Dismantling Injustice

We kick off our series on youth justice with Professor Kristin Henning, activist, youth defender and author of  The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth . Professor Henning explains how and why America manufactured fear of Black children, how that fear feeds into criminalization today and the ways in which Black children are not allowed the same adolescence as white children. Sh...

On this episode of Dismantling Injustice, we are joined again by Zoë Adel, research & advocacy manager at Envision Freedom Fund, to update us on how New York state leaders passed a budget that includes a third round of changes to the bail laws that will undo the progress made towards pretrial freedom. Zoë breaks down the specifics of these changes and the human toll we can expect. As someone w...

Envisionaries, we have a treat for you today! Carl sits down with NYC's Comptroller, Brad Lander, to discuss all things NYC budget. Comptroller Lander explains why providing migrants with resources helps all New Yorkers, how we get to the root of public safety issues (hint: it's not investing more in NYPD and DOC) and why you should testify at city council hearings. And finally, he answers...

The New York State budget is already a week late and there's one thing holding it up - Governor Hochul's dangerous proposal to rollback bail reform for a third time. Envision Freedom's research & advocacy manager, Zoë Adel, joins the podcast to explain the history of bail reform in New York, the meaning and impact of the Governor's proposal and how you can step in to help save...

On this week's episode of Dismantling Injustice, Envision Freedom's communication manager, Julie Mente, steps in for Carl to continue unraveling the mystery of government budgets. Julie is joined by Gabriela Viera, senior advocacy manager at Detention Watch Network. They discuss the federal appropriation process - including Biden's proposed budget for the next fiscal year - and how the...

Do you hear the words "government budget" and feel lost, confused or disinterested? Marissa Martin, executive director of The Advocacy Institute, is here to help. She joins the podcast for the first episode in our series about the New York budget to break down the budget process, what we should look out for this year and why YOU should care. Notes: Visit  https://hi.advocacy-institute.or...

Everyone has a role to play in the fight for social change. But how can you find the role that best uses your strengths and meets the needs of the movement? Carl and author, activist and trainer Deepa Iyer discuss her new workbook, "Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection," which maps out the social change ecosystem and how we can each find our place in the movement—including what...

Concluding our series on Black Futures, Carl sits down with Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, to discuss one of the most destructive forces in our history: the so-called War on Drugs. Kassandra explains how the "War on Drugs" intersects with all other systems, why treating drug use as a health issue is incomplete, and what a post-war future could look like....

On this episode of Dismantling Injustice, Carl speaks with Tosca Davis and Cedrick Smith, founders and co-CEOs of TO BE US Productions - a Black-owned production company with a mission to elevate Black stories. They discuss the physical impact of racism on the body (aka weathering) and the power of turning towards one another through storytelling to acknowledge this pain.  Note: Tosca and Ced...

During this #BlackFuturesMonth, Carl speaks to Kristin Powell-Harris, deputy director of Black Futures Lab. Kristin shares a behind-the-scenes look into the Lab's Black Census Project — the largest survey of Black people in the U.S. in 157 years. They discuss community concerns, the desire to be heard and what Black communities envision for the future. Notes: You can still participate in the 2022...

While this is not what we hoped to highlight for our first episode of #BlackHistoryMonth, the death of Tyre Nichols and police violence are tragically part of Black history in America. As guest Nicole Triplett says, "This is not an aberration or breaking of police protocol, this is what policing in America has been and will continue to be." Carl and Memphis native Nicole, the senior&nbsp...

We are wrapping up our series on mental health with a conversation with Cara Page - a Black, Queer Feminist cultural memory worker, author & organizer. For the past 30+ years, she has organized at the intersections of racial, gender & economic justice and transformative justice. Cara is the co-author of the book Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective...

A conversation between Carl Hamad-Lipscombe and Vianey Romero-Mendez, director of programs at Mixteca, about the need for mental health resources in immigrant communities. Vianey explains the term "immigration stress," why mental health services are so critical for immigrant New Yorkers and small ways we can all reduce stress in our own lives. Notes: Learn more about Mixteca at  https://...

TW: Mention of suicide Access to effective and affordable mental healthcare has long been an issue in New York, recently rising to a higher profile in the wake of the pandemic and, most recently, Mayor Eric Adams' proposed plan to involuntarily hospitalize people who appear mentally ill. Carl sits down with Jeffrey Severe from the NYC Public Advocate's Office to discuss the cri...

You’re gathered around the dinner table for the holidays when a relative makes a comment about bail, jail, or public safety that doesn't mesh with what you know. We've all been there. Envision Freedom is here to help! In our final episode of 2022, Carl talks to Envision Freedom Communication Manager, Julie Mente, about how we can have calm, productive conversations and bring more people along&nbsp...

On this episode of Dismantling Injustice, Carl gives us an end-of-year wrap up on 2022. This year, we fought for liberation and WON with the passage of the Stop Immigration Bond Abuse Act! Carl shares more about this exciting news along with analysis into why some of the bills we supported did not make it over the finish line this year. He also shares what angered us in 2022 - including immigratio...

To wrap up our series on homelessess, Carl talks with Ariadna Phillips, founder of South Bronx Mutual Aid, about supporting asylum seekers in New York. Ariadna walks us through the origins of the mutual aid group during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and how this model meets community need when systems continue to fail us - including when asylum seekers were bused to New York t...

🚨SPOILERS AHEAD🚨  In a special episode of the Dismantling Injustice Podcast, members of the Envision Freedom team sit down to discuss Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever . We break down the movie through an abolitionist lens - from the role of Black women in the movie (and our movement) and necessary anger, to the ways we work to actualize Wakanda in our world. It's an episode you won't want t...

VOCAL-NY's Keli Young, a civil rights campaign coordinator, and Celina Trowell, a homeless union organizer, talk with Envision Freedom about the connections between bail reform, pretrial detention, and homelessness. The cycle of destabilization created by pretrial detention and the cash bail system often leads to and is exacerbated by homelessness. Eliminating bail—or even reforming it— inter...

Carl sits down with Jacquelyn Simone, policy director at Coalition for the Homeless, to discuss the predicted perfect storm for New York’s current housing crisis. From trespassing and loitering laws to encampment sweeps, NYC has a long history of criminalizing homelessness. Jacquelyn shares how this has evolved in recent years and the impact it has on real peoples’ lives. She leaves us with how Ma...

On this episode of Dismantling Injustice, Carl sits down with Nicole Triplett, senior advocacy & litigation specialist at Envision Freedom. From convict leasing and FBI watch lists to data scraping of our social media profiles, she walks us from the history of surveillance of Black communities to present day adaptations. The thread tying the past to the present? The desire to control certain b...

From a growing culture of deputized surveillance, to shows like “Ring Nation,” surveillance is evolving with us. Carl speaks to Rumsha Sajid and Danny Cendejas, two deeply experienced organizers working at MediaJustice, about the historic roots of present day surveillance—colonialism and slavery—and the continued disproportionate impact that surveillance has on communities of color. Notes: Dark Ma...

Rafa Kidvai, the Repro Legal Defense Fund Director at If/When/How (and former legal fellow for Court Watch NYC!) joins Carl to talk about the intersection between reproductive justice, surveillance and criminalization. While we should be wary of new technology that will increase data surveillance, much of this surveillance already exists. Some communities (read: Black and brown people, immigrants,...

Carl and Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of STOP (Surveillance Technology Oversight Project) discuss mass surveillance, —particularly of pregnant people or people who can become pregnant— and new technology that is being leveraged to surveil more people with less discretion. And of course, they get into the disproportionate impact these technologies have on communities of color and how we...

Carl is joined by Envision Freedom Fund's Zoe Adel, Angel Parker, Nicole Triplett, and Salih Israil to discuss the anniversary of George Floyd's murder, the recent outbreak of white supremacist terrorism, and the current state of the social justice movement with regard to racial justice and criminal legal system reform.