “detain over 6,000 people, mostly men, who have been convicted of sex offenses in prison-like “civil commitment” facilities beyond the terms of their criminal sentence.”
Some of these commitments are indefinite.
While there are questions about the constitutionality of the practice, in 2017, the US Supreme Court “declined to hear a case from Minnesota after a federal judge deemed the practice unconstitutional.”
Among the concerns raised in the segment – the lack of safeguards, the fact that these are “shadow prions” without full due process of law, questionable evidence-based practices, and the overall deplorable conditions of the facilities themselves.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talked with Charles Bell, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Illinois State University, whose work focuses on school discipline, suspensions and the school-to-prison pipeline.
As Bell explains, his work focuses on how Black students and parents view school punishment, the disproportionate use of suspensions and criminal legal system solutions when dealing with Black and brown youth.
Bell’s book, Suspended: Punishment, Violence, and the Failure of School Safety, found that Black students made up 15% of the student population across the country, while being 39% of those who received one or more suspensions.
The school-to-prison pipeline as Bell explains, “see a pipeline in which students enter school, and then school criminalizes their behavior. Increasingly, what we see is schools become a carceral space in which you have all these criminal justice elements.”
The term, refers to the trend amongst school districts to enforce severe discipline policies that push students out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system.
And as we discuss, this has a huge impact on the future of children of color.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Sacramento area attorney Mark Reichel. He discusses the new Sacramento DA a bit about Sheriff Jim Cooper. He then discusses the Trump prosecution and the implications for the country. Listen to the full interview as Reichel lays out his concerns for the future of democracy.
This week on Everyday Injustice we feature legendary attorney Stephen Bright and James Kwak who just released a new book, “The Fear of Too Much Justice.”
Bryan Stevenson writes, “An urgently needed analysis of our collective failure to confront and overcome racial bias and bigotry, the abuse of power, and the multiple ways in which the death penalty’s profound unfairness requires its abolition. You will discover Steve Bright’s passion, brilliance, dedication, and tenacity when you read these pages.”
In The Fear of Too Much Justice, “legendary death penalty lawyer Stephen B. Bright and legal scholar James Kwak offer a heart-wrenching overview of how the criminal legal system fails to live up to the values of equality and justice.”
Listen as Everyday Injustice discusses wrongful convictions, racial inequities, mental illness, the trial penalty and underfinanced indigent defense and much more.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we are joined by Yusuf Dahl, formerly incarcerated for the distribution of drugs, now a successful entrepreneur.
“Growing up in poverty, Yusuf fell under the wing of his brother who taught him how to survive on his own on the streets of Milwaukee. By age 14, he was in juvenile detention for a three-year sentence where he learned the best path to wealth creation in his community was drug dealing.
“Upon his release, Yusuf adeptly followed his business plan and soon was operating a network of drug houses across Milwaukee before being sentenced to ten-and-a-half years in prison.
“After serving five years and teaching himself software development, Yusuf struggled to find a living wage as a young black male with a criminal record.”
Dahl explains during the interview, that the Thurmond Amendment was an exception added on a voice vote in 1988 to the Fair Housing Act.
“One offense is sufficient for a landlord to refuse to rent to a drug dealer,” Senator Thurmond said. “It is that simple.”
Since Thurmond’s amendment passed, millions of people have gone to prison for drug offenses. Tens of millions more have convictions but did not serve time.
The disproportionate weight has fallen on Blacks. Listen as Yusuf Dahl tell his remarkable story and the work he is doing to attempt to end the Thurmond Amendment.
This week on Everyday Injustice features Jon B. Gould, the Dean of UC Irvine school of Social Ecology.
Gould is a distinguished scholar in justice policy, social change and government reform, has held key positions in the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has written five books and more than 100 articles on erroneous convictions, indigent defense, prosecutorial innovation, hate speech, sexual harassment and international human rights.
Listen as we discuss Jon B. Gould’s work on wrongful convictions as well as his work reporting on findings on the Criminal Justice Act and its findings about inadequate levels of public defense.
In May, the US Supreme Court granted Richard Glossip a stay of execution after the Attorney General of Oklahoma has gone to believe like many others that Glossip’s conviction is fatally flaw, “unsustainable” and “a new trial imperative.”Many have argued that new evidence discovered in independent investigations along with problems with the state’s prosecution and the destruction of evidence leads to the conclusion that there was not enough evidence to warrant a conviction, let alone a death sentence.And yet, as is so often the case, the wheels of the system once rolling have proven difficult to stop.This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk to attorney and anti-death penalty advocate David Dow about the Glossip case and how it exemplifies problems in the overall system.David Dow went from a death penalty supporter to founding the Texas Innocence Network and running a death penalty clinic. He has since written a number of books, including Executed on a Technicality.
This week on Everyday Injustice features Marvin Zalman, a retired professor from Wayne State University in Detroit. Zalman talked about his role in establishing statewide sentencing guidelines and how it inadvertently paved the way for the tough on crime era.He also discussed how the tough on crime era helped lead to high levels of wrongful convictions.Listen as Professor Zalman discusses his work and how that work led to mass incarceration.
Eric Genuis is a Canadian composer and pianist who now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. He is noted for his Concerts for Hope. He performs his original compositions more than a hundred times a year.This week on Everyday Injustice, Eric Genuis describes how he came to perform for incarcerated people – including condemned men on death row – hundreds of times each year and the impact of his music on those people.He talked about the power of music to lift and heal.Listen as Eric Genuis discusses what it’s like to play in prisons, inner city schools, and rehab centers across the country and the world.
David Dow went from a death penalty supporter to founding the Texas Innocence Network and running a death penalty clinic. He has since written a number of books, including “Executed on a Technicality.”This week on Everyday Injustice, David Dow explains the various injustices within the death penalty system.As he writes in his book, “I simply conclude that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments cannot tolerate the infliction of a sentence of death under legal systems that permit this unique penalty to be so wantonly and so freakishly imposed.”Instead of punishing the worst and the worst, he found, “The ultimate penalty was being consistently applied in a wrongful and arbitrary fashion.”Moreover the system was making a tremendous amount of errors.“According to Professor James Liebman’s definitive study of all death penalty cases from 1976 though 1995,13 death row inmates prevailed on their appeals in federal court more than half the time. That is a stunning statistic that bears repeating: In half of all death penalty cases over a twenty-year period, a federal court reversed either the conviction or the sentence or both. In no other area of law are reversals the norm.”That changed with the passage of the 1994 Death Penalty law – which made appeals much more difficult to sustain, but did not end the problems.
The recidivism rate for those who get a masters while incarcerated is zero. For years, in an effort to become more punitive, prisons have cut back on programming including education – and they have done that to their and to society’s detriment.The pendulum has swung back in the direction of carceral education as we have learned that it is one of the most effective ways to reduce recidivism.This week on Everyday Injustice, we speak with Matthew Luckett, a professor at Cal State Dominguez-Hills, who is heading up a prison masters program in the humanities that will allow incarcerated people to continue their education and better situate themselves for release.
At the age of 17, Sean Wilson was incarcerated and spent 17 years in prison. Since his release six years ago, he has dedicated his life to reforming the system.Sean Wilson is the Organizing Director of Dream.Org. Wilson brings an advantage and insight into a system he believes to be broken and in need of reform. Before joining the Dream.Org JUSTICE team, Wilson was the ACLU of Wisconsin’s Smart Justice Campaign Manager, where he managed the campaign to reform probation and parole.His mission includes mentoring youth and highlighting the changes that need to be made in our justice system to ensure children aren't raised behind bars. He shares his story of being in prison and thinking "this can't be life" to thinking today that the dream life he's living can't really be life, because it's so good.Listen as Sean Wilson discusses his life’s path and the problems with the current system and how we can change it.
In 2018, California passed a lass that mandated police departments to release body camera footage within 45 days of any incident when an officer fires a gun, or uses force that leads to great bodily injury or death.However, a CalMatters investigative report found that agencies rarely release the raw footage to the public.Instead, CalMatters reported “the public and the media must rely on edited presentations that often include a highlighted or circled object in a person’s hand, slowed-down video to show the moments when the person may have pointed the object at police and transcriptions of the body camera’s audio.”“To only release an edited version is not what we think is called for from the defendant’s point of view,” said Stephen Munkelt, executive director of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a Sacramento-based association of criminal defense attorneys. “If they’re editing things out, it’s probably the stuff that’s beneficial to the defendant.”CalMatters reported, “He also worries about the impact of the release of the body camera footage on a potential jury pool. Still, Munkelt said, some video is better than none, if only because defense attorneys have more grounds to ask a judge for the full, unedited video.”This week on Everyday Injustice, Stephen Munkelt joins us and discusses police body worn camera footage and the state of the law.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we are joined by UCLA Law Professor Scott Cummings who discusses a 2020 paper published in Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, that looks into the role that lawyers and schools play in movements of social transformation.One of the key findings in the literature has been the notion of drift away from public interest work – he cited that when law students enter law school more than half have an interest in going into public interest law, but that falls to about five percent by the time they actually pass the bar and gain employment.Cummings and his colleagues look into things that law schools can do to bolster pursuit of public interest law.They find surprising ways that law schools play a crucial facilitative role: “guiding students toward public interest careers through externships, summer jobs, and extracurricular activities that equip students with the tools they need to navigate the public interest job market and pursue social justice over the course of their professional lives.”
Dave Beers, a NY state licensed PI with law enforcement experience ended up working with the Taft Defense. He tells the story of how the mother of a young child arrived to find her child dead.Veronica Taft, a single mother with four small children, all under the age of five, was convicted of Murder and Manslaughter for the brutal murder of her two-year-old son Lyric.For reasons that are unclear, the prosecutors and police focus on Veronica rather than her boyfriend who is the more obvious suspect.Beers describes the poor quality of the investigation in the small college town of Binghamton, New York. The use of Taft’s boyfriend, who ends up getting immunity for his testimony despite evidence implicating him in the crime.After more than five years in prison, Taft was set free after a bombshell Appellate Court decision found the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. The court overturned the theory and evidence used by authorities, including time-of-death, Taft’s alibi, and controversial testimony of a desperate jail-house snitch.Listen as investigator Dave Beers tells the full story of tragic miscarriage of justice that fortunately an appellate court corrects after five years of wrongful incarceration.
In March, the Sentencing Project announced the creation of the Second Look Network.Across the country, we have seen the rise of resentencing and other laws designed to allow people who have served decades in prison, but who no longer represent a threat to public safety, to have their sentences reconsidered and at times, resentenced and gain release.“The Second Look Network is a coalition of attorneys and post-sentence advocates across the country working on behalf of incarcerated individuals seeking relief from lengthy or unfair sentences, beyond the context of wrongful conviction or innocence claims.”Data shows that mass incarceration has often sentenced people to lengthy sentences even as they age out of crime and even as the costs of already inadequate health care in prisons soar.It is a project of the Sentencing Project.Listen as Everyday Injustice speaks with Becky Feldman who is heading up the Network as she discusses the focus and goals of the project.
In 2021, Professor Daniel Medwed published an article in the Brooklyn Law Review: “Black Deaths Matter: the Race-of-Victim Effect and Capital Punishment.” In it, he found that irrespective of the race of the perpetrator, cases with white victims were more likely to see a death penalty charge.Medwed notes, that one of the “troubling feature(s) of the death penalty landscape: Similarly situated offenders frequently receive divergent outcomes.”From there we discuss efforts to correct some of these problems such as the racial justice act in California and a recent case out of Riverside.One of the main problems with the death penalty is that while the entire system in infected with racial and socio-economic inequities, “death is different” in that the death penalty is irreversible.Medwed’s research concludes: “Most Americans acknowledge, even if only grudgingly, that (1) there’s a racial dimension to the death penalty, and (2) Black defendants get the death penalty more frequently than whites.”But even more alarming, “the race of the victim, not the defendant steers cases in the direction of death.”Listen as Daniel Medwed discusses the implications of race on the death penalty and the criminal legal system.
Recently a Texas Judge delayed the execution of Andre Thomas – a man who is so severely mentally ill, the crime he committed of killing his wife and mixed race children involved cutting out their hearts and carrying them in his pocket.He proceeded to separately gouge out both of his eyes, the second of which he ate.Talking with Marc Bookman, who founded the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Philadelphia and has followed this case, he laid out a number of the concerns about this case.His late white was white, the children were mixed race, and as Bookman noted, “four of the twelve eventual jurors were opposed to people of mixed-race backgrounds marrying and/ or having children.”One even stated that he did not believe “God intended for this.” Andre’s court-appointed lawyers did not object, and the jurors were seated. The entire jury—not to mention the judge and all of the lawyers—were white.The prosecutor in his closing argument clearly played the race card, asking the jurors if they were willing to risk Andre “asking your daughter out, or your granddaughter out?”This is a case tinged in racism, dogged by ineffective assistance of counsel, and by a mental health system that failed all the way through.And somehow, at least to this point, the legal system has failed to stopped the execution train.Listen as Marc Bookman discusses one of the most disturbing death penalty cases in memory.
In Everyday Injustice’s second installment with Marc Bookman, we discuss the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation – a non-profit set up in 2010 that was created due to lack of state funding in Pennsylvania for indigent defense.“ACCR fills a void created by the lack of adequate funding for poor defendants and provides hope to those who have lost it,” the group’s mission explains.Pennsylvania continues to be a state caught in limbo.In February, newly elected Governor Josh Shapiro announced a moratorium on executions, “The Commonwealth shouldn’t be in the business of putting people to death. Period.” The Governor went further, speaking “to the fundamental question as to whether death is a just and appropriate punishment for the state to inflict on its citizens.” The system is fallible, he said, and the outcome is irreversible. Rejecting the idea that our capital punishment system is flawed but fixable, he called on the General Assembly to “work with me to abolish the death penalty once and for all here in Pennsylvania.”This was a surprising move, as Bookman points out, “our former Attorney General, Mr. Shapiro had hardly appeared the abolitionist. He himself admitted that he had “evolved” on the issue, and evolve he certainly did…”At the same time, the moratorium, only goes so far. Bookman explained, “As long as there is a death row, there is a risk the next governor will end the moratorium, just as Trump ended the unannounced but very real moratorium by President Obama.”Listen as Marc Bookman talks about the work of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation and the nature of the death penalty in Pennsylvania.
In Everyday Injustice’s second installment with Marc Bookman, we discuss the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation – a non-profit set up in 2010 that was created due to lack of state funding in Pennsylvania for indigent defense.“ACCR fills a void created by the lack of adequate funding for poor defendants and provides hope to those who have lost it,” the group’s mission explains.Pennsylvania continues to be a state caught in limbo.In February, newly elected Governor Josh Shapiro announced a moratorium on executions, “The Commonwealth shouldn’t be in the business of putting people to death. Period.” The Governor went further, speaking “to the fundamental question as to whether death is a just and appropriate punishment for the state to inflict on its citizens.” The system is fallible, he said, and the outcome is irreversible. Rejecting the idea that our capital punishment system is flawed but fixable, he called on the General Assembly to “work with me to abolish the death penalty once and for all here in Pennsylvania.”This was a surprising move, as Bookman points out, “our former Attorney General, Mr. Shapiro had hardly appeared the abolitionist. He himself admitted that he had “evolved” on the issue, and evolve he certainly did…”At the same time, the moratorium, only goes so far. Bookman explained, “As long as there is a death row, there is a risk the next governor will end the moratorium, just as Trump ended the unannounced but very real moratorium by President Obama.”Listen as Marc Bookman talks about the work of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation and the nature of the death penalty in Pennsylvania.
Andrew Krivak was acquitted last week in a second trial, after spending 24 years in prison for the rape and murder of a 12 year old girl. The jury spend just three hours deliberating following a seven week trial.In 2016, Krivak’s co-defendant, Anthony DiPippo, was acquitted at his third trial. DiPippo also spent more than two decades in prison.Everyday Injustice interviews attorney Oscar Michelan and Jeffrey Deskovic, who played an important role in the exoneration, but was not an attorney on this case.Listen as they discuss the case as well as the jury reaction to the seven week trial.
Earlier in February, the state of Missouri executed Leonard Taylor, despite strong evidence of innocence. Discussing that and a number of other cases recently and over the years is Sean O’Brien, Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.Sean O’Brien has been director of various criminal defense clinics at UMKC School of Law since 1983, including the Public Defender Appeals Clinic, the Public Defender Trial Clinic and the Death Penalty Representation Clinic.Professor O’Brien served as the chief public defender in Kansas City, Mo., from 1985 through 1989, when he was appointed executive director of the Missouri Capital Punishment Resource Center, now the Public Interest Litigation Clinic, where he represents clients in capital trial, appeal and post-conviction casesListen as Sean O’Brien discusses the state of the death penalty and problems in the criminal legal system.
The year 2023, marks the 50th year since the US prison population began its unprecedented surge. The Sentencing Project, is marking this year with a series of reports on Mass Incarceration Trends.Joining Everyday Injustice this week, is Sentencing Project, co-director of research, Ashley Nellis.In a recently published account, Nellis noted, “In 1972, the imprisonment rate was 93 per 100,000 people. The prison expansion that commenced in 1973 reached its peak in 2009, achieving a seven-fold increase over the intervening years. Between 1985 and 1995 alone, the total prison population grew an average of eight percent annually.”This growth is not evenly distributed: “Racial and ethnic disparities are a substantial feature of the American prison system.”Nellis writes: “Systemic causes range from a history of racial and ethnic subordination to ongoing police tactics that unfairly ensnare people of color into the system, and also include charging and sentencing practices that create stiffer punishments for people of color. Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and Latinx men are 2.5 times as likely. Nationally, one in 81 Black adults in the United States is serving time in state prison.”Listen as Ashley Nellis of the Sentencing Project discusses some of the critical data behind mass incarceration.
In their book, Suspect Citizens, Frank Baumgartner and his colleagues looked at a massive amount of police stops in North Carolina over a number of years. The findings shed light on the nature of police stops and one of the remarkable features is that the findings have held outside of North Carolina as well.In short, Black and brown drivers are disproportionately stopped. When they are stopped, they are disproportionately having their vehicles searched. When they have their vehicles searched, they are slightly less likely to have contraband found on them.More importantly, the overall hit rate for finding contraband is extremely low, calling into question the justification of using traffic stops as pretexts for broader criminal investigations.Listen as Frank Baumgartner, a social scientist, discusses the data and ways that racial profiling overall impacts policing, and police violence.
Marc Bookman, Co-founder of nonprofit Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Philadelphia and author of the book, A Descending Spiral: Exposing the Death Penalty in 12 Essays.This book, a collection of essays that highlights the injustice of the death penalty.Listen as he discusses some of the worst aspects of the criminal legal system. Bookman discusses among other things: racist judges and the role overall of racism in the death penalty, judges who execute despite the jury ruling for life, the role of mental health, and children killing their abusers.In the end, he concludes that the death penalty is ineffective, arbitrary and widely infected with racism.
Aasha Ealy was a law student accused of a crime that she didn’t commit. What should have a simple case has dragged on since 2016. During that time, she has finished law school and passed the bar. And still, her case languishes in the system.Listen to her amazing story as she was pressured into taking a plea, ended up rescinding that plea agreement, lost her attorney and ended up representing herself in the process.Even after progressive DA George Gascon was elected in 2020, his office has refused to dismiss the case.Listen as Aasha Ealy tells her amazing story of injustice and wrongful incarceration.
This week on Everyday Injustice, Jessica Henry talks about people who are convicted of crimes that never happened.There are a whole class of wrongful convictions – some based on flawed forensic science, such as shaken baby or arson investigators.Henry also chronicles suicide being mislabeled as a homicide. And more nefarious problems such as corrupt police planting drugs on an innocent suspect. A false allegation of assault is invented to resolve a custody dispute. Perhaps a false allegation of sexual assault for a consensual encounter.Listen as Jessica Henry discusses why this problem underlies a deeply flawed system which allows—even encourages—these convictions to regularly occur.And it has consequences as people spend years behind bars for crimes that never happened.
As most observers are well aware by now, the US incarcerates a much higher proportion of its population than any other nation. In Jeffrey Bellin’s book, “Mass Incarceration Nation,” he conceives of the system as having two distinct levels.The criminal justice system where the public seeks “justice” in response to serious crimes like murder and rape. And the criminal legal system, “where the government enforces a variety of laws ostensibly to achieve certain policy goals, like reducing drug abuse or gun violence or illegal immigration.”Bellin argues that while the increase in those serious crimes in the 1970s and 1980s did lead to a tough on crime crack down, “Increasing the penalties for crime in this country didn’t end crime.”Instead, it ebbs and lfows as it has.But what has changes is that our “tough on crime” policies have now filled prisons with a “small percentage but growing number of unlucky ‘criminals’” and once there, “tougher laws and tougher officials made sure they stayed locked up.”
Pamela Price made history on Monday, being sworn in by Oakland Mayor-Elect Sheng Thao, who herself made history as the first Hmong to be elected mayor of a major US City. Price became the first Black elected DA in Alameda County, birthplace of the Black Panthers.Also speaking during the ceremony in front of at least 200 enthusiastic supporters in Downtown Oakland was Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant, Aisha Wahab who became the first Muslim and Afghan American to be elected to the California State Senate, and the legendary prison abolitionist and radical professor, Angela Davis.Price following being officially sworn in, said, “This is an exclamation point in the history for Alameda County. I stand before you as our first Black woman District Attorney.”During her speech, Price said, “For the last 10 years, the district attorney’s office has stood in the way of the progressive reforms, ushered in by our California legislature and endorsed overwhelmingly by Alameda County voters our message resonated in Alameda County because we know that the criminal justice system is not working for the hardworking people of Alameda County.”Listen to Pamela Price, the legendary Angela Davis, and Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, who was killed more than a decade ago on a BART Train by a police officer has been fighting for justice for her son and so many others like him.
This week on Everyday Injustice we have NCAJ (National Center for Access to Justice) Policy Director Lauren Jones talking about their work on behalf of criminal justice reform.“NCAJ uses data, research and policy analysis to expose how the justice system fails to stand up for equal justice- and all too often, functions as a source of oppression.”We talk about their creation of the Justice Index and look at policy areas like fines and fees, where just about every state is failing to produce actual equity and justice.Listen as Lauren Jones highlights how states have failed to provide justice in numerous areas.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Joanne Scheer, whose son’s incarceration on felony murder, special circumstances led her to create the Felony Murder Elimination Project.Under the felony murder law, if someone committee a felony and a person died during the commission of that crime, all individuals are held accountable for that death and are legally guilty of murder. Even if they were minor participants and the death occurred at the hand of another and was not foreseeable.Under reforms like SB 1437, that has changed and going forward, people who were not major participants and not the actual killer are only guilty of the underlying crime and those who previously were convicted, can petition the court for resentencing.But that doesn’t impact Joanne Scheer’s son. There have been attempts to change the law, such as Dave Cortese, who was previously a guest on Everyday Injustice, who have attempted to reach the high bar and pass SB 300 which would have allowed for people sentenced to LWOP who were not the actual killers to have a chance at parole.Listen to the efforts Scheer and the Felony Murder Elimination Process to bring fairness and justice for many who languish in prison despite minimal involvement in the underlying crimes.
Today on Everyday Injustice we talk with Talitha Floyd from Sacramento Area Congregations Together (Sac ACT). Sacramento ACT empowers ordinary people to identify and change the conditions that create economic and racial injustice.Among the work we discussed was their Live Free program, whereby Sac ACT works to increase transparency and accountability with law enforcement, addressing implicit bias in law enforcement.Following the killing of Stephon Clark in March 2018 and the release of findings in 2019, ACT has worked to organize healing circles and healing spaces for community.ACT leads the Sacramento Reinvestment Coalition, a team of leaders and partners who advocate for a Reinvestment agenda in Sacramento County.Learn about some of the work happening in the Faith Community in the Sacramento Area.
Justin Brooks, the director of the California Innocence Project has spent his career freeing the innocent from prison. He told Everyday Injustice that after 30 years, he decided to put his insights into a book.His message to all of us: it could happen to anyone – it could happen to you.At the same time, there are inequities and flaws in the system that disproportionately mean that people of color and the poor get wrongly convicted.As one review of the book noted: “this book forces us to consider how any of us might be swept up in the system, whether we hired a bad lawyer, bear a slight resemblance to someone else in the world, or are not good with awkward silence.”Further, “The stories of Brooks's cases and clients paint the picture of a broken justice system, one where innocence is no protection from incarceration or even the death penalty.”You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent is available for pre-order now and will be out in the spring of 2023.
Following the primary elections, reformers were braced for setbacks in the reform prosecutor movement – but a strange thing happened this November, that set back never came.Everyday Injustice spoke with Miriam Krinsky of Fair and Just Prosecution. She discussed the formation of her organization, and why she believed that reform prosecutors fared much better than expected in the midterm elections.We also discussed her book, Change From Within: Reimagining the 21st-Century Prosecutor. Krinsky described how the book came together and the stories that the 13 elected prosecutors told about their background and how they became reformers.Despite a tough environment this year for reforms, the big picture, as Krinsky describes is one of progress and expansion of the movement. Krinsky explained how in just over five years, we have gone from a handful of reform prosecutors, to having reform prosecutors representing huge swaths of the population.She believes that the public now understands that the carceral system is broken and support many of the reform policies.
This week on Everyday Injustice, Brian Hofer of Secure-Justice discusses the surveillance state, and the abuse of state power as well as the current state of criminal justice reform.A recent incident in Berkeley, where the leak of text messages showed the president of the police officers union making racially charged remarks and calling for arrest quotas.The leak was made public by Secure Justice and led to the pausing the appointment of Jennifer Louis as police chief until after an independent investigation can take place.Hofer told the media, “The text messages are revealing a racist culture and we’re seeing it reflected in the metrics.”Nearly 35% of police stops in Berkeley in the last year were of Black people, despite the fact that only 8% of the city is Black.This is not the only scandal, Hofer also talks about San Francisco’s efforts to utilize private surveillance for purposes of criminal investigation despite little evidence that it would aid in such efforts.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Elliot Hosman, the Prison Advocacy Coordinator at Ella Baker Center on their work on behalf of resentencing.California has some of the most severe sentence enhancements in the nation. But with the help of some key legislation, including SB 1393, the Fair and Just Sentencing Reform Act, and 1170(d), the Recall of Sentence and Resentencing there are mechanisms now in place to allow for a reconsideration of those overly harsh sentences.In 2018, Governor Brown signed into law AB 2942, which empowered DA’s to make resentencing referrals and signed AB 1812, to give trial courts guidance into what post-conviction factors may be relevant to the resentencing decision.Listen as Elliot Hosman tells their story, and discusses the need for resentencing as well as the work of the Ella Baker Center.
One of the important ways to disrupt mass incarceration is to get formerly incarcerated people to get college and graduate degrees. Such programs help to greatly reduce recidivism rates.Popping up all over the state at Underground Scholars Programs. Organizations that help “create pathways into higher education for formerly incarcerated and justice system-impacted individual” by providing support networks for the unique challenges that formerly incarcerated students face.Two representatives from the UC Santa Barbara Gaucho Underground Scholars program joined Everyday Injustice this week, sharing their amazing stories of going from incarcerated to scholars and the challenges of being a formerly incarcerated student and why such support programs are so vital.
The advent of DNA testing has transformed the criminal legal system since 1989. For the first time, DNA testing provided absolute proof that people were convicted of crimes that they did not commit.The National Registry of Exonerations has tracked over 3200 exonerations since 1989, by creating a dataset and narrative they have been able to study common factors, statistically analyze, and have allowed us to better understand flaws in the criminal legal system that lead to wrongful convictions.This week on everyday injustice we talk with Director Simon Cole, who talks about their work and what we have learned from wrongful convictions.Listen to what the data says about government misconduct, forensic science, false confessions and eyewitness misidentification.
In the 2010 landmark decision Padilla v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel demands that criminal defense attorneys inform their clients of adverse immigration consequences that may flow from a guilty plea.UCLA Law Professor Ingrid Eagly and her colleagues asked the critical question of whether public defenders are have adequately incorporated Padilla into their defense.Their findings not surprising “reveal a patchwork system in which each county in California has created its own approach to immigration advising.”Some counties have created full immigrant defense offices while many other counties have languagished: “They have not hired immigration experts, developed county protocols for immigration advising, or implemented immigration law training for their attorneys who accept indigent court appointments.”Listen as Professor Eagly discusses Padilla and its impact on public defenders in California.
On August 4, Andrew Warren, the twice-elected State Attorney for Florida’s Hillsborough County was about to announce a major breakthrough in a 39 year old cold rape and murder case when he was informed by armed deputies entering his office that Gov. Ron DeSantis had suspended him from office.Why? Warren believes that the move was politically motivated by stances he took on prosecuting abortion cases.Warren has now sued DeSantis in federal court, arguing that the order suspending him was an unconstitutional abuse of authority and infringed on his First Amendment rights.Andrew Warren this week joins Everyday Injustice as he discusses his case, his record as DA, and the political move that DeSantis has made.
Governor Newsom and the state legislator recently enacted CARE Court to help address chronic homelessness and mental health problems. But reformers believe that the program, while well intentioned, will exacerbate rather than solve existing problems.Criticisms range from the compulsive nature of the treatment to the lack of new money put into mental health treatment – a system stretch way too thin.Joining Everyday Injustice is Karen Chien to discuss what she and others see as the problems and shortcoming of CARE Court.Kara Chien has worked as a Deputy Public Defender since 1989 and has led the San Francisco Public Defender’s Mental Health Unit since 2007.She and her team advocate against criminalizing individuals with mental illness, representing clients with developmental disabilities and chronic and severe mental illness in both civil and criminal court.
Stephen Liebb spent 33 years behind bars for first degree murder. 19 of those years were spent at San Quentin.
He earned his release on parole in 2013. Now he works as a legal assistant at the San Francisco Public Defender’s office on the Freedom Project, helping to free others from prison.
Listen to Steph’s remarkable story – hired by the legendary Jeff Adachi in 2018, but a lawyer at the time of his arrest in the 1980s, and his work behind bars to help his fellow incarcerated people file petitions and writs, giving them a chance to challenge their detention.
On October 13, the Vanguard will present Stephen Liebb with an award for his work as a formerly incarcerated individual at the Vanguard Justice Awards Gala.
Liebb will be among nine individuals honored on October 13 in Sacramento. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased online: http://tiny.cc/vanguard_2022
On October 13, James King will receive a Vanguard Justice Award as a formerly incarcerated individual.
James King is the Campaign Manager for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Prior to joining the organization, James worked to build recognition of the value of people who are being held in carceral spaces. In 2016, he organized a symposium at San Quentin, where he and other incarcerated students made specific policy recommendations concerning the implementation of Prop 57. In attendance were the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, various officials from the California Governor’s office, numerous social justice advocates, and many of his incarcerated peers.
James is also a writer and organizer, having written numerous op-eds, and a weekly blog that gave a first person perspective of the true impact of mass criminalization and living within the prison industrial complex. As an organizer, he founded a think tank of incarcerated people who were passionate about criminal justice policy and built relationships with multiple California criminal justice reform organizations.
Upon returning to society in December, 2019, James co-wrote and presented a TEDx Talk called “From Proximity to Power,” at California Polytechnic State University that advocated for recognizing the value and expertise of people who come from marginalized communities. His current policy interests include decarceration and improving the living conditions for incarcerated people, with the ultimate goal of creating alternatives to incarceration based upon investing in under-resourced communities.
Join us on October 13 at 6 pm as James King and numerous other individuals receive their Vanguard Justice Awards. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased online: http://tiny.cc/vanguard_2022
Max Szabo has been on the forefront of the criminal justice reform movement for years – hired as the communications director for George Gascón in San Francisco, he then left to start his own firm.
Max Szabo joins Everyday Injustice this week to discuss Gascón, the Boudin recall, the Pete Hardin race against Todd Spitzer in Orange County, his work at the Prosecutor’s Alliance and the future of criminal justice reform in light of the pushback and setbacks of the last year.
Northeastern University Professor Daniel Medwed’s book “Barred” comes out on September 20. The book focuses on the wrongly convicted people who are unable to overcome the criminal legal system and prove their innocence in the eyes of the system.
As others have noted – due to systemic problems, it is easy to wrongly convict and very difficult to correct on the back end.
Medwed discusses both ways to improve the system on the frontend and ways that the system can correct wrongful convictions on the back end.
A new report released in August by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab (CPL) found “that thousands of Californians saw their prisons sentences lengthened because of this law, and more than one-third (36%) of people currently incarcerated in California are serving a longer sentence because of Three Strikes.”
The report provides an in-depth look at the impact of California’s Three-Strikes Law, which went into effect nearly 30 years ago. The law mandates longer prison sentences for people convicted of new felonies if they had a previous conviction for a serious or violent felony. For a second felony conviction, sentences are doubled in length, while a third serious or violent conviction results in the sentence being increased to at least 25 years to life.
“California’s Three Strikes sentencing law stands apart from the sentencing practices of other states in both its punitiveness as well as its broad application,” explains co-author Steve Raphael, a public policy professor at UC Berkeley. “The law has lengthened the sentences of nearly 60,000 prison admissions since 2015 and affects the sentences of over a third of the currently incarcerated, many of whom were convicted of non-serious, non-violent offenses. Our report documents how frequently Three-Strikes sentencing is applied, how it lengthens sentences, and who is most impacted.”
Joining Everyday Injustice was Steve Raphael who co-authored the report and discussed the report's implications.
Retired Judge LaDoris Cordell joins Everyday Injustice to discuss her experience as a woman of color, appointed to the bench in Santa Clara County at a time when there were not many women of color who even went to law school.
Judge Cordell is releasing a book – Her Honor – which is in part a memoir, in part a critique of the criminal legal system.
We also discuss her experience on the San Francisco Innocence Commission and her take on what has taken place with the new DA.
Since 2019, Everyday Injustice has brought you interviews with the leaders of the criminal justice realm as well as the tragic stories of everyday injustice. In this brief compilation, among other things we talk about disturbing police incidents, the use of junk science to wrongly convict people, and police torture among other things.
Listen to some of our most compelling interviews this week.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Kanya Bennett of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The Vision for Justice 2020 focused on core principles of decarceration, police reform and reinvesting in the communities.
Kanya Bennett discussed among other things her work with the bail project, the current policing bill and the president’s executive order, as well as concerns for adding police.
In 2019, George Gascón resigned from his position as San Francisco DA, moved to Los Angeles and ran against incumbent Jackie Lacey for DA as a reformer. Gascón had gone from a traditional “tough on crime” beat officer to Police Chief to reform DA. He had seen first hand how the traditional approach did not work. That mass incarceration was not only expensive, but it failed to protect the community.
However, since winning the race in 2020, he has faced opposition from police and holdover DA’s and other conservative interests. At the time of recording this podcast, it was unclear whether the recall would qualify for the November ballot – but regardless, the expectation is that the opposition would continue.
Listen as George Gascón talks about his journey from police officer to reform DA and what he believes he has accomplished so far and what needs to happen in the system.
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) is a statewide association of criminal defense attorneys, who help advocate for justice in the legislature, the courts and the media.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we talk with Stephen Munkelt, the current Executive Director of CACJ. Munkelt discusses the critical work of CACJ, some of the critical issues faced right now, mass incarceration, the Racial Justice Act, jury selection and where things are headed in the criminal legal system.
This week on Everyday Injustice we visit with Akhi Johnson, Director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Reshaping Prosecution project. Vera just issued a new RFP to elected prosecutors interested in making reforms.
Johnson discussed the RFP and also the new policy direction of thinking about public safety as community health. We discussed the future of reform-minded DA’s in wake of the Chesa Boudin recall, and the challenges faced by other prosecutors like Larry Krasner and George Gascon.
One of the bigger issues these days is homelessness. Ron Hochbaum joined McGeorge School of Law in 2021 and directs the Homeless Advocacy Clinic, teaching poverty law. Prior to arriving at McGeorge, Hochbaum directed the UDC Housing and Consumer Law Clinic in which students represented housed and unhoused District residents in efforts to access and maintain healthy, safe, and affordable housing.
Hochbaum worked on AB 1883, “It is a bill I am working on with Assemblywoman Quirk Silva and it was born out of an article I published called ‘Bathrooms as a Homeless Rights Issue’
He also discussed the issue of bail, its impact on homelessness as well as the root causes of homelessness, city sanctioned encampments, and anti-panhandling laws.
Listen as Ron Hochbaum joins Everyday Injustice to discuss issues of homelessness and how we can better serve the unhouse community.
Tamisha Walker is a founding member and Executive Director of Safe Return Project, a campaign to secure the freedom and liberation of formerly incarcerated individuals.
Walker discussed issues of mass incarceration and racial disparity in the criminal legal system, as well as her own situation where she was incarcerated and released in 2009.
As a formerly incarcerated woman, “she shares a powerful personal story about the journey to healing and successful reentry into society. Tamisha has years of community organizing experience in a city impacted by trauma and economic inequality, including her own personal experience with trauma and poverty growing up in Richmond, California.”
Listen as Tamisha talks about her life, her work, and the need to invest in better services for those released from prison.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Bree and Malissa Hurry about the case of Michael Gaines, who has been incarcerated since 2003 for a crime, they believe, he did not commit.
According to them, Gaines was 18 years old at the time he was sentenced and charged with murder during the commission of a robbery -- there was no DNA evidence or fingerprints on the murder weapon that links Michael to the crime. They did find the shooter with the murder weapon and his prints were on the gun.
He was also the victim of ineffective assistance of counsel, as Michael wanted to go to trial, but his lawyer said no. The ringleaders of the crime were given a 20 year deal. Gaines got LWOP.
They believe he was convicted by unreliable material witness statements, two of them was given by the actual perpetrators of the crime and was given a deal.
This week on Everyday Injustice, we have Kristina Kersey who last year joined the Gault Center (formerly NJDC) as a Senior Youth Defense Counsel in 2021. Prior to joining TGC, she specialized in youth defense for over 18 years with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender.
Kersey was the trial attorney in State in the Interest of N.H., in which the Supreme Court held that youth are entitled to full and complete discovery prior to a waiver/transfer hearing to adult court.
We discussed why the move away from using the term “juvenile,” the importance of not trying youths in adult court, and the need for mental health and rehabilitative services as well as her work on the case that would go to the NJ Supreme Court and the protection that the ruling provides youths accused of serious crimes.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Emily Galvin Almanza – she’s a former public defender, clerked for Judge Thelton Henderson, worked for the Stanford Three Strikes Project, wrote for the Appeal and currently heads up Partners For Justice.
Among the topics covered were her past and current work, the state of criminal justice reform, alternatives to incarceration and how to reduce recidivism rates.
With just four weeks to go until the election for District Attorney in many areas in California, Everyday Injustice checked in with Lara Gressley, who is running for a second time against Michael Hestrin for Riverside DA. Hestrin, seeking his third term has held office since 2015.
Hestrin, the incumbent is a heavy favorite and has outraised his two challengers both by more than a three to one margin.
But the race has sparked debate over the role of law enforcement union money in DA’s races. In the last cycle, he took more money from law enforcement than anyone in the country.
According to one report, about 15 percent of his contributions have come from law enforcement. Neither of Hestrins opponents have accepted money from law enforcement.
"It has the appearance of a conflict of interest, regardless of whether it actually manifests into one — which I think it has in this instance — but even setting that aside for a moment, the goal is to earn back the public's trust," Gressley said. "How can you do that when you're not prosecuting law enforcement historically at all, and you have hundreds of thousands of dollars from these union PACs coming in?"
For her part, Gressley talked about her work as a habeas attorney and wrongful convictions as well as police accountability.
Listen as Lara Gressley talks about reforming the criminal legal system and her run for District Attorney.
This week on Everyday Injustice we have Howard University Law Professor Olinda Moyd discussing an under-acknowledged problem of the criminal legal system – the problems of parole and the racial disparities that occur on the backend of incarceration.
Nonpartisan groups like the Council for Court Excellence and the Justice Policy Institute “have studied the Parole Commission, concluding that it doesn't grant parole to enough D.C. prisoners and that it's too quick to send others back to prison if they make mistakes.”
Moyd argues that, “Parole boards are fragmented institutions that operate in fear of releasing “the wrong person,” so “they err to the other extreme and deny release to so many who deserve a second chance.”
Listen as we discuss why parole board are so willing to revoke parole for primarily technical reasons and the impact it has on the criminal legal system.
On June 7, San Francisco voters will decide whether to remove DA Chesa Boudin. This week on Everyday Injustice we are joined by Tinisch Hollins, Executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice. She’s been an opponent of the San Francisco recall.
Tinich Hollins said previously, “My position today against the recall is rooted in the belief that the failures of the criminal justice system, and even the failures of this current SFPD office do not begin or end with Chesa Boudin’s leadership.”
She said, “I support him because he has been responsive to the needs and the priorities that were set out by our community. Overreliance on the criminal legal system has had a disastrous impact specifically on the black community, not just in San Francisco, but throughout this country.” She said, “We need more than reliance on jail and policing to deal with the social issues that are underlying drivers of crime chase.” She added, “I do not recall a time where any other DA’s offices were largely successful in any way, because we know the systems are broken and failing.”
Listen as we discuss the problems of San Francisco and why in her view, removing Chesa Boudin is not the answer.
Dan Canon is a civil rights attorney and a Professor at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. He has already played a huge role in history as one of those arguing the Obergefell decision before the Supreme Court – a landmark decision that legalized same sex marriage.
Last October he warned in a Tweet, “I was one of the lawyers who won Obergefell at SCOTUS and litigated the Kim Davis case in Kentucky. Back when Trump was elected, I said same-sex couples didn't have to be worried about their marriages. I was wrong.”
In our interview, he explained that things have changed since the decision in the Kim Davis case, and said, “I grossly underestimated the effect of Trumpism on the lower courts and on red-state legislatures.” He now believes those courts will act to undermine precedent and overturn progressive legislation.
In the meantime, Canon this year also published a book, “Pleading Out.” Another book that critiques the criminal legal system’s now almost exclusive reliance on the plea bargain. While other works have shown the negative impact of the trial penalty, he links pleas to mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and far more – and he sees no easy solution.
Listen as Dan Canon discusses the future of the federal bench and the detrimental effects of plea bargains.
A month ago, in an event sponsored by the California Donor Table, Justice Reform groups came together to discuss DA races across the state.
The webinar was hosted by the California Donor Table, which invests in communities of color to help elect people who represent their values and needs, and they have identified six district attorney races with the greatest potential to reduce mass incarceration and advance criminal justice reform policies.
Everyday Injustice this week talked with executive director Ludovic Blain discussing races including: Sacramento, Alameda, San Francisco (recall), Santa Clara, Riverside, Contra Costa, Orange County and more.
This week on Everyday Injustice we talk with Santa Clara Law Professor David Ball. Among the topics we discuss are his work on the Corrections Committee of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section where he has been co-chair. We talk about mass incarcerations and alternatives to traditional incarceration. We talk about the new jail in Santa Clara County and about the need for bail reform. We also talked about his work on a blue ribbon commission on the legalization of marijuana.
Jarrett Adams was a high school student and made one mistake - he went to a college party, ending up wrongly convicted for the rape of a white college woman having been convicted by an all-white jury - and facing nearly 30 years in prison.
It took him nearly ten years to get exonerated with the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.
Amazingly, he took the lessons he learned as a jailhouse attorney during his incarceration and worked his way through law school and now has a non-profit, dedicated to exonerating the wrongly convicted.
As he explains - his book takes you through his journey and you feel like you are in the shoes of that scared 17-year-old, who has no idea what is in store for him.
Listen as Jarrett Adams talks about his experience behind bars, being wrongly convicted, how he got through law school and his current work. He also discusses the role that race played in his wrongful conviction and the criminal legal system.
Jeffrey Baker grew up in the deep south and moved to teaching law school at Pepperdine’s Caruso School of law where he heads up the Community Justice Clinic. Professor Baker discussed the differences but also the similarities between Alabama and Southern California.
Listen as Professor Bakers talks about his work on domestic violence, social justice as well as research on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement on the southern board and the School to the prison pipeline.
Everyday Injustice this week talks with the Los Angeles Stonewall Democratcs – Alex Mohajer the President and Jasmyne Cannick a Steering Member At-Large. The Stonewall Democrats, named after the protests represent the LGBTQ community.
The discussion focused on two critical races in LA – the Sheriff’s race where they talked about the problematic administration of current sheriff Alex Villanueva and their group’s support for Eric Strong, one of the challengers.
In addition, they gave their assessment of DA George Gascon and the current situation with his recall.
They also talked about uplifting the marginalized voices in the queer community and some of the key legislation their group is backing.
For more information see https://www.stonewalldems.org amd https://www.stonewalldems.org/legislation.
UC Davis Law Professor Irene Joe has had an interesting experience - born in Nigeria, grew up in Texas, and came to California for law school. After law school she worked doing death penalty work with the Equal Justice Initiative and Bryan Stevenson.
From there, she ended up working as a public defender in New Orleans and experiencing the post-Katrina world there and then back to California to become a tenured professor at UC Davis.
Listen as she discusses the importance of President Biden’s Supreme Court nomination, the controversy of critical race theory, and public defender caseload and much more.
In 2020, Eli Savit rode a wave of progressive prosecutorial successes to victory in Washtenaw County Michigan, the home of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
For the most part, Savit has avoided a lot of the extreme pushback that some of his progressive prosecutor colleagues have suffered. In part that is because he knew he would win the race well before he took office and was able to bring the stakeholders on board and give them stake in his success.
Listen as Savit talks about his accomplishments in his first year of office, what he hopes to do, and his take on the state of criminal justice reform.
Anne Irwin and Natasha Minsker of Smart Justice California join Everyday Injustice this week to talk about criminal justice reform efforts.
Smart Justice California works to educate and embolden policymakers who support meaningful criminal justice reforms that promote safety, fairness and healthy communities.
Among the legislation they are supporting this year includes, the follow up to the Racial Justice Act which would allow people with past criminal convictions to challenge racial discrimination in charging or sentencing.
They are also supporting, Kevin McCarty’s AB 759 which would shift DA and Sheriff elections to presidential election years.
They are supporting Senator Dave Cortese’s SB 300, which reforms felony murder special circumstances law to ensure that the death penalty and LWOP cannot be imposed on those who did not kill or intend that a person die.
And they are supporting SB 731, which sunsets criminal convictions and expands record sealing to all sentences following completion of terms of incarceration, post-release supervision, and an additional period of time.
The right to a trial by jury is enshrined into the constitution, yet increasingly over the last few decades, trials have become a vanishing feature of the criminal justice system.
University of North Carolina law professor Carissa Hessick recently wrote the book, Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal.
While there are positive aspects of the plea bargain – efficiency in the system and reduced punishment, overall 97 to 98 percent of all cases end not with a jury verdict but with an agreement between prosecutor and defense – an agreement that is often negotiated under unfavorable and unequal terms.
As Hessick points out, “Instead of protecting defendants’ right to have their guilt or innocence decided by their peers, judges routinely punish defendants for exercising that right.”
Specifically, “judges regularly impose longer sentences on those defendants who insist on going to trial than on those defendants who plead guilty.”
A 2018 report shows that, “on average, defendants who insist on a trial receive sentences three times longer than those of defendants who plead guilty.”
This practice is so common that it even has a name: the “trial penalty.”
Listen as Everyday Injustice talks with Professor Hessick about why this arrangement is detrimental to the system including the incentive for innocent people to plead guilty to crimes that they did not commit rather than risk the longer trial penalty.
Duke Law Professor Brandon Garrett wrote one of the seminal books of the Innocence Movement, Convicting the Innocent – a must-read classic that highlights the problem of wrongful convictions and its causes.
We have been taught to believe that fingerprint analysis is an ironclad science. But we learned in the case of Brandon Mayfield, who was wrongly identified as the Madrid Subway bomber, even though he had never left the states based on a partial match of fingerprint, that the science has more holes in it than we want to believe.
Autopsy of a Crime Lab is “the first book to catalog the sources of error and the faulty science behind a range of well-known forensic evidence, from fingerprints and firearms to forensic algorithms.”
In his book and in his interview with Everyday Injustice, Garrett asks the questions that should have been asked years ago: Where are the studies that validate the basic premises of widely accepted techniques such as fingerprinting? How can experts testify with 100-percent certainty about a fingerprint, when there is no such thing as a 100 percent match? Where is the quality control at the crime scenes and in the laboratories?
The answers to these questions have frightening consequences as they lead to wrongful arrests and even more alarmingly, wrongful convictions.
Tony Messenger, a reporter for the St. Louis Post Dispatch talks about the issue of fines and fees and is the author of the recent book, Profit and Punishment How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice.
In his book, he goes into rural Missouri to follow the lives of poor white people who are victimized by a system of fines and fees that ends up entrapping them into a cycle of poverty and debt from which many cannot escape.
The issue ironically caught the attention of Messenger and others following reports on Ferguson which showed how that city financed itself on the backs of poor, mostly Black people who commit minor traffic infractions and then get caught into a system of fines and fees which creates debt.
In Missouri though, with its legislature heavily Republican, they have moved away from taxes as a means to finance local government and towards a punitive fines and fees system.
Listen as Tony Messenger talks about some of the more egregious stories he tracked in his book demonstrating the problematic nature of fines and fees.
Kristin Henning is a Georgetown Law Professor and a former public defender in DC. In her book, Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth she discusses how what is ordinary adolescent behavior gets criminalized the criminal justice system and ends up locking Black youth into cycles of incarceration.
She brings vivid case studies and data to bear on her analysis and critique of the system. In one case, a girl gets into a fight with her boyfriend, takes his cell phone and ends up charged with robbery. In another, a 13 year old boy builds a fake Molotov cocktail and ends up with a nine month ordeal in the criminal system.
Listen as Kristin Henning talks about some of the youth she worked with and how ordinary behavior on the part of Black youth turns into an encounter with the criminal legal system.
Rachelle Barbour has worked as an Assistant Federal Defender at the Sacramento federal court for over 20 years. She also heads up the CJS clinic at McGeorge Law School.
Her most prominent case has been that of Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen, who was accused of being an ISIS commander and murdering a police officer in Iraq. He was acquitted of those charges in April as a federal judge ruled this was physically impossible because Ameen was not in Iraq at the time of the alleged murder.
However, he remains detained in an ICE facility, has been detained for more than 1000 days and facing extradition. As Barbour explained, if sent back to Iraq to face criminal charges, he faces certain death by execution – most likely through extra-legal means. This week, the Immigrant Legal Defense and the University of Chicago Immigrants’ Rights Clinic announced they filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf, seeking his immediate release.
“The government seems to think that it can do whatever it wants as long as it invokes the word ‘terrorism,’” said Nicole Hallett, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
Listen as Rachelle Barbour discusses the Ameen case as well as her experience working as a Federal Defender and her work with CJS.
Sacramento in 2022 figures to be a hotbed for political intrigue. DA Anne Marie Schubert is running for AG leaving an open DA seat where a progressive – Alana Matthews will take on current Assistant Chief Deputy DA Thien Ho. Sheriff Jones is retiring. And there is a new police chief.
Everyday Injustice talked with longtime attorney Mark Reichel to get the lay of the Sacramento landscape – discussing topics like the DA, policing, and criminal justice reform.
Senator Dave Cortese has sponsored some critical criminal justice reform efforts over the past term, including the current two year bill SB 300 which would allow for people sentenced to LWOP who were not the actual killers to have a chance at parole.
Current California law mandates a sentence of death or life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for anyone convicted of “murder with special circumstances,” even if the person did not kill anyone, nor intend for anyone to die. Under current law, if a person dies during the course of certain felonies, even if the death is accidental, those who were involved in the felony are subject to these severe punishments regardless of their role in the person’s death or their intent.
“Two-thirds of the people on LWOP are people of color,” he said at a recent rally.
Cortese said, “How heartbreaking it must be for a parent every minute of every day of every week, to know that your child, your child has been sentenced to life without parole.” He said, “When you take away possibility from a human being, you’ve taken everything. That’s all we have is possibility.”
Listen as Senator Cortese talks about this and the future of criminal justice reform, this week on Everyday Injustice.
This fall, attorneys for Nakia Porter filed a federal lawsuit for an incident on August 6, 2020 when she and her father were driving home on I-80. They stopped to switch drivers when the police intervened.
At the press conference attorney Yasin Almadani explained that Porter, age 33 and weighing all of 125 pound “had done nothing wrong” when she was approached by the deputy and explained that they were simply switching seats.
However, as she was explaining this, the complaint explained, Deputy McCampbell suddenly appears, pointed his gun at Porter and said, “Get back in the car now. This is a traffic stop. Get back in the car.”
“Without provocation and in a show of brute force, the deputy suddenly decided to handcuff and arrest Nakia as she was complying with their commands,” he said. “Nakia pleaded in fear for an explanation as her father and children helplessly in a horror inside the car, staying inside because that's what the Sheriff's deputies had ordered them to do.”
This week on Everyday Injustice Nakia Porter and her Attorney Yasin Almadani talk about the incident, the case, and what it says about policing and race in 21st Century America.
UC Davis Law Professor Jack Chin does just about everything and this week’s episode, we discuss the then recent Rittenhouse trial and guns and self-defense, the death penalty and Julius Jones, and the Sentencing Clinic he founded at UC Davis Law School working with the Yolo County DA’s office to reduce the lengthy sentences of incarcerated people.
In 2020, the Vanguard covered a series of hearings involving Zachary Vanderhorst, 65, who had been imprisoned for 46 years after guilty pleas he made 1974 for crimes he did not commit.
A judge after a series of evidentiary hearings vacated the murder charges and Vanderhorst after 46 years was able to be released from prison.
This year, a San Francisco judge vacated two of the remaining charges, including rape, Vanderhorst pleaded to when he was just 19.
“The remarkable efforts made to overturn these convictions reminds us of the dire need for the resources to expand post-conviction work and help heal from state violence and racial injustice. Public defenders and our allies are willing and capable of challenging those convictions if provided the resources,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju.
”We know that there are thousands of people, just like Zachary Vanderhorst, along with his family, who continue to suffer the trauma and loss that stem from wrongful convictions, bad plea deals, and excessive punishment,” Raju added.
Listen as Everyday Injustice speaks with Public Defender Rebecca Young, who along with Patrick Murray of Kekar, Van Nest and Peters, utilized SB 1437 to win Vanderhorst’s release in February 2020.
In 2020, Melba Pearson ran to attempt to unseat, unsuccessfully the 27 year incumbent prosecutor of Miami-Dade County. Now she is policy director of the FIU project that pushes for data transparency in prosecution, demonstrating racial disparities in the criminal legal system.
Pearson discusses her campaign to reform the criminal legal system in Miami-Dade – including racial disparities and the fight against mass incarceration as well as discussing the need for transparency in prosecution.
On October 8, 2020, Shayne Sutherland, 29, died in a manner similar to George Floyd, with a police officer on his back, handcuffed, yelling, “I can’t breathe,” and calling out for his Momma.
He had called 911 the morning of October 8, 2020. While being questioned in front of a store, Shayne jumped up after hearing a noise, only to be tackled by law enforcement. After close to three minutes of forceful pressure on Shayne’s back, while Shayne was lying face down on the concrete, unarmed, handcuffed, in the prone position, he was in distress and could no longer communicate.
The family is alleging that two Stockton Police officers “used excessive force on an unarmed and handcuffed man, applying full body weight pressure and a police baton to the prone victim’s neck, shoulders and back, resulting in restraint asphyxiation.”
Civil Rights Attorney James DeSimone said “Shayne’s unnecessary death is another result of the SPD’s unconstitutional practice of using improper restraint and excessive force.”
He added, “At the time he was killed, Shayne was unarmed, handcuffed, in the prone position, not resisting, and posing no harm to anyone. Still, while he pleaded for his life, at least one police officer used his full body weight to literally crush the breath out of him. This violates well-established law enforcement standards and training, and the United States Constitution. This has to stop.”
Joining Everyday Injustice is Shayne’s mother, Karen Sutherland and the family’s attorney, Civil Rights Attorney James DeSimone.
This spring after a long and at times bitter process, activists following the killing of George Floyd pushed for and finally got the city of Placerville to remove a noose from the city’s seal but the council opted to keep the Gold Rush-era nickname, “Hangtown.”
The noose was probably not historical - and probably not incorporated into the city logos until the 1970s but is now widely considered a hate symbol.
Leading the way in the battle over the noose was the young activist Lizzie Dubose. She is joined by Stuart Harmon, a documentary filmmaker who chronicled the fight.
Listen as Lizzie Dubose describes her motivation and the hardships of taking on what turned out to be a very disharmonious process - with anger and hate erupting along the way.
It was once a poster child for things like Wrongful Convictions and the carceral state. But the Orleans DA has transformed his office - immediately dismissing over 400 cases that were prosecuted under his predecessor - a majority of those were drug related.
When he ran for DA in 2020, Jason Williams, a former councilmember in New Orleans, pledged to free people from prison - already he “has granted new trials to nearly two dozen people convicted by split juries, announced he would no longer oppose parole applications, dropped his predecessor’s efforts to maintain life without parole sentences for people convicted when they were minors, and moved to secure the release of multiple wrongfully convicted people.”
“There are innocent people in jail,” said Williams. “There are people in jail for sentences that are far longer than they should be. … There are people who got convicted without a fair trial.”
Listen as Jason Williams talks with Everyday Injustice about the work he has done and the work that still remains to be done.
Vanguard Court Watch is a unique and innovative program that trains college interns on the law and journalism, sends them into the courts where they report and monitor on injustice in the system. Listen as they tell their stories about what they see and what they have learned in the process.
While the public has become aware of how various aspects of the criminal legal system produce unjust results, one area that many are less aware of is that things seemingly as simple as fines and fees can devastate millions of Americans who are poor, end up in debt, lose their vehicles and other impacts.
The Fines and Fees Justice has been working to identify the problems associated with fines and fees, educate the community and change laws.
They note: “Those who cannot immediately pay these costs face additional fees, license suspensions, loss of voting rights, arrest and jail. Stuck in a cycle of punishment and poverty, people can lose their jobs, their homes, and even their children. We have created a two-tier system of justice where poor people – and particularly communities of color – are disproportionately punished.”
Everyday Injustice speaks with FFJC co-director Joanna Weiss about fines and fees and how they impact the lives of poor Americans.
In 2020, San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar made headlines when she resigned from the California District Attorney Association (CDAA) after noting the organization has been opposing criminal justice reform for many years.
While that action was notable enough, it was even more so because Verber Salazar is not a progressive liberal like much of the reform movement instead she is a lifelong Republican in a relatively conservative county.
In a 2020 interview with the Vanguard, Salazar noted the CDAA’s opposition to Proposition 47, which cleaned up past criminal histories and felony convictions and changed the law where a person could steal up to $950 and get away with a misdemeanor (two separate parts of the same proposition), and Proposition 64, which legalized marijuana.
Her interview with Everyday Injustice she explained her support for reforms and the need to find a balance between protecting the public and opposing mass incarceration.
Dr. Vilasni Ganesh in November will be heading off to prison for 63 months away from her husband and children. Her husband, also a doctor is facing a one-year sentence himself. In mixed verdict, she was convicted of fraudulent billing -as her attorney explains, without any evidence of wrongdoing or intent.
The story as she and her attorney tell has so many layers. In her arguments to the Court of Appeals, she has claimed Insufficient Legal Representation. She was appalled that her defense attorney failed to make an affirmative defense, attempted to fire them, and denied this by the trial judge.
Moreover, she claims prosecutorial misconduct in that the prosecutor in the case presented spreadsheets that did not evidence fraud, as evidence that she committed fraud. The Government, her attorney now alleges, used irrelevant spreadsheets to obtain a conviction through the use of false evidence.
Listen to Dr. Ganesh and attorney Lisa Rasmussen discuss this massive injustice as the day tick away before Dr. Ganesh reports for her nearly five years of incarceration for a fraud that clearly was never committed.
On September 15, 2021, Nakia Porter at a press conference spoke out publicly about her ordeal with Solano County police.
Attorneys for Nakia Porter filed suit in Federal Court in Sacramento in August following an incident on August 6, 2020, where Porter and her father were driving from Oakland to their home in Sacramento. The vehicle was already stopped and in park when approached by Sheriff’s Deputies. She had stopped to take over driving for her father.
At the press conference in August, attorney Yasin Almadani explained that Porter, age 33 and weighing all of 125 pound “had done nothing wrong” when she was approached by the deputy and explained that they were simply switching seats.
In September, Nakia indicted the entire system. Hear her full comments.
Incumbent Alex Villanueva has become one of the most polarizing sheriff figures in the country. Now Eric Strong has emerged as a challenger to the incumbent.
“Leadership. That crisis of leadership has interfered with a course of calls for a modern and more transparent LA County Sheriff’s Department. It has undermined our honorable profession’s ability to deliver on our promise of a more safe and a more just future for Los Angeles,” Strong said during his announcement speech a few weeks ago.
Strong is leading his campaign with a promise to fight against deputy gangs and cliques with a promise to dismantle the dangerous groups growing within the department.
“As LA County Sheriff, my mission will be to enhance safety, protect victims of crime, and rid the Department of a culture that has allowed deputy gangs to fester. We can, and we will, make this a world-class department that Los Angeles can trust and be proud of,” said Strong.
Listen as Eric Strong talks about his vision for the department as well as his candidacy for sheriff in Los Angeles.
This week on Everyday Injustice featured women across the country whose loved ones were killed by police - whether it be sons, brothers, or partners.
Marissa Barrera in 2017 lost her brother Michael in Woodland, California to a police incident. The DA cleared the officers of wrongdoing, but she and her family have taken the matter to civil court and video shows Michael Barrera at one point informing officers that he couldn’t breathe, as usual they discounted his complaint and he ended up going into distress and dying.
Marissa has gone on to create a non-profit, Voices of Strength, to highlight the stories of so many victims of police violence across the nation and this week on Everyday Injustice we talk to a few of those women as they tell their stories unvarnished and unfiltered.
Family Outraged by Excited Delirium Diagnosis in Police Killing in Contra Costa County, California
It may have been a scene reminiscent of George Floyd, but unless the California AG or Contra Costa DA step into this, the police may well get away with it after the coroner ruled accidental death in the death of 30-year-old Angelo Quinto, a Filipino male with a recent history of mental impairment.
Quinto was grabbed from his mother’s arms and thrown to the floor in his home by Antioch police officers. After that, one officer handcuffed and placed his knee on the back of his neck, and at the same time another officer bent both of Angelo’s legs up and backward toward his back for an extended period of time, resulting in his death. Or at least that’s what attorneys for his family believe.
Civil Rights Attorney John Burris said, “Angelo’s death could have been avoided if the officers took the time to talk with Angelo instead of using similar restraints that killed George Floyd and, like George Floyd, Angelo said to the officers ‘please don’t kill me’ but the officers did exactly that.”
Everyday Injustice this week caught up with the family of Angelo Quinto as well as Attorney Ben Nausimbaum to discuss the death of Quinto and the coroner’s diagnosis of excited delirium.
Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 121: Be the Jury - Pilot Would Pay Jurors $100 a Day To Serve
One of the biggest problems in the criminal legal system is that the notion of being tried by a jury of one’s peers has been disgarded. A large number of people of color await trial in the system only to face a jury pool that is overly white, affluent, and retired.
That is because working people and people of color are unable to serve on juries given the hardship caused by lost wages.
AB 1452, authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting, would authorize a first-of-its-kind pilot program in San Francisco Superior Court. The program will compensate low-income jurors $100 a day for their jury service with the goal of establishing juries that are more reflective of San Francisco’s diverse communities.
“The right to a jury of one’s peers is at the core of our justice system, but it’s common for my office, and our clients, to see juries that do not reflect the diversity of our city and our communities,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “I began raising this issue as a line deputy public defender, based on what we were seeing in court and based on what we were hearing from the community. After becoming the elected Public Defender of San Francisco, I approached the Treasurer and suggested this concrete step to address what is really a nationwide problem. After years of hard work, I am pleased that it has now evolved into a bill that will bring us one step closer towards providing fairer trials. It will also hopefully increase civic engagement opportunities for potential jurors who are otherwise deprived of the right to serve.”
“As a champion for promoting diversity in our jury pools, I am proud to co-sponsor AB 1452. Justice and fairness demand that the jurors tasked with making decisions on behalf of the community actually reflect the diversity of our city. The pilot project established by AB 1452 would be an important step towards advancing diverse jury pools in San Francisco and I urge the legislature to pass this bill,” said San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Everyday Injustice discusses the legislation and the impact on the system in this week’s episodes.
GUESTS:
Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis, Chair of the Racial Justice Committee at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.
Anne Stuhldreher, Director of the Financial Justice Project in the Office of the Treasurer for the City and County of San Francisco.
Cesar McDowell chronicles his journey from San Quentin to becoming, while still incarcerated, the co-founder and CEO of Unite The People Inc., a non profit organization that promotes social justice and offers affordable legal services throughout the state of California.
After spending 20 years in prison and falling victim to the social inequality in our criminal justice system, McDowell founded his organization from his prison cell with the hope of saving all those who have been wrongly prosecuted and sentenced.
It is an incredible story of perseverance and redemption and McDowell walks the audience through it.
McDowell on Everyday Injustice shares his story about how he spent 20 years incarcerated in one of the CDCR's toughest facilities, San Quentin State Prison; under an illegal sentence.
Alana Mathews is running for DA for the office currently held by Anne Marie Schubert, who is not seeking re-election (and running for California AG).
She graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, becoming the first person in her family to earn a college degree. She went on to receive her law degree from McGeorge School of Law while raising her three children.
While serving as a Deputy District Attorney in Sacramento County, she worked her way up from misdemeanor jury trials to prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence, juvenile delinquency, general felony, and prison crime cases.
Alana Mathews now works for the Prosecutors Alliance of California, a coalition of reform-minded prosecutors working to promote criminal justice reform statewide and teaches at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.
Listen as Alana Mathews talks about her candidacy and the challenges facing the criminal legal system.
85 percent of those incarcerated will be released at some point. 7 in 10 people who are released will re-offend. If we are going to transform the criminal legal system, we need a better way to allow those who have been released to turn their lives around.
Meet Leslie Robinson, Inventor of the Recharge Beyond the Bars Re-entry game, Leslie is a therapist in New York City, and she was a Consultant for the foster care system for twenty years. Leslie is the President of Beyond the Bars LLC, CEO and Founder of Trance4mation Games, and the President and Founder of the non-profit, Trance4mation Nation, Inc
The RECHARGE Beyond the Bars Re-Entry Game, was created in 2013, to help incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people process and heal from their experiences and to reintegrate into their families and communities, as well as to process their incarceration experience with their peers. This game is presently being utilized in re-entry programs in and outside of prisons, mentoring programs, work release programs, maximum security, sex offender units, substance abuse treatment programs, by cognitive-behavioral therapists, in mental health units, prison literacy programs, life skills programs, restrictive housing units, in general population, probation groups, by families, in prison visits, by church and faith-based organizations, in classrooms, by Social Workers, and many more.
The Recharge Beyond the Bars Re-entry game is the world’s first product specifically designed to aid the social, emotional and communication struggles of presently and formerly incarcerated men and women.
For those whose lives have been filled with punishment and rejection, Recharge Offers a new experience of acceptance, appreciation, understanding and validation and builds bridges back home.
Listen as Leslie Robinson joins Everyday Injustice to discuss her story and the success of her approach.
On July 13, 2021, one of kind, radical attorney Tony Serra joined the Vanguard for a live webinar and podcast. At the age of 86, he is not only still practicing as an attorney but continues to have the drive and passion that has driven his long and storied career as an attorney.
Listen as he discusses his career, some of the notable cases he has defended and the Chief Stankowitz case.
Santa Clara Public Defender Sajid Khan recently announced he was running for District Attorney.
His announcement follows events of a year ago last summer when in response a pointed column by Khan, Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen threatened to initiate a whistleblower retaliation proceedings against the Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender.
“Santa Clara County needs a true progressive as its District Attorney. I will be that person,” he said. “As District Attorney for all people, I will be committed to truth-telling about systemic racism, shrinking mass criminalization, addressing root causes of crime, and bringing the criminal legal system in line with basic notions of justice and humanity.”
For the last 13 years, Khan has been a public defender serving Santa Clara County. He has fought for people’s constitutional rights, and against systemic racism, and against mass incarceration. He has sat in the county jails and juvenile hall, representing countless individuals.
Khan was born in San Jose to Muslim immigrants from Madras, India. His mother worked as a laboratory scientist at O’Connor Hospital, and his late father was a physicist in the semiconductor industry who established a mosque and later a school, both in Santa Clara.
Sajid Khan speaks to Everyday Injustice about his candidacy and his vision for transformative change in Santa Clara County.
Donald Watson was convicted of felony murder but thanks to SB 1437, the law by Nancy Skinner, that allows people convicted of murder who were not the actual killer or major participants to petition for resentencing, Watson was able to get released from prison.
During his time in prison, he had become a jailhouse lawyer and helped his fellow incarcerated individuals file motions and petitions. He has parlayed that into a business where he acts as a paralegal, filing motions and helped incarcerated individuals and others file motions with the court for release or resentencing.
Silverio Strong spent 32 years incarcerated off and on from the time he was 12. Finally, he got involved in a robbery and attempted murder and received a 20 year sentence. On Everyday Injustice he talks about going from the troubled young man to someone who helps mentor others and has put together a successful life following his release from prison.
He is now a spokesperson and board member for Hustle 2.0, a group that is led by formerly incarcerated to help the currently incarcerated, “Hustle 2.0 reduces crime, violence, and recidivism through evidence-based correspondence programs that equip incarcerated people with the tools to transform their lives by changing their thoughts and behaviors.”
Earlier this season on Everyday Injustice, we spoke with Flint Taylor who highlighted his years of fighting to expose the Chicago Torture Scandal. We also spoke with former Illinois Governor George Ryan who ended the death penalty in Illinois in part due to the torture scandal. And this week we talk more about the torture scandal and the death row 10 with four guests, two of whom were past survivors of the torture machine by former Police Captain Jon Burge.
Three of these men were tortured into making false confessions landing on death row. One remains incarcerated but the death penalty was ended in Illinois by Governor Ryan in part due to the efforts of the Death Row 10. This is a story of their work from the inside to expose this scandal and force the hand of the governor.
Mark Clements: Organizer Chicago Torture Justice Center
Ronnie Kitchen: Death row wrongfully convicted, Jon Burge torture survivor
Stanley Howard: D eath row wrongfully convicted, Jon Burge torture survivor
Joan Parkin: One of the activists who helped to pressure the governor to commute the sentences of the death row incarcerated people.
Prosecutorial misconduct continues to be widespread in the courts across the country. As a report from a decade ago discovered – with over 800 instances of documented prosecutorial misconduct, much of it serious with grave effects, courts, district attorneys, and bar associations “rarely hold prosecutors accountable for their misconduct. In fact, the whole system incentivizes misconduct by using “court wins” to measure prosecutorial success.”
Accountability NY is a non-profit coalition of law professors and public interest groups seeking consequences for prosecutorial misconduct.
Overview of the project:
• The power prosecutors have in the criminal justice system and how their misconduct frequently goes unnoticed • How harmful their misconduct is to individuals, families, communities, and to the legal system itself • Why grievances were the way Accountability NY approached this issue (Currently the only avenue for accountability in New York) • What this means nationally. This is a nationwide issue plus it is happening at a time when there is a national movement for police accountability -- police accountability and prosecutorial accountability go hand in hand.
Everyday injustice speaks with Steve Zeidman, Professor, Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, has spent the last 25 years working in the area of criminal defense.
Last year Assemblymember Ash Kalra authored a landmark bill that addresses racial discrimination in criminal sentencing and convictions. The California Racial Justice Act, which will prohibit racial discrimination in convictions and sentences. The act will prohibit it in all convictions and sentences. It also creates a process to challenge racial bias in trial or following conviction.
“California’s Civil Rights law clearly prohibits discrimination in housing, in employment, and public accommodation,” he explained last year. “But nowhere in California law is there a clear statement that racial discrimination will not be tolerated in our criminal justice system.
One compromise he made to get the bill passed was there was no look back mechanism. This year he introduced AB 2542 which allow for the act to apply retroactively.
He explained, “While passing last year’s bill was a major step towards addressing institutionalized and implicit racial bias in our courts, the work is not done. It is incumbent upon us to make sure that all Californians are afforded an opportunity to pursue justice by making the measure retroactive—ensuring that these new protections are rightfully extended to those who have already been harmed by unfair convictions and sentences.”
Listen as the Assemblymember explains the Racial Justice Act and why it’s needed.
When the California Supreme Court ruled in March in the Humphrey decision, that the judges are required to consider a person’s ability to pay when setting their bail amounts, a big question was whether that would lead to more pretrial release or whether judges would simply detain more people without bail, citing a public safety concern.
In a new policy brief released in late May by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab, the early results show that when San Francisco was required to set more affordable bail amounts, judges in San Francisco chose to release more people to intensive supervision programs instead. This new analysis provides a preview of what may happen in other counties after the California Supreme Court applied that decision to the rest of the state earlier this year.
Talking about this study and what it means is Dr. Johanna Lacoe, Research Director at the California Policy Lab, and a co-author of the analysis.
Sacramento area Attorney Keith Staten, heads up the Sacramento Conflict Counsel joins Everyday Injustice to discuss policing and his reaction to the Chauvin verdict.
He also discusses issues in Sacramento, problems with the Community Police Review Commission as well as some of the high profile cases like Joseph Mann and Stephon Clark.
Last week, Larry Krasner who was among the first wave of progressive DA’s to be elected in 2017, won a resounding reelection in the Democratic primary after a former Deputy DA, who he had fired in 2018, attempted to take him down with the help of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).
However, he won with 65 percent of the vote.
The primary was widely seen as referendum on whether a wave of prosecutors elected on promises of criminal justice reform – elected on things like bail reform, reducing the incarcerated population, police accountability, and more – would be blamed for rising crime. Everyday Injustice reached out to NYU Law Professor Rachel Barkow, author of the book, Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration and ACLU Director of their National Political and Advocacy Department, Udi Ofer to discuss what the victory means for the national movement and for the prospects of Chesa Boudin and George Gascon in California, both of whom face recall from similar forces.
Cynthia Rodriguez, a retired public defender is running for DA in Yolo County, California - a relatively small county, next to Sacramento and the home of UC Davis.
She is taking on four time incumbent Jeff Reisig. In 2018, Reisig narrowly averted defeat when he beat Public Defender Dean Johansson by a very narrow margin.
Reisig has recently taken on a reformist tone, though he signed onto the letter by Ann Marie Schubert opposing good time credits that would lead to an early release of incarcerated people, he is a support of AB 1542 which reformers worry would create mandatory treatment for drug addicts, and he has spoken out strongly against zero bail.
Listen as Rodriguez talks about Reisig's record and discusses her own reformist agenda.
On May 6, the Vanguard held a special live webinar featuring LA District Attorney George Gascón and Alameda Public Defender Brendon Woods on Policing and Race in America.
Listen as two leaders in criminal justice reform discuss the conviction of Derek Chauvin, what has and has not changed since Rodney King and the future of policing.
La Tasha Williams is running for judge in Dauphin County Pennsylvania. She interned in a public defender’s office and has worked as a prosecutor most recently.
According to her campaign page: “I am running to be your next judge on the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas because I am deeply committed to being a positive change agent in our system of justice. If elected, I promise to consistently bring to the courtroom my integrity, compassion, and experience which will ensure that all parties receive fair treatment and equity. I promise to treat all parties with dignity and respect, to include the pro se litigant who is oftentimes navigating unfamiliar waters. I will work towards eliminating the incidence of wrongful convictions, promoting earlier intervention for abused & neglected vulnerable populations, advancing alternatives to incarceration for chemically dependent persons, and exposing children living in dysfunctional homes to healthy life choices.”
Listen as she discusses her candidacy and the criminal legal system on Everyday Injustice.
Recent polling by Data for Progress for the Appeal taken between March 5 and March 7 found public opinion since the murder of George Floyd has shifted to support for alternatives to policing and the ways in which communities can reimagine safety outside of armed officers.
They found, “As many as half of the individuals killed by law enforcement have a disability; and people with an untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter. Emergency First Responder (EFR) programs differ from place to place, but the purpose is the same: armed law enforcement is often not the best tool for responding to a range of requests for emergency assistance.”
A new national poll from Data for Progress and The Lab, a policy vertical of The Appeal, “shows overwhelming support among likely voters for creating non-police emergency first responders to handle emergency calls that involve mental health issues, substance use disorders, health and safety check-ins, and people experiencing homelessness—and to reallocate law enforcement funding in order to do so.”
To discuss these polling results, Everyday Injustice spoke with Alana Sivin and Emily Galvin-Almanza of the Appeal.
Alana Sivin is a Senior Legal Analyst and Co-Host of Appeal Live. She previously served as Senior Legislative Counsel to the Criminal Justice Committee at the New York City Council, where she focused primarily on drafting legislation intended to reduce incarceration and improve jail conditions. Prior to that experience, she worked as public defender at New York County Defender Services in Manhattan, where she represented indigent New Yorkers charged with crimes.
Emily Galvin-Almanza is a Senior Legal Analyst and Co-Host of Appeal Live. She worked as a public defender for most of a decade, first in California and then in New York. Emily is also the co-founder and executive director of Partners For Justice, a nonprofit that trains and places college graduates in public defenders’ offices to fight the enmeshed penalties of legal-system involvement, obtain access to vital services, and make low-income community members’ voices heard.
*The interview was conducted after the death of Daunte Wright but before the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case.
In less than 100 DAs, Manhattan will elect a new DA which would only be the fifth in the last 80 years, replacing four term incumbent Cy Vance.
There are a host of progressive candidates vying for the Democratic nomination including Assemblymember Dan Quart.
Earlier this month, Dan Quart release his public safety plan and one of his commes was: “We do not have to choose between a fairer and a safer city.” We really have created this kind of false dichotomy - where people have bought into this notion that if we reform the system, we become less safe.”
Listen as Quart talks about his plan and burning issues like police reform and Rikers Island.
George Ryan was a Republican Governor of Illinois. He started his career as an advocate for the death penalty. But during his time as Governor, between cases of wrongful convictions and a torture scandal in Chicago, he came to the conclusion that the death penalty was flawed and first he put a pause on the death penalty, then he commuted the sentences of everyone on death row to life and ended the death penalty in Illinois.
He writes: “I realized that capital punishment was a bad idea, not because there weren’t cases where death was arguably a fit punishment, but because we would never design a legal system able to identify only the right cases for execution.”
Last fall, he and journalist Maurice Possley published the book, "Until I Could Be Sure" which captured his thinking as he transformed from advocate to crusader against the death penalty.
It was the 80s, and child sex cases and ritual cult cases were the paranoia. As the petitioners put it, at "the time in which the allegations arose - what has been deemed a period of "near hysteria" about child sexual abuse in the United States - the allegations were believed and continued unchecked throughout the prosecution of the three adults."
That coupled with faulty science and lack of understanding at the susceptibility of children to tell adults what they wanted to hear led to the wrongful conviction of Junior Chandler.
Everyday Injustice speaks to five people from the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic including Founder James Coleman and Theresa Newman, co-director of the Wrongful Convictions about this massive injustice and the efforts underway to free Mr. Chandler.
Cy Vance announced he would not seek reelection after four terms as DA of NY. Whoever succeeds him will be just the fourth DA in the last 80 years.
Vance has left a mixed legacy - pushing through some reforms, tussling with former President Trump, criticized for mishandling high profile sexual predator cases and failing to reform Rikers and other problems.
Aboushi is one of several reformers vying for the Democratic nomination. Listen as she discusses what electing a woman of color - the first of each - to Manhattan DA would mean for criminal justice reform.
A few years ago Ronnie Greene told the stunning story of the police shooting and killing completely innocent families fleeing the horror of Katrina on a bridge in New Orleans. Two innocent people died. Several others severely injured. The police claimed to have been shot at first and sought attempted murder charges against some, but the charges did not hold.
What eventually emerged was a stunning misjudgment by the police and a sloppy but stunning attempt to cover it up.
Despite the brazenness of the conduct by police and their actions, this incident has not drawn near the scrutiny of many other officer involved shootings.
Everyday Injustice talks with Greene, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, about his amazing account, what happened and why.
Kim Foxx is trying to reform one of the most notorious counties in the Country - see what she is doing about issues like wrongful convictions, police shootings and bail reform.
Kim Foxx took over in the wake of the Laquan Macdonald killing and revelations in Chicago - a city that has had its share of scandals from the torture scandal and Lt. Jon Burge to the federal report on policing to one of the highest incidents of wrongful convictions in the country. Kim Foxx talks about policing in Chicago and her efforts at reforming the system.
Everyday Injustice checks in with Laura Conover who was elected in the fall as Pima County Attorney in Arizona. She talks about her first few months on the job, what she has been able to accomplish and what she is still looking to accomplish.
Justin Brooks has headed the California Innocence Project since 1999. Over that time, the US has learned a lot about wrongful convictions and while it remains exceedingly difficult to free people wrongly convicted, the existence of wrongful convictions in the criminal legal system has helped to bring about reform. Listen as Justin Brooks talks about the state of wrongful convictions and cases like Brian Banks and JoAnn Parks.
In January Alec Karakatsanis argued before the Supreme Court of California on the need to end cash bail in the Humphrey case.
The civil rights lawyer, social justice advocate founder and Executive Director of Civil Rights Corps, a Washington D.C. impact litigation nonprofit.
Listen as Alec discusses with Everyday Injustice about the Humphrey case and injustice of cash bail.
July protests in San Luis Obispo where protesters blocked a local freeway turned into an arrest of Tianna Arrata and several co-defendants who face criminal charges in San Luis Obispo. After a local judge recused the DA's office and local prosecutor Dan Dow for bias, the AG's office has continued the prosecution.
Everyday injustice talks with Curtis Briggs, Brian Ford, and Vince Barrientos of Pier 5 Law Offices about the case.
Mike Schmidt won the Willamot District Attorney last summer, preparing to take over in January, when the outgoing incumbent resigned and he was appointed to start immediately. Right after his win, Portland was hit with protests, federal troops and turmoil.
Schmidt talks to Everyday Injustice about the experience, what he has done as prosecutor and the situation on the ground in Portland.
Diana Becton is a former judge, appointed as DA in Contra Costa County and then won in her own right. With the appointment of AG Xavier Becerra by Biden to a federal post, the AG has become one of the most coveted posts with a lot of people maneuvering behind the scenes to get the appointment from Governor Newsom.
Becton recently received the endorsement by the Legislative Black Caucus. She talks about her views on criminal justice reform and why a reformer is needed as California Attorney General.
It started with the murder of Fred Hampton in 1969 but tracks the Chicago Police torture cases which started with Andrew Wilson, a death row prisoner who was tortured by officers including the infamous Area 2 Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.
Attorney Flint Taylor who was in his early 20s in 1969 was there for it all and captures it beautifully in the book, "The Torture Machine," which he notes has a double-meaning, first the literal machine used by Burge and his men at Area 2 and second, as a metaphor for the notorious Chicago Political Machine headed by Daleys.
The account is extraordinary and the scope is mindboggling. The Wilson case occurred in 1982 after he was forced to confess to the 1982 murder of two Chicago police officers, and the account ends (but not court matters) in 2015.
In an age of phony conspiracies like QAnon, the notion that Fred Hampton was assassinated by the FBI and Chicago police is amply backed with documents, many of them uncovered during the 1971 burglary of the FBI Field Office in Media Pennsylvania and others turned over by the Church Committee's 1976 report on the illegal activities of the FBI.
Taylor remains an excellent chronicler of these unthinkable events that he personally helped to bring to the surface. The torture scenes are reminiscent of something out of Abu Ghraib. The uncovering of the torture and subsequent false confessions was a key reason that former Governor George Ryan put a moratorium and ultimately commutted all the Illinois death sentences, ending the death penalty.
Cristine Soto Deberry is former Chief of Staff under both SF District Attorney George Gascon and Chesa Boudin as well as Deputy Chief of Staff to Gavin Newsom when he was Sacramento Mayor.
In the fall, she became executive director of the Prosecutor's Alliance, a non-profit seeking to bring reform the criminal justice system as an alternative to the California District Attorney's Association.
Four California DA's are members - representing nearly one-third of the California population - Chesa Boudin (San Francisco), George Gascon (LA), Diana Becton (Contra Costa), and Tori Verber-Salazer (San Joaquin).
Deberry on Everyday Injustice discussed the reform movement as well as recent pushback against both Boudin and Gascon.
Taking on the policies of the incumbent DA and Sheriff, JoAnn Walker, a SF Police Officer, and Pamela Price, a Civil Rights Attorney are running for Alemeda County Sheriff and DA as a team.
Walker has been a police officer in San Francisco for over 25 years and is looking to bring change to the Alameda County Sheriff, taking on issues like police reform and the Santa Rita Sheriff.
Pamela Price is running a second time, after losing to Nancy O'Malley in 2018, she is looking to bring things like bail reform, police accountability and criminal justice reform to the DA's office.
Listen as they passionately discuss their candidacies on Everyday Injustice.
This week's guest on Everyday Injustice, Adnan Khan, is the Executive Director of ReStore Justice which he co-founded while incarcerated. While in prison, he inspired and helped to launch legislation that dealt with the Felony Murder Rule - SB 1437 - which we have been tracking for the last year and a half.
Khan discusses COVID and the devastation it has wrought to incarcerated populations and its intersection with mass incarceration.
Everyday Injustice features Jessica Pishko, a writer, lawyer, and consultant who focuses on sheriff accountability and jail decarceration. She is currently advising nonprofit organizations on sheriff accountability campaigns. She has a JD from Harvard Law School and an MFA from Columbia University.
In a NY Times article in 2019, she noted that sheriffs "lack even the most basic independent oversight and supervision. In most states, there are few or no ways to hold them accountable, even when they steal, lie or harm others. There are almost no civilian oversight commissions, no uniform disciplinary procedures, no reporting requirements in most states. In fact, sheriffs are generally afforded special protections like complete autonomy, a lack of term limits and the power to hire and fire at will, making it difficult to remove them from office.”
Among the Sheriffs discussed - LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones, Orange County and Kern County.
Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby joined the Everyday Injustice podcast to discuss her office's new sentencing review unit. The unit will review cases of certain incarcerated people to determine whether the office supports their release.
“Our state has a mass incarceration problem caused by lengthy and excessive sentences, which are disproportionately imposed on people of color. My office’s duty to fairness and justice does not end at sentencing. Evidence shows that people age-out of crime, and revisiting harsh sentences demonstrates our belief in rehabilitation and redemption,” said State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. “At the same time, amid a second wave of COVID-19, I have a responsibility to protect public health by reducing the incarcerated population to prevent the further spread of this disease.”
She discussed the strong racial inequalities and also the limits of the current Maryland law to look back and release people sentenced to lengthy sentences who have aged out of the point where they represent a danger to society.
While the advent of DNA testing and the Innocence Project pushed wrongful convictions into the mainstream consciousness. There was important work done on wrongful convictions dating back well into the last century and through the work of trail blazers like Jim McCloskey with Centurion Ministries. Martin Yant's book from nearly 30 years ago marked the first comprehensive account of wrongful convictions in several decades, but predated the rise of DNA testing - and yet it in many ways it reads like it would if it were written today.
In February of 2019, longtime legendary public defender Jeff Adachi died. Taking over the position as the only elected public defender in California was Mano Raju. His first 18 months has seen not only the sudden ascent to head the office, but the COVID epidemic, a series of protests for racial reform, and a tumultuous election. Everyday Injustice discusses these and the role of being of public dfender with Mano Raju.
This week on Everyday Injustice we speak with Michael Bobelian, author of the Marel Palace who chronicles the 1968 Court battle over Abe Fortas’s nomination to elevate him from associate to Chief Justice by LBJ. The discussion has interesting parallels to this current debate over Amy Barrett's nomination that went through last week.
Bobelian argues that the Fortas battle marked the turning point in the way and manner in which these were conducted. He agrees that the media got their history wrong here - that Barrett's confirmation being confirmed was not the exception - that of Abe Fortas and Merrick Garland who were denied were.
Among the other topics of discussion: the forgotten legacy of Abe Fortas who played a pivotal role at three moments in American history, why Democrats have ended up on the short-end of the stick in their court battles and the prospect for Democrats - should Biden win the presidency - reform the court. As Bobelian points out in his book, most efforts have been disastrous and it would be a tall order to do anything that calls for a constitutional amendment.
For more information go to: davisvanguard.org
Andrew Warren was a federal prosecutor who ran for Florida State Attorney in Hillsborough County (Tampa) in 2016 and is now running for reelection. He ran as a reformer. Listen as he discusses issues of protests, police accountability and criminal justice reform.
Dan Quart has been in the NY State Assembly for nearly a decade. Now he is among many running for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, a position currently held by Cy Vance, but it is unknown if by 2021, he will seek another turn. In the meantime, Quart is positioning himself as a reformer on a variety of issues which he discusses on Everyday Injustice.
David Greenwald (Vanguard Editor) and Jordon Varney (Vanguard at UC Davis City Editor) host a discussion with the three young council candidates: Kelsey Fortune, Connor Gorman and Dillan Horton. Discussion ranged from policing, to race, to commissions and rental issues.
Ben Pogue is a candidate for the Ninth Circuit Solicitor in South Carolina, representing Charleston and Berkley Counties. He is looking to bring reform and accountability to the criminal justice system. During the interview he talked about the prosecutor's office's failure to bring accountability in the police killing of unarmed Walter Scott, who he said the solicitor "blamed for his own murder."
Everyday INjustice sat down with four individuals in the community of Davis California looking to make changes to policing at the local level. The participants: Morgan Poindexter,Aarthi Sekar, Lupita Torres, and Dillan Horton. The discussion ranged from data on racial profiling, race and policing, to alternative models - defunding the police, reimagining policing and CAHOOTS.
Elected in November 2019 in San Francisco as a reformer, Chesa Boudin has been on the job for nine months and already accomplished a lot. We discuss some of the reforms - racial disparities, police accountability, the post conviction review, and much more.
In the wake of George Floyd's killing, California legislators put forward a number of police reforms - many of which died prior to getting to a vote. One of those was Senator Bradford's SB 731 which would allow for police officers who committed misconduct to be decertified and not allowed to serve as officers. California is only one of five states that doesn't have such a process.
Everyday Injustice podcast covers criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and more. – Episode 76: It Could Happen to You Jeffrey Deskovic and Bill Bastuk. Deskovic was wrongly convicted at age 16 and released after 17 years in prison, has become a lawyer and founded the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation. Bastuk wrongly accused of a crime but acquitted. The two have started It Could Happen to You. They helped to pass the Prosecutorial Misconduct Commission in New York and are working to bring it to other areas of the country, including California.
They are holding a justice summit on October 9 – details - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pathways-to-a-new-culture-of-accountability-in-criminal-justice-tickets-120835294619
Everyday Injustice talks with Yolo County Public Defender Tracie Olson who discusses Public Defense work, defunding the police, officer involved shootings, racial disparities, and zero bail.
Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton is not like most sheriffs, his approach to law enforcement looks to reduce racial disparities and mass incarceration. He has a different take on defunding the police than many, but looks to change policing and looks to tools other than simply enforcement to deal with many of society's problems.
USC Professor Jody Armour wrote the provocative book, "N*gga Theory" and on everyday injustice we talk about issues like racism, language, symbols such as the confederate flag as well as well mass incarceration and concentrated poverty. Want to understand racism in America - listen to this podcast and read his book.
Everyday Injustice speaks to Brendon Woods, the chief Public Defender in Alameda County, the only Black Chief Public Defender in the state of California. He discusses mass incarceration, criminal justice reform, policing and race.
Last July, DA Jaime Esparaza announced he would not seek election after serving 28 years. In 2016, Yvonne Rosales, running as a reformer a reformer narrowly lost to Esparaza.
Rosales who began her career as an Assistant District Attorney before going into private practice. She is pushing for reforms in the criminal justice system and discussed issues like police accountability, mass incarceration and wrongful convictions during her interview with Everyday Injustice.
The primary runoff starts on June 29 and Election Day is July 14.
Since May 25 and the death of George Floyd at the hands of officers in Minnesota, protesters have taken to the streets and the nation has been debating policing and the legacy of racism.
Everyday Injustice speaks to Calvin Handy, a retired police chief from UC Davis with decades of experience in law enforcement who discusses the problems with policing today and ways to correct these problems into the future.
Franky Carrillo was one of the cases featured on Netflix’s series, “The Innocence Files,” the story begins in 1991 when Donald Sarpy was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting as he was standing in the driveway of his home in Lynwood, California. There were six witnesses to the murder, but none of them got a good look at the shooter due to the dark conditions.
Nevertheless, pressured by a sheriff’s deputy, then 16 year old Franky Carrillo was identified and convicted of murder.
All six witnesses testified at Carrillo’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. By the second trial, a key witness, Scott Turner recanted his testimony, but despite no physical evidence linking Carrillo to the crime, the jury convicted him and sentenced him to life in prison.
Ellen Eggers, a deputy state public defender, met Carrillo in prison and took on his case. Eggers ultimately connected Carrillo to the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, which handled his case pro bono.
On March 14, 2011, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Paul Bacigalupo vacated Carrillo’s conviction based on the eyewitness recantations and two other men having confessed to the shooting. Lisa Rea from Restorative Justice International and David Greenwald from the Davis Vanguard speak to Franky Carrillo about his case, what he has been able to accomplish since his release, and the impact of wrongful convictions and the need for restorative justice.
Restorative Justice International (RJI) and the Davis Vanguard have been partnering to launch the Wrongful Conviction Project (WCP). The project shines a light on wrongful convictions while urging the application of restorative justice to seek systemic reform of our justice system(s).
The project produces joint podcasts on wrongful convictions, work on prosecutorial reform and support public policy changes needed to right the wrong of wrongful convictions.
On May 19, Walter Barton became the first person executed in the US in over two months, convicted of killing an 81 year old acquaintance nearly three decades ago.
But the Innocence Project and others believed him wrongfully convicted. The Midwest Innocence Project believed that the evidence was unreliable.
Barton was convicted based on the testimony of an unreliable jailhouse informant and the use of bloodstain pattern analysis — a forensic method whose validity scientists have questioned.
The only piece of physical evidence used to connect Barton to the murder was a spot of blood found on his shirt, which Barton has always said got on his shirt while he was pulling the victim’s granddaughter off her body — a fact the victim’s granddaughter confirmed to investigators. New expert analysis has revealed that the spot is consistent with Barton’s account of events, and that the blood was not a result of spatter from the crime.
Significantly, the victim was stabbed 50 times, and the real perpetrator of the crime would have been covered with blood, which Barton was not.
Everyday Injustice speaks to Walter Barton's wife Bebra Barton and longtime friend, Paula Skillicorn.
Melissa Mark-Viverito, born in Puerto Rico, has been a councilmember in New York City representing areas of the Bronx for several terms and she is running to replace longtime incumbent Jose Serrano.
She is running on a platform that includes criminal justice reform and talked extensively about efforts to close down Rikers Island, the notorious jail in New York, bail reform and stop and frisk.
Mimi Rocah is a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, serving from February 2001 until October 2017.
She is running for DA in Westchester County, NY. She is running on a platform of reform looking to impose though ethical standards and transparency to the office she believes is lacking in both.
She is also looking at issues such as decarceration, bail reform, and other key issues of the progressive reform movement.
Matt Toporowski is running for DA in Albany, NY. A current defense attorney and former prosecutor, he is challenging the incumbent DA in the Democratic primary, scheduled for June 23.
Albany County DA David Soares headed the state's DA Association last year and has led a pushback against some of the enacted reforms by the state legislature - filing a lawsuit against a prosecutorial misconduct commission, the nation’s first independent commission to investigate prosecutorial conduct.
Soares also pushed for the state to pull back on bail reform. When he announced his reelection campaign this year, he cited these reforms as "threats to public safety."
Matt Toporowski by contrast says he wants to use the influence of the DA's office to champion progressive change in the criminal justice system.
In the interview with Everyday Injustice, he talks about ways to reduce mass incarceration, release people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and about the thrust of his Compassionate Prosecution goals.
To learn about his progressive platform, visit MattforAlbany.com.
Kim Gardner was elected chief prosecutor in St. Louis in 2016. Since then she has been taking on the system - the first black circuit attorney in St. Louis, in January she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that accuses the city, the city's police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office.
The lawsuit among other things alleges the city's police union "has gone out of its way to support white officers accused of perpetrating acts of violence and excessive force against African American citizens."
An independent watchdog has compiled thousands of comments made by police officers on their public Facebook pages and has determined that "a number of St. Louis officers had posted racist and offensive content on social media over a period of years."
In addition Kim Gardner, whose office looked into the conviction of Lamar Johnson, came the conclusion that he was wrongly convicted and deserves a new trial, but she is being fought by the state Attorney General.
The state legislature has pushed to take away power from Kim Gardner, with legislation that would allow the attorney general's office to have the authority to prosecute some crimes that St. Louis area prosecutors decide not to pursue.
Listen as Kim Gardner talks about her battles with the state as she tries to reform criminal justice in St. Louis.
Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Joe Gonzales took office in January of 2019 on a pledge to reform the office, restore public confidence, and make the office more accountable to the voters.
Since being elected he has pushed for reforms in the criminal justice system and looking at ways to reduce the jail population - before and since the COVID crisis.
In the fall of 2019, he sent a letter to Governor Abbott, noting new evidence and numerous witnesses that recently have come forward in the Rodney Reed case and urged him to delay the death penalty.
"I do not know if Rodney Reed is guilty or innocent, but the harm done by executing a potentially innocent man is immeasurable," Gonzales wrote. "There is no harm in taking our time to ensure we get it right."
In 1981, Jodie Sinclair was a journalist visiting the Angola Prison to do a story on the newly reinstated death penalty. She met Billy Sinclair, who had been sentenced to death for his role in a robbery gone wrong, had his sentence reduced to life and eventually earning parole in 2006.
She fell in love and married him in the early 80s, beginning a 25 year fight for his freedom. Joining her on the podcast was Billy Sinclair, they talked about the book, the conditions at Angola, his role as a journalist and whistleblower, and the death penalty and prison reform.
Jacquelyn Esser is running for DA in Honululu, Hawaii. She was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and moved to Hawaiʻi in 2000 to attend the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She graduated in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and earned a law degree at the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law.
She became a public defender and now is a candidate for prosecutor - one of six in the race.
She said, “I am running for Prosecutor because I have seen firsthand how our criminal justice system is failing the people of Hawaiʻi and wasting taxpayer dollars. I am the first deputy public defender to run for Honolulu Prosecutor. I know how broken our criminal justice system is and I know how to fix it.”
She discusses the unique issues facing Hawaii, but also the systemic problems.
She says: “We need to focus on prosecuting corruption and violent crimes, while diverting low-level offenders into treatment. We need to reduce our jail and prison population through bail reform and community-based treatment, give our children the resources they need to succeed, and bring the highest ethical standards to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.”
Pamela Price ran for DA in Alameda County, home of Oakland in California but was unsuccessful in 2018 in knocking off incumbent Nancy O'Mally.
Price, a civil rights attorney, ran on a platform that vowed to enact a series of criminal justice reforms if she defeated the incumbent who is a traditional tough on crime prosecutor.
In the podcast she talks about the problems of police accountability that are ongoing in Oakland and Alameda under the current DA. Those problems continued this year when the police accountability commision fired the police chief. And the failure to enact criminal justice reform in Alameda County.
Arlington Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti was elected overwhelmingly in November after stunning incumbent prosecutor Theo Stamos by a 52-48 margin.
She ran a progressive campaign centered on criminal justice reform during a contentious and expensive primary.
Her focus on reform has turned her into a target for reactionary criticis.
As the Washington Post wrote recently: "Ms. Dehghani-Tafti is part of a new generation of prosecutors who have criticized tough-on-crime policies and have advanced an agenda for a smarter, more equitable, more compassionate judicial approach. That agenda may upset the status quo..."
Recently her efforts to deliver on her promise "have run into opposition from judges who have taken highly unusual — and some say inappropriate — steps to undermine her discretion as the jurisdiction's top elected prosecutor."
She told Everyday Injustice that one her main principles: "I don't want to make people felons if we don't have to."
Anand Jon Alexander was a rising star in the fashion industry in 2007 when he was arrested and ultimately convicted of one count of rape and many counts of lesser sexual offenses. Although there were no injuries on anyone and he had no history of violence, he was sentenced to 59 years to life in prison.
He has spent over 13 years in prison and barely survived a racial hate crime stabbing in 2019. He is suing the State of California for an undisclosed amount.
Joining Everyday Injustice is attorney Tim Milner, who has been working on the Commutation case.
Attorney Tim Milner explained that he has been a lawyer for 40 years and usually tends to shy away from scandalous sex cases, but this was an exceptional case. “This man is innocent,” he said. “He also had one of the worst trials that I’ve seen.” He noted that he has done at least 80 trials and “this guy did not get a fair shake."
Also joining is Amy Povah, from the CAN-DO foundation.
Amy Povah herself served nine years in prison before President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence—a 24-year sentence for conspiracy charges in a high profile MDMA (Ecstasy) case dating back to 1989. She now serves as an advocate for mostly federal clemency cases.
She was involved in the three most recent commutations by President Trump.
“What concerns me about Anand,” she said, is that “clemency is about mercy. So many people receive clemency who are not innocent… The sentence he received is so disproportionate to a normal case with the same allegations. He was convicted on very thin evidence.”
One of the incarcerated people on Anand Jon's yard also joins the show to discuss conditions at Donavan under the specter of COVID-19.
In February, Senator Scott Wiener introduced new criminal justice reform legislation, Senate Bill 938. This bill would amend the standards used for evaluating expert testimony and forensics in court pre- and post-conviction. Faulty forensic and scientific evidence, provided by expert witnesses, are the second most common reason that individuals are wrongfully convicted for crimes they did not commit.
Today, courts have discretion over which expert testimonies are admissible. Studies show that courts accept most forensic science and expert testimony without sufficient scrutiny, leaving significant room for imprecision and human error. This error leads to the high rate of false convictions. Expert testimony that fails to rely on sound logic should not be considered expert testimony at all.
SB 938 additionally strengthens the grounds on which individuals wrongfully convicted of a crime based on unreliable expert testimony can seek post-conviction relief. This provision will help exonerate innocent people across California.
“Wrongful convictions cause concentric circles of harm: to the wrongfully convicted and their communities, to the crime victims who were told a false story and face re-traumatization, to the jurors who unwittingly participated in the injustice, and to the integrity of the system as a whole. I applaud Senator Wiener’s efforts to safeguard against wrongful convictions by keeping unreliable science out of the courtroom,” said San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
SB 938 is sponsored by the California Innocence Project, the Loyola Project for the Innocent, and the Northern California Innocence Project.
Eric Gonzalez was appointed the DA of Kings County (Brooklyn), New York in 2016 after Ken Thompson, his predecessor died. In 2017, he won his own term.
We talked extensively about the COVID-19 threat to Brooklyn and also the conditions at Rikers Island, the notorious jail he referred to in the interview as a "hell hole." He was very critical of the failure to get people who did not need to be incarcerated and high risk individuals off the island.
In addition, we talked about more traditional reform efforts - such as bail reform which NY turned back. We also talked about their work on behalf of the wrongly convicted through the well respected Convictions Integrity Unit.
Ronnie Long has served nearly 44 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was arrested in 1976 on trespass charges, charged and later convicted of rape, sentenced to 80 years and has been in prison for more than 40 years despite evidence of an unfair trial and that he was wrongly convicted.
We talk with Jamie Lau with the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic.
Ronnie Long had his case reviewed this year by a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, who rejected his request for a new trial. However, following a dissent by Judge Thacker, the entire court will hear his claims at some point.
Mr. Lau discusses the case - the poor identification technique, the racially charged atmosphere of North Carolina in 1976, the all-white jury, the evidence that the prosecution withheld until 2015 and much more.
In 1989 she was a young mother who lost her kids in a tragic fire. Except the investigators at the time, using archaic methods, determined that it wasn't a tragic fire, it was arson and therefore murder and on the basis of this evidence, Ms. Parks was sentenced to life in prison.
But we have learned a lot about arson since then - and we now know that things that used to be taken as telltale signs of arson are now flawed science and were likely if not certainly accidental.
However, the system is not not able to correct those problems - even as experts know that the science is bad.
I learned about this case through a book called "Burned" by Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist Edward Humes. Tragically the judicial system could not or would not exonerate Ms. Parks, but on Friday Governor Newsom commuted her sentence which will allow her to attempt parole.
Joining Everyday Injustice to talk about the Joann Parks case is California Innocence Project Attorney Raquel Cohen.
Sim Gill - born in India, is the first Indian-American prosecutor in the US and one of only two elected Democrats in the entire state of Utah. He first was elected in November 2010.
He has enacted a series of reforms - and has battled the Utah Attorney General in trying to get conviction integrity statewide in Utah.
He has also pushed through a Criminal Justice Reform effort, the first in the nation, which would allow for the reduction of convictions for more than 12,000 people.
He has been a strong supporter of bail reform and filed an amicus curiae brief in a Fifth Circuit case, urging the court to affirm defendants’ right to counsel at initial bail hearings.
He also requires his prosecutors to visit jails where they send folks, so they can see the conditions and consequences of their policies.
Everyday Injustice spoke to Sim Gill, who discussed these and other things his office has done over his first decade in office.
Michael Dougherty came to Boulder from Manhattan and worked as a deputy in the DA's for nearly twenty years before being appointed in 2018 to replace the long time prosecutor. He then won on his own. He now is running to be elected to his first four term.
He was a strong supporter of the effort recently completed with the governor's signing to end the death penalty.
“I’m strongly opposed to the death penalty, and it should be abolished in Colorado,” he told legislators. “I don’t believe any state or country should put its citizens to death.”
He also talked about efforts at bail reform - with a low-level bail reform already in place statewide and the expansion of the Boulder County restorative justice program.
Buta Biberai was elected last year as Commonwealth Attorney in Loudon County Virginia. She ran as the progressive reformer and became the first new top prosecutor in 16 years.
Criminal justice reform looks a bit different in suburban Virginia, what has traditionally been more red but has over time shifted.
We talk about the issues and challenges of reform in Virginia and it how it differs from other places that we have spoken about.
Maurice Caldwell was convicted in 1991 in San Francisco Superior Court in the June 1990 death of Judy Acosta, who was shot dead during an apparent drug deal that went sour in the Alemany public housing project in San Francisco.
A woman would identify Mr. Caldwell as one of the gunmen and based solely on her testimony that she saw him standing under a light pole, Mr. Caldwell was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Years later, Caldwell wrote to the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University School of Law, which began investigating his case.
On December 16, 2010, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charles Haines granted a motion for new trial brought by the Innocence Project. Hanes ruled that Caldwell’s attorney was constitutionally ineffective for failing to investigate Caldwell’s innocence and that had he done his job properly, there was a reasonable probability that the jury would have acquitted Caldwell.
Since his release in 2011, Maurice Caldwell has attempted and failed to get compensation for his time in prison.
Listen as Lisa Rea from Restorative Justice International and David Greenwald from the Davis Vanguard speak to Maurice Caldwell and Paige Kaneb from the Northern California Innocence Project, who helped get him free.
Restorative Justice International (RJI) and the Davis Vanguard will be partnering to launch The Wrongful Conviction Project (WCP). The project will shine a light on wrongful convictions while urging the application of restorative justice to seek systemic reform of our justice system(s). The project will produce joint podcasts on wrongful convictions, work on prosecutorial reform and support public policy changes needed to right the wrong of wrongful convictions.
In November of 2019, the 4th District Court of Appeal in the cases of Lamaroux and Gooden, ruled that SB 1437, Felony Murder Reform was constitutional.
SB 1437 redefines that law for felony-murder liability by excluding “a person who is not the actual killer, did not act with the intent to kill, or was not a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life.”
SB 1437 also permits individuals convicted of felony-murder or murder to petition for resentencing.
Patty Ann Lamoureux “was convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery and felony murder arising from the killing of a friend’s family member… [and] sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole” in 2016. In that trial, “[t]his court affirmed the murder and conspiracy convictions, but concluded the evidence was insufficient to support the finding that Lamoureux had an intent to kill or acted with reckless indifference to human life.”
She filed an SB 1437 petition in 2019 to vacate a first-degree murder conviction and obtain resentencing under section 1170.95. The District Attorney’s Office of San Diego opposed “on the grounds that the amendments effectuated by Senate Bill 1437 were unconstitutional.”
Appellate Attorney Michelle Peterson talks about the case and the law.
In 2019, Tiffany Caban, a career public defender ran for DA in QUeens, NY and came within an eyelash of beating the establishment backed candidate.
Ms. Caban talks about what she is doing today and the ramifications of her race as well as the future of the progressive prosecution movement.
UDi Ofer is the ACLU Director of the Justice Division and Deputy National Political Director. We talk with him about recent elections and their implications for criminal justice reform as well as the goal of reducing incarceration by 50 percent and the how to reach that number.
“The next president must tackle the country’s mass incarceration crisis in a way that restores fundamental civil liberties, upholds human dignity, combats racial injustice, prioritizes rehabilitation, and leads to safer and healthier communities,” Udi Ofer wrote last year.
Diana Becton took an unusual route to become prosecutor. She had served 22 years as a judge in Contra Costa County before the Board of Supervisors in 2017 appointed her interim DA, then she was elected DA in 2018. She became the first African American woman to serve as DA in the county.
The previous DA in Contra Costa County was charged with felonies and was forced to resign.
“The reasons people thought that I would be good for that position had to do not only with my administrative experience, but also people thought that I would bring criminal justice reform to Contra Costa County,” she explained.
She said, “It was a really a difficult position for me.”
But she noted, “The laws in our criminal justice system really shifted a lot so that judges really didn’t have that much discretion in what happens in the court room.” While a lot of people see judges as the most powerful person in the courtroom, “what I came to see is that it’s really the prosecutor in that courtroom who had all of the discretion and the power.
Listen as she discussed her efforts to reform the system.
Jonathan Rapping is a nationally renowned criminal justice innovator who is the founder and president of Gideon’s Promise, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public defender advocacy organization that provides training, leadership development and mentorship to improve the quality of legal representation for the clients and communities they serve.
His book by the name of Gideon’s Promise will be out May 5.
We talk about the need to engage public defenders in criminal justice reform and how to overcome obstacles like lack of resources and high case loads through changing the culture in some public defender offices.
John Pfaff is a law professor at Fordham University. He is the author of a groundbreaking work which looks at a series of data to analyze mass incarceration and the true causes of it and presents a path to achieve real reform.
He argues that the "standard story" about mass incarceration is largely wrong. Mass incarceration is not drive by the war on drugs as some have argued and instead in order to get to the heart of the problem we have to address how we incarcerate the most serious offenders.
On Everyday Injustice, the professor discusses this theory as well as his thoughts on criminal justice reform and the progressive prosecutor movement.
ASUCD President Justin Hurst along with External Affairs Vice President Adam Hatefi and Francois Kaeppelin talk about the successful fee referendum and what that means, as well as the strike over the UC Santa Cruz COLA demands and how that impacts UC Davis and student housing issues on campus.
Laura Conover who is running for County Attorney in Pima County Arizona, home of Tuscon.
According to her bio, she “dedicated her career to helping the Southern Arizona community by defending the poor, advocating for victims, and fighting for justice in local and federal courts. She decided to run for the position of Pima County Attorney to bring much-needed reform to Southern Arizona’s criminal justice system.”
She is facing two candidates from the County Attorney's Office.
Senator Nancy Skinner has authored some of the most important criminal justice legislation in the state.
Senator Skinner represents among other places, Berkeley in the State Senate. Prior to her election to the State Senate in 2016, Skinner was a member of the California State Assembly representing California's 15th State Assembly district from 2008 to 2014.
On the Podcast, the Senator talks about the importance of SB 1437 - felony murder reform. We also talk about SB 1421, police transparency legislation, opening up police records to the public and her most recent bill SB 889, which would raise the minimum age for being prosecuted as an adult to 20.
In 2019, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced she would not seek re-election for the position she held since 2016 serving as prosecutor in Orange and Osceola Counties in Florida.
She told Everyday Injustice the sole reason for that decision was her opposition to the death penalty, and a Florida Supreme Court decision that upheld the reassignment of dozens of cases to another state attorney as a result of that.
Despite this clear setback, she believes that the progressive prosecution movement will succeed.
Ms. Ayala is also known for a 2017 traffic stop. A video of it sparked outrage as many believed she was racially profiled in the stop. In the video, officers told Ayala they pulled her over because her license plate was not registered to any vehicles when they ran her tags.
She asked why the tags were run and the officer said they run tags for a number of reasons. She said that she violated no laws and that her her license plate was properly registered.
"Although the traffic stop appears to be consistent with Florida law. My goal is to have a constructive and mutually respectful relationship between law enforcement and the community," she said in the statement.
The interview with Everyday Injustice focused mainly on the progressive prosecutor movement and her future.
Recidivism is one of the greatest flaws of our criminal justice system - we punish people to the hilt and they get released without the tools to survive outside of our prison system and end up re-offending.
The heart of criminal justice reform is to end these never ending cycles prison and poverty.
And the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is fighting that frontline battle " to change lives and create safe, healthy communities by providing a support and advocacy network for and by formerly incarcerated men and women. To accomplish this mission, ARC advocates for fair policies in the juvenile and criminal justice systems and provides a supportive network and reentry services to formerly incarcerated individuals.
Our guest is J'Mel Carter who tells how he committed a gang murder in 1996 at the age of 20 and was sentenced to 30 years to life. He spent 20 years in prison before being released, he has now become a mentor and leader, working with incarcerated youths hoping to inspire them to leave prison and turn their lives around.
Listen to J'Mel Carter's remarkable story on Everyday Injustice.
In the latest in our series on progressive candidates for District Attorney, we have Jason Williams, who will take on DA Leon Cannizzaro, one of the more notoriously aggressive prosecutors in the country.
Jason Williams is a councilmember at large in New Orleans, but eschewed a run at Mayor to run for DA against Mr. Cannizaro who has held the job since 2008.
Mr. Williams, a defense attorney, is running as a reformer against an incumbent who once ran as “America’s Toughest Judge” in pursuit of a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal seat and on a campaign promise in 2008 to address crime “where the problem begins, in the juvenile system” when he won the DA’s post.
“Based on history, based on data, it appears (Cannizzaro) believes the city will be safer if 90 percent of arrests are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and those people are given the longest sentence using the habitual offender law,” Mr. Williams said. “We have to go after the people who are hurting people and ADAs have to have the time to do that.”
US Attorney from the Eastern District of California McGregor Scott claimed homicide rates and violent crimes were affected by the policies of the progressive prosecutor movement.
While he stated at the outset he was here to play the contrarian on the panel that included DA Chesa Boudin, State’s Attorney for Baltimore City Marilyn Mosby, Suffolk County DA Rachel Rollins (which includes Boston) - he probably did not expect expect the full pushback that he received.
Listen here to the full exchange - for the full transcript, go to davisvanguard.org
Julie Gunnigle is the latest in our progressive prosecutor series on Everyday Injustice.
She is running as a reformer in a district long held by Bill Montgomery. In addition, Maricopa County is well known as the home of notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Among the issues Ms. Gunnigle spoke to on Everyday Injustice, liberalization of marijuana policies. Arizona is the only state for whom even a trace amount of marijuana possession is charged as a misdemeanor and Bill Montgomery was notorious for filing charges in marijuana cases.
In 2017, Larry Krasner, a lifelong defense and civil rights attorney stunned the world by winning election to DA of Philadelphia and in so doing transformed the criminal justice system not only in his own city, but launched a movement across the country for progressive reform.
He has seen tremendous progress but also seen the system attempt to push back against these changes.
Listen as he talks about his two years in Philadelphia. He told Everyday Injustice that one of the biggest problems in the criminal justice system is that it doesn't account for people changing. As Bryan Stephenson has said, each of us is “more than the worst thing we’ve done” and we have a tremendous capacity for change - something that the current system doesn't take into account enough.
Early in 2019, Michael Tirpak became the third person released from prison under SB 1437. He had served time in prison since 1996 following his conviction on first-degree murder.
Prosecutors said he was driving the getaway driver, but attorneys from the Loyola Project for the Innocent said evidence presented at his trial showed that Tirpak, then 18, was using a pay phone down the street at the time of the crime committed by two younger teens.
He was convicted under felony murder rule but that conviction was vacated under SB 1437 which grants resentencing for individuals who were not the actual killers and not found to have acted with reckless indifference.
On the podcast he talks about his convictio and how he came to be freed.
Jose Garza is another former public defender and federal public defender, currently the co-executive director of the Austin-based nonprofit Workers Defense Project, and running for prosecutor in Travis County, Texas home of Austin.
Right before we recorded the podcast, he got a big endorsement from Elizabeth Warren.
“With José as district attorney, Travis County will gain another champion in the fight to transform our criminal justice system,” Warren said in a statement. “As an experienced public servant with a proven track record of standing up for working families, I know that José will be the fighter that Travis County communities deserve.”
Listen as we talk about criminal justice reform and the need for progressive prosecutors in Austin, Texas.
MIriam Krinsky is Executive Director of the group Fair and Just Prosecution, which is helping transform the criminal justice system by highlighting the roles and responsibilities of prosecutors.
A former prosecutor, we talk about how things have changed over the course of her career, the current progressive prosecution movement and what that means for this country.
Decarcerate Sacramento is a grassroots organization that formed over the summer to oppose Sacramento County's proposed $89 million jail expansion plan and instead get the board to invest in vital social services.
They came together last year and were able to get the board of Supervisors to cancel a planned $89 million jail expansion.
Overall their focus is on jail condition and mass organizing to to reduce the jail population.
Michelle Tong is a San Francisco Public Defender who is running for judge in an open San Francisco Seat.
She said on her campaign page: "I have dedicated my life’s work to advocating in the underserved communities of this city to better the lives of others. Judges have the unique power to make decisions that affect us day to day. From child custody decisions, to neighbor disputes, to critical criminal justice determinations, San Francisco Superior Court Judges hold the power to make life altering decisions that affect those in our communities."
She added, "As a resident of this city, a public defender, an immigrant rights’ advocate, and community based attorney, I will bring a unique perspective to the bench to help to better our communities and make us safe."
Listen to Michelle as she talks to Everyday Injustice about the legal system in San Francisco and her decision to run for judge.
Janos Marton is taking on longtime Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance who has served as DA for over a decade. He has led the effort to close the infamous Rikers Island jails and referring to his opponent as ‘the city’s leading jailer.’
Marton is a leading organizer in the New York City decarceration movement. This week he has joined the call for Mr. Vance to resign in light of criticism for decisions by his office that seemed to favor powerful defendants such as Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.
Mr. Marton has an ambitious goal of reducing the number of citizens in Manhattan jails by 80 percent while also ending the war on drugs, creating fairness in sentencing and protecting immigrants.
Janos Marton talked with Everyday Injustice this week about progressive prosecution and what he would add to the growing movement across the nation.
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San Francisco Public Defender Maria Evangelista is running for an open judge position in San Francisco, she is attempting to become the firstLatina judge elected in San Francisco history.
“I’m running for judge to ensure that our courts are in touch with the communities they serve and provide equal treatment for all people that come before the courts,” Ms. Evangelista told a media publication. “That really goes back to who I am and how I’ve spent my whole life serving the public.”
Listen as Everyday Injustice talks to Ms. Evangelista about her candidacy, criminal justice reform and the San Francisco criminal justice system.
Genevieve Jones-Wright was a public defender who ran for District Attorney in 2018 - she pushed for improving public safety, rehabilitation as opposed to increasing prosecutions as well as taking on mass incarceration.
In October 2019, she was one of the main speakers at the Vanguard Annual event on progressive prosecution and is the latest guest on Everyday Injustice in the progressive prosecution movement.
We discuss her career as a public defender, her criticism of the system, and her future plans.
In October George Gascon resigned from his position as San Francisco District Attorney, moved to Los Angeles to challenge incumbent Jackie Lacey.
He is running on a progressive platform. Listen as he describes why he made the move, discusses his campaign for district attorney in Los Angeles and talks about the strengths and shortcomings of his time in San Francisco as well as his decision not support Suzzy Loftus who was appointed to fill his position, but ended up losing to Chesa Boudin.
Joseph Tully is a criminal justice attorney out of Martinez who represented among others Paul Fullerton and Heidi Lepp. He is the author of a book called, California "The State of Collusion."
He said in the book: "It sounds troubling and extreme but I see it every week as a criminal defense lawyer practicing criminal law in California: psychopaths in law enforcement – and they’re not the outliers!"
He added: " It’s not surprising but it is outrageous that these dangerously flawed people make it past what should be a much tighter screening system with ongoing accountability."
On the podcast we talk about the criminal justice system and focus heavily on the two cases of local interest.
Eli Savit is an attorney, a law professor, and a former public-school teacher. A former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eli currently serves as the City of Detroit's senior legal counsel, where he leads criminal-justice reform work for Michigan's largest city.
Eli Savit is running for DA in Washtenaw County, Michigan, home of Ann Arbour and the University of Michigan. He is running to replace a 28 year veteran DA who has run his office as a traditional law and order prosecutor.
Eli is pushing a reform agenda - his plan includes eliminating cash bail, support for addiction and mental-health treatment programs, eradicating racial and socioeconomic inequity, and plea-bargaining reform.
In 2016, a group of anti-fascist counterprotesters clashed with neo-Nazis white nationalist rally June 26, 2016, at the State Capitol. Seven anti-fascist counter-protestors were stabbed and several hospitalized.
Tried separately were three counter protestors who faced felony assault charges. THat case dragged on until early this year, where the protestors were able to plead to misdemeanor charges and accept a prohibition against participating in protests for a several year period.
Everyday injustice talks to Sacramento Attorney Linda Parisi who disputes the notion that the anti-fascists are the moral equivalent of the neo-Nazis and talks about the case against her client, Mike Williams.
The Harvest Cycle Davidson v. El Dorado County case features two separate questions: the constitutionality of SB 1437 and whether Mr. Davidson was a major participant in a 2016 robbery and thus acted in reckless indifference to human life.
The Attorney General’s Office takes the position that SB 1437 is constitutional but that SB 1437 does not apply in this case because Mr. Davidson played a key role in the underlying robbery.
Meanwhile the El Dorado County DA disagrees and argues that SB 1437 is unconstitutional.
On our podcast is Jennifer Mouzis, the attorney for Mr. Davidson who lays out the importance of SB 1437, why it is constitutional, and explains why her client, Mr. Davidson had actually nothing to do with this crime.
Davis Mayor Brett Lee comes on for his second monthly podcast. The big question the day before Christmas - did the council address core issues or were they simply putting out brushfires. Naturally the Mayor thought that the council was addressing core issues rather than putting out brushfires.
Trische Duckworth helped found Survivors Speak in February 2018. They have heavily focused on wrongful convictions due to Ms. Duckworth's work with the Vesey Family since 2014.
As they explain: "We were birthed from the thought of people suffering and not having the courage or wherewithal to speak their truths. It was with that thought in mind that we began."
It is their mission "to provide a platform for those taboo, unspoken truths, as well as for social injustices that others find it hard or unnecessary to speak about."
Trische Duckworth on this podcast talks about wrongful convictions and the her work on behalf of Survivors Speak.
Nazgol Ghandnoosh is a Senior Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization engaged in research and advocacy for criminal justice reform. Nazgol holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles (2013).
In the podcast, she talks about mass incarceration, how reform the system to attempt to cut the prison population in half while maintaining public safety and how we can end life in prison.
Michael Gennaco was hired as the police auditor by the city of Davis in the wake of the Picnic Day incident. Mr. Gennaco is a veteran auditor who has reviewed cases and incidents across the nation.
Everyday Injustice talks with him about his job, the field of police oversight and how it has evolved over time, the advent of body worn cameras and high profile cases like the death of Kelly Thomas in Orange County.
Joe Kimok is progressive candidate running for Broward County State Attorney in Florida. One of eight Democratic candidates vying for the August 2020 primary in a race dominated by the specter of the Parkland shooting and the upcoming death penalty trial for the shooter next year.
Joe Kimok is running as the reformer candidate. We talked extensively about the Parkland shooting and the death penalty. He talked about bail reform, the decriminalization of marijuana and sex work, police accountability, wrongful convictions unit and restorative justice.
In 1986, Dusty Turner was convicted of 1st degree murder and abduction and sentenced to 82 years in prison in Virginia - a state lagging behind in criminal justice reform and which has no parole.
A former Navy SEAL, Dusty had hooked with a woman one night. He and his friend, Billy Joe Brown, drove to the Bayou, a nightclub in Virginia Beach, where Jennifer Evans, who was with two female friends, introduced herself to Dusty. At 1:15 am, Jennifer stayed at the bar with Dusty and Billy as her friends left.
Dusty and Jennifer went to Dusty’s car to talk and listen to music until her friends returned. Billy had become intoxicated and was angry he had to wait the ride that Dusty secured for him. A few minutes before 2 am, Billy came to Dusty’s car and went into the back seat behind Jennifer, still inebriated. Billy made a few crude comments and with his right hand touched her shoulder or hair which she smacked away. Billy lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her neck in a maneuver that killed her instantly.
A quirk in the VIrginia state law has left Dusty Turner with only avenue - his only chance left is clemency from the Governor of Virginia. Dusty currently has a petition of conditional pardon being considered by Governor Northam's administration.
The Vanguard meets with ASUCD President Justin Hurst, along with Vice President Shreya Deshpande, Adam Hatefi and Francois Kaeplin. They talked about their plans for 2020, the fee referendum that is coming up along with three controversial admends that are up for a vote as well.
The Vanguard meets with Adam Hatefi and Francois Kaeplin of ASUCD and discusses the problems with UC Path - the payroll system snafu that has led to hundreds of students not getting their pay.
We also discussed among other things: student loan issues, district elections, student housing and more.
From 2003 to 2008, George Powell III had been living in that town which had a large soldier presence and working on music. He appreciated the solider population there but found the Killeen police mistreated soldiers. He notes one instance where soldiers would be playing his music too loud and they got pulled over and ticketed by the police officers. He wrote a song where he thanked soldiers but addressed the harassment the police gave to him (https://www.justiceforgeorgepowell.com/thank-you-soldiers). The Netflix Original Exhibit A also notes that he acted aggressively towards police officers and could identify him.
In 2013, there were a series of armed robberies at convenience stores in Killeen, Texas. There was video evidence from many of the stores and this evidence was released by Crimestoppers to the public with the promise of $1000 for people who could provide information. The hotel keeper of the place George was staying at reported George to Crimestoppers.
While the face may be similar, the height difference was a major player. All of the witnesses testified the armed man was 5’6” to 5’8” but George was 6’3”. Video evidence also appeared to corroborate the same thing until Michael Knox, who runs a forensic consulting firm, did a 3d animation where the person in the video appeared to be 6’1” at a certain angle (where the man in the video was tilted). Police are also reported to have been singling George out in particular in photo lineups, according to one convenience store worker in the Exhibit A article.
The use of forensics convinced the jurors enough to convict him and he’s been serving 11 out of 28 years.
A pen pal of George read about his case independent of him and ended up calling the forensic science division in Texas about the video. They learned that the evidence Knox had created had been done on a program he was not trained in - additionally there were other clearer images where the man in the video was standing straight that Knox should have compared George to instead. Grant, one of the individuals from a forensics team in Texas, had done a 3D scan of George and compared this to still images from the video, showing that the man who had done the crime and George were too completely different people.
Knox’s inexperienced model can be fought under Texas’s Junk Science Law, also known as SB 344, which has a writ of habeas corpus filed if facts at the time of his or her application show:
• Relevant scientific evidence that is currently available was not available at the time of his or her conviction because it was not ascertainable through reasonable diligence, • The current scientific evidence would be admissible under the Texas Rules of Evidence at a trial held on the application date, and • If the current scientific evidence had been presented at the original trial, based upon a preponderance of evidence the person would not have been convicted.
George is currently being represented by the Innocence Project of Texas with his attorneys Mike Ware and Walter Reaves, Jr. Despite being released on bond – Mr. Powell still faces a potential life sentence as they look to retry him.
Click here to see the Netflix video on him: http://Www.netflix.com/title/80245117
Despite being released, he has had trouble finding work, a GoFundMe has been set up to help him pay bills.
You can donate to his GoFundMe: http://Www.gofundme.com/georgehome
This is our first of our monthly podcasts with Mayor Brett Lee. Davis Mayor Brett Lee discusses critical issues facing Davis: homelessness, the respite center, traffic congestion at Mace, housing and economic development.
David Thorne is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for allegedly hiring an acquaintance to kill the mother of his son, however, he never hired anyone nor did the acquaintance do the crime.
Sometime between the evening hours on March 31, 1999 and 12:00 p.m. on April 1, 1999, Yvonne Layne, a mother of 5, was murdered in her home with one solid and steady slit to her throat.
David Thorne was convicted of complicity to aggravated murder/murder for hire on January 25, 2000 by a 12 person jury.
The police investigating the crime had tunnel vision throughout their investigation, narrowing in on David from the beginning.
The investigators were unable to get David to confess, so instead they went after his acquaintance, Joseph Wilkes, who was barely 18 years of age and a high school dropout.
After a lengthy interrogation, during which they told Joseph that David was “next door ratting him out”, he confessed, utilizing the story that the police had fed to him to what the police were telling him happened.
Joe took a plea deal and David went to trial. Despite the lack of physical evidence of either Joe or David being at the scene and a poor police investigation, with very weak circumstantial evidence, an innocent man was convicted.
Imagine you have been arrested and held in custody for years for a crime you did not commit and deprived the right to see an attorney. Incredibly that's what happened to James Faire and his wife Angela.
James Faire of Tonasket was originally charged in Okanogan County with several crimes after he allegedly ran over Debra Long of Issaquah and George Abrantes of Marysville with a pickup truck during a confrontation in Tonasket, Wash., in 2015. Long died and Abrantes was injured in the incident.
Faire maintained from the beginning that he and his wife were being attacked by Long and Abrantes and he was attempting to drive away from them when they suddenly surrounded his vehicle, and he was unable to avoid hitting them.
Finally in 2019, an appeals court tossed out the criminal charges - ruling that prosecutors couldn't disprove that he acted in self-defense.
Tio Dinero Sessoms was 19 years old when two Sacramento homicide detectives interrogated him about a deadly home invasion he says he didn’t participate in. November 1999.
He would be coerced into taking a false confession and even when the appellate courts overturned his sentence, he was forced to take a plea agreement for time served rather than receive his full exoneration.
Elizabeth Kim, the President of the Sacramento Branch of the National Lawyer's Guild talks about her arrest at the age of 19 for a small quantity of marijuana, how that turned into a felony drug conviction, and how she continues to pay for that crime even 15 years later as she has become an attorney and moved on with her life.
She also talked about her work with the National Lawyer's Guild and the Stephon Clark case and lack of accountability for police and prosecutors in the current criminal justice system.
In 2009, Ajay Dev was wrongly convicted of 76 counts of raping his adopted daughter and sentenced to 378. Now a decade later, he is having his Habeas Corpus hearing in Yolo County attempting to exonerate him.
Listen for the first time as he talks about his experience behind bars in a California Prison and listen to people around him talking about his case and how the jury got it wrong.
Joe D. Martin joins us live from his Tennessee Prision.
His story from a Change.org petition:
"Joe D. Martin, Jr., did not receive a fair trial in 1996. As a result, he was wrongfully convicted and has been wrongfully imprisoned for 23+ years. He was found guilty of first degree murder and two attempted murders for which he is innocent. His conviction rested on the use of perjured testimony, prosecutorial misconduct and closed-door deals made with State’s witnesses, as well as, intimidation of defense witnesses prior to trial. Joe had no connection to anyone involved in this case- he is innocent!
"The states theory was that the shooting at the market was the result of an ongoing “drug war” between his co-defendants and some unknown drug suppliers from California. The prosecutor told the jury that Joe was “a henchman for the Mafia Smith Family”, this was supposed to be his connection to the Smiths and reason for committing these crimes. However, Shaun Smith testified at trial that he had never met Joe. Dallas Smith and Vera (Virie) Ashby both testified at Joe’s post-conviction hearing that they did not know Joe and that he had never been to their home. Kevin Robinson and Tim Miller, victims, testified that they had never met Joe, nor had they seen him around the neighborhood. Joe had no connection or motive to commit these crimes."
Learn more on his podcast: http://discriminalnation.podbean.com/
This is from the Generation Why Podcast:
"Ronnie Long. April 25, 1976. Concord, North Carolina. A man enters a home through an upstairs window and rapes the woman who lives there. Detectives work quickly to solve the case. Within 15 days of the attack, the woman will head to court after being asked to go there to see if she could recognize the man who had raped her. After an African-American man named Ronnie Long walks by where she is sitting, she positively identifies him as the one responsible. Police had discovered strong similarities between her description of the man and Ronnie Long and what they were wearing. With that, they believe they have the right man in custody. Later, a jury will agree and find him guilty of rape and burglary. He was given two concurrent 80 year sentences."
Like so many of these wrongful conviction cases, it is only later that the truth starts to emerge including the fact that there were serious issues with the investigation and prosecution of Ronnie Long.
We speak to Ronnie Long's wife, Ashleigh about his story.
Paul Fullerton was a well decorated firefighter for over 20 years with the UC Davis Fire Department. A work-related injury led him to use medical cannabis and ultimately brought this law abiding citizen into the focus of agents of YONET, who targeted him and his business, until they finally found an excuse to arrest him and his wife, and threaten to take away his daughter and livelihood.
Having served his 90 days of house arrest, after a misdemeanor plea agreement, Mr. Fullerton came forward to tell the full story that never came out when his case resolved.
In 1995, Obie Anthony was 19 years old when he was convicted of murder and attempted robbery. Despite no physical evidence connecting him to the crime, prosecutors relied on testimony from an informant - a convicted killer and pimp who ran a house of prostitution near the scene of the crime, and who claimed to have seen the shooter.
In 2008, the Northern California Innocence Project working with Loyola's Project for the Innocent, took on his case.The court vacated Anthony’s conviction on September 30, 2011, after an 11-day evidentiary hearing. After 17 years in prison, Anthony was released on October 4, 2011, and prosecutors dismissed the charges on November 18, 2011. In August 2012, Anthony filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, which agreed to settle the claim in 2015 for $8.3 million. Anthony was also awarded compensation by the State of California in the amount of $581,600.
Obie Anthony has become an activist and used his lawsuit to create Exonerated Nation.
This is one of the worst stories about official corruption we have seen in recent times in California. Back in 2014, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders was the keynote speaker at the Vanguard's annual fundraiser and spoke about the Jailhouse informant scandal of Orange County.
The case kept going - on and on. The basics of it were that the public defender, Mr. Sanders, uncovered evidence that the Orange County DA's office and Sheriff's Department were systematically planting informants with prisoners in violation of their right to counsel—and then deliberately not telling the defense. There are all sorts of illegalities here that we can probably get into.
Incredibly the consequences here are both immense and underwhelming. The DA last year was defeated for reelection. The judge effectively took the case of Scott Dekraii away from the Orange County DA's office, the AG's office under both Kamala Harris and Xavier Bacerra, fought the judge, attempting first to get him to reinstate the DA's office and then attempted to fight for the death penalty, which the judge took off the table.
And at the end of the day, while the voters punished the DA, the AG's office closed their four-year investigation without any penalties.
Anthony Hernandez was arrested and spent a month in custody because of racial profiling and presumptions by the arresting officer. It might have been far worse had it not been for the persistence of his defense attorney, who kept demanding that prosecutors turn over body camera footage of the incident from the arresting officer.
Once the officer turned it over to the prosecutor’s office, almost immediately the Sacramento DA dropped the charges.
The Vanguard speaks to Attorney Jennifer Mouzis about the arrest and the illegal activities of the Sacramento Police.
For more information see: shorturl.at/eyRXY
In 1974, in the small town of Union City California, a 13 year old girl was found, floating in a creek. Having no leads, the police at some point focused on a 19 year old security guard, Marvin Mutch. He would serve 41 years in prison having been released in 2016. Many believe him to have been innocent. The evidence seems overwhelming that it was someone else. And yet the best the Innocence Project could do is get him out on parole - twice - once in 2006 when Governor Schwarzenegger reversed it and then finally in 2016.
Emmitt Lewis and Michael Wilson who were convicted of first degree murder stemming from a 2003 robbery that turned into a car chase, became the first people in San Francisco, and among the first in the state to have their murder charges vacated after a contested evidentiary hearing.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge John K. Stewart vacated the conviction during an evidentiary hearing granted under Senate Bill 1437.
We talk to his attorney, Public Defender Niki Solis, who defended him at his original trial and San Francisco Public Defender Jacque Wilson, who is working on similar cases and got involved when his brother fell under the felony murder rule.
See also: https://www.davisvanguard.org/2019/08/sf-judge-grants-1437-petition-two-men-expected-to-be-released-upon-re-sentencing-2/
The story of Jeffrey Deskovic is a classic case of a wrongful conviction. At the age of 17, he was accused of raping and murdering a 15-year-old school classmate. This was despite the fact that his DNA was excluded from the DNA found at the scene and despite the fact that he recanted on his false confession.
In 2006, 16 years later, a new DA authorized DNA testing and this time it not only excluded his DNA from the scene but the DNA was found to match another man – a man serving a life term for another murder.
Since then, Jeff has won a settlement and used that money to create the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation and he went back to school, got his college degree and graduated from law school. He recently took the bar exam and awaits the results.
On October 26, he will be the keynote speaker at the Vanguard’s Fundraiser on Progressive Prosecution. (To purchase tickets go to: progressive-prosecution.eventbrite.com)
This is a story of redemption. So many people get caught up in the criminal justice system and never escape. Alfred Melbourne was a young man when he found himself involved with the criminal justice system. He fully admits he made "bad choices." At the age of 19, he committed a serious crime and ended up in prison until he was in his late 30s. Now, free for several years, he is trying to give back to the community, having started "Three Sisters Garden" the mission of which is to teach at-risk youth how to grow/ harvest/ distribute organic vegetables and engage the community to get involved in supporting at-risk youth in Yolo County.
The Attica Uprising is an overlooked attrocity in American History - comparable to perhaps Mai Lai, Abu Ghraib, and the Battle of Wounded Knee. Historian Heather Ann Thompson, won the Pulitzer Prize for this account which takes us through the prison conditions, the brutal retaking of the prison and the horrifying coverup by state officials including Governor Rockefeller.
Vanguard speaks with Civil Rights Attorney John Burris who speaks about recent police shootings including Willie McCoy, Joseph Mann, Brandon Smith, and the state of policing and police oversight.
Lisa Rea is the president and founder of Restorative Justice International (RJI). RJI is an international association and network first created in 2008 through social media with over 6000 members and affiliates working for victims-driven restorative justice.
Lisa talked about criminal justice reform, wrongful conviction, victim-offender reconciliation and restorative justice.
Davis Vanguard Podcast interviews San Francisco DA Candidate Chesa Boudin who discusses his race, the progressive prosecution movement and criminal justice reform
For more information: http://davisvanguard.org and http://sfcourtwatch.org