Public Plea: Recent Episodes
A Team of UO Alumni and Current Students
What if your life hinged on decisions you made as a teenager?
Measure 11 was approved by Oregon voters in 1994, during the “tough-on-crime” era. It created mandatory minimum sentencing for certain crimes with no possibility for review or parole. Juveniles 15 and older were tried as adults depending on the offense.
This podcast chronicles the plight of Ricky Gaters, who at age 17 was stopped and arrested by Portland police officers who were investigating a nearby gang-related shooting. Gaters maintains he wasn’t involved, and evidence connecting him with the crime was inconclusive. However, to reduce his sentence from 20 or more years to 10, he pled guilty to previous lesser crimes.
“Public Plea” examines the issue from various perspectives, including interviews with juveniles, reform and victims’ rights advocates, defense attorneys, prosecutors, legislators, academics, social workers and a criminologist.
Description written by Casey Winbush.
Members of the Public Plea team are: Ed Madison (Executive Producer & Host), Jordan Bentz (Director), Matan Alter (Dramatization Director), Sararosa Davies (Podcast Producer), Bryce Doyle (Writer), Denise Silfee (Photojournalist), Jassy McKinley (Researcher), Kate Jaques Prentice (Researcher.)
In the final episode of Public Plea, we explore what are real solutions that could reduce mass incarceration while maintaining public safety? And, a judge determine’s Ricky’s fate.
This episode was produced by Ed Madison and Sararosa Davies, along with a team of alumni and current students at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Our partners on this project are OPB, The Oregonian and Willamette Week.
Is it possible to be too tough on crime? A look at how Measure 11 measures up in terms of promised results. Has the law delivered? And, how new discoveries in brain science may help correctional officials to implement reforms.
This episode was produced by Ed Madison and Sararosa Davies, along with a team of alumni and current students at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Our partners on this project are OPB, The Oregonian and Willamette Week.
She walked away from a teaching career, saying she could no longer play a role in perpetrating the “school to prison pipeline.” A former teacher and an educational researcher breakdown the systemic factors that reinforce cycles of crime in communities of color. Plus, a look at pop cultural influences, including hip hop music. Should artists bear some blame?
This episode was produced by Ed Madison and Sararosa Davies, along with a team of alumni and current students at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Our partners on this project are OPB, The Oregonian and Willamette Week.
Ricky will spend his 21st birthday much like his 18th—incarcerated—as he works to win his freedom. Occasional visits and FaceTime calls are his only connection to family. But what about the rights of victims’ families. Ronita Sutton and Steve Doell pose compelling challenges to legislative reforms.
This episode was produced by Ed Madison and Sararosa Davies, along with a team of alumni and current students at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Our partners on this project are OPB, The Oregonian and Willamette Week.
Oregon’s Measure 11 legislation is a hold over from the “tough on crime” ’90s, dictating mandatory minimum sentences for certain felony offenses and disproportionally affecting young men of color. In 2019, legislators limited the law’s impact on juveniles, but reforms were not made retroactive, leaving young offenders like Ricky Gaters with few choices other than to petition Governor Kate Brown for clemency or request post conviction relief. Ricky chose the latter, a process fraught with peril.