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 red...
Apr 01, 2024•27 min
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...
Mar 04, 2024•31 min
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 describ...
Feb 26, 2024•34 min
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 t...
Jan 15, 2024•30 min
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...
Dec 18, 2023•22 min
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 h...
Dec 11, 2023•36 min
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. “...
Nov 20, 2023•24 min
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...
Nov 13, 2023•28 min
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,” th...
Nov 06, 2023•36 min
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 for...
Oct 30, 2023•33 min
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...
Oct 23, 2023•26 min
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...
Oct 16, 2023•32 min
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 conduciv...
Oct 09, 2023•34 min
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 lifeli...
Oct 04, 2023•36 min
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 m...
Oct 02, 2023•33 min
Note: This episode originally aired October 3, 2022 In 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 ...
Sep 25, 2023•35 min
“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...
Sep 18, 2023•29 min
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, ...
Sep 11, 2023•34 min
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 clin...
Sep 04, 2023•33 min
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 detentio...
Aug 28, 2023•35 min
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 la...
Aug 21, 2023•40 min
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 Campai...
Aug 14, 2023•31 min
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 t...
Aug 07, 2023•34 min
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 legisl...
Jul 31, 2023•30 min
This week on Everyday Injustice, we spoke with Emma Ruth, 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. She 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 i...
Jul 24, 2023•34 min
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...
Jul 17, 2023•40 min
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.
Jul 10, 2023•31 min
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 pag...
Jun 25, 2023•42 min
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...
Jun 19, 2023•30 min
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. Lis...
Jun 12, 2023•33 min
