The Hustler Files

For more than two decades, Criminologist Dr. Kathryn M. Whiteley has been speaking to women with life sentences, to women who have committed murder. Dr. Whiteley believes that many of these women are more than the sum of their sentence, although she does not discount the pain and suffering of the families who lost a loved one. In this episode, topics of childhood trauma, abandonment, faith, and se...

Being justice impacted can follow you forever and close doors to employment and housing.  Consumer debt from loans and credit cards can leave people facing a courtroom alone. At Western New England University School of Law, the Center for Social Justice is helping people navigate both. Dean Zelda Harris and Center Director Zachary Bleckner discuss CORI sealing and expungement, consumer debt assist...

If you're justice impacted, getting hired can be a real roadblock, and even then, finding support and opportunity to build a different life isn't guaranteed. In this follow-up episode with Awake Window & Door co-founder Scott Gates, meet Joe Mason and Jessica Coz, two of Awake's team with one perspective on making fair-chance employment work. Joe, Awake's Director of Training and Development,...

Nearly 400 job applications, and one company finally saw the person behind the record. Today, that employee has earned multiple promotions and operates specialized manufacturing equipment at Awake Window & Door, in Gilbert, Arizona. Scott Gates, co-founder and CEO, shares why its mission came even before its products: creating meaningful employment for people with justice-involved backgrounds....

Charlie Rosario spent 19 years in prison. While incarcerated, he was fortunate to be admitted to the Emerson Prison Initiative. This program earned him a bachelor's degree, and with that education he began to see new possibilities for his life. Now released from prison, he works for the same program, at Emerson, helping other students and returning citizens navigate education and reentry. Charlie...

What changes when someone in prison is given the chance to become a college student? Dr. Mneesha Gellman, Founder and Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, (EPI), in Boston, Massachusetts, believed a rigorous college degree program could help create that change. It didn't take much with her background in education in prison, human rights, immigration, and the politics of violence to convince...

Texas bail attorney Ken W. Good breaks down the often-confusing differences between bail, bond and pretrial release, and examines what happens when the safeguards designed to protect the public fail. This conversation centers on the case of Lee Gilley, a Houston man charged with capital murder in the death of his pregnant wife, Christa Bauer Gilley. After being released on a $1 million bond with G...

A second chance only matters when someone is standing there ready to help you believe your life can actually be different. Ron Waddell, co-founder of Legendary Legacies in Worcester, Massachusetts, knows firsthand how easily a young person can fall through the cracks. After losing his mother at 15, experiencing homelessness and navigating instability without many of the supports young people need,...

Twenty years, that's the sentence she received for refusing to take a plea deal. Now Elizabeth Mercedes Hernandez, a former nurse practitioner, a mother of five and a healthcare professional with no prior criminal record is serving in a Florida federal prison after being convicted of committing healthcare and wire fraud.  In this episode, her mother, Esther Pino, and sister, Eve Hernandez, say the...

Rikers Island has been synonymous with violence, dysfunction and controversy for decades. But as New York City moves toward closing one of America's most infamous jail complexes, former NYC Correction Officer and union leader Elias Husamudeen believes there's another option: reinvent it. After 34 years working inside the New York City correction system, Elias brings a perspective shaped by firstha...

For decades, the conversation around corrections has largely centered on two models: government-run facilities which operate 92% of prisons, and private prisons, which own and run the other 8%. But what if there was another option? Creating a third model is Brian Koehn, (pronounced Kane), Founder and CEO of Social Purpose Corrections, the nation's first nonprofit corrections organization and the t...

The truth surfaced years before justice finally prevailed, but for Dusty Turner, freedom wasn't the end of the story. After spending 31 years in prison for a crime he maintains he did not commit, Dusty has chosen a path unlike many wrongly convicted people. Rather than quietly rebuilding his life, he's stepped into the public eye through documentaries, podcasts, interviews, and a massive, daily, s...

America's prisons were built for punishment, not to become nursing homes. Across the United States, thousands of incarcerated men and women are growing old behind bars, facing chronic illness, declining health, and the possibility that prison will also become the place where they die. This week we speak with Emmy Award-winning journalist and attorney Cherri Gregg and investigative journalist Yvonn...

You don't have to be incarcerated for this conversation to matter. We all have had a yesterday experience that shaped us, wounds that followed us, and patterns we sometimes don't even realize we're repeating. This week we conclude our first-ever trilogy with a most meaningful yet simple lesson. Over the past few episodes, we introduced you to Oregon's Transformative Justice Community, their innova...

In this episode we return to Oregon to continue the story of CREW (Connecting Resources to Empower Women) and meet Client Services Specialist Kyle Black. Once incarcerated herself for almost three decades at Coffee Creek Correctional, Kyle now spends her days driving newly released women, from the same prison, to probation appointments, safe housing, treatment programs, and the first chapter of a...

In the annals of American history there is one speech delivered in 1852, by a former slave, that stood at the precipice of what today, we call social justice. This week on The Hustler Files Dr. LaToya Bosworth of Mass Humanities explores the enduring legacy of Frederick Douglass and the Massachusetts statewide initiative, Reading Frederick Douglass Together. His speech "What to the Slave is the Fo...

What happens when one mistake follows you for the rest of your life?  Dr. Sheena Meade, CEO of the Clean Slate Initiative, calls it 'invisible cages' and for her it was 2004 and an $87 bounced check that led to her arrest. Despite making restitution, that arrest still appears on her record, today, and has created a lifelong lesson about second chances, collateral consequences, and turning her pain...

At Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Oregon, there's a simple belief: no woman should walk alone. This week we're speaking with prison scholar, educator, researcher, advocate and Safe Ride creator, Dr. Taryn VanderPyl. For more than a decade, Taryn has worked alongside incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, listening to their experiences and helping amplify voices too often left o...

"Every success that I have isn't just for me. It's disproving stereotypes." When Chandler Dugal entered the correctional system right after graduating college, few could have predicted what the next three years would look like. During his incarceration, Chandler earned a graduate certificate in Homeland Security Studies, completed a Master's in Public Administration through Penn State and became t...

For more than three plus seasons, every episode of The Hustler Files has ended with the same question: "At this moment in your life, what do you believe is your life assignment?" The answers have been inspiring, surprising, deeply personal, and often transformative. In this special compilation episode, we revisit some memorable responses from guests across The Hustler Files universe, so many indiv...

What happens when the justice system gets it wrong?  For Sean Ellis of Boston, he served 22 years for the murder of a Boston police detective, a crime he didn't commit. After two hung juries and a third conviction, Sean faced the reality of dying behind bars while fighting to uncover evidence that had been withheld for decades. Sean shares the devastating impact of wrongful conviction, the challen...

What happens when decades spent behind prison walls helping others tell their stories inspires a powerful debut novel. In this episode of The Hustler Files, we sit down with longtime prison activist, educator, and author Jean Trounstine to discuss Sounds Like Trouble to Me, a gripping story shaped by the emotional realities of incarceration, abuse, survival, justice, and hope. Jean shares how year...

Behind every prison sentence is a family story. In this deeply personal Mother's Day episode of The Hustler Files, you'll meet Daisy Diaz, a justice-impacted woman and mother who shares how it felt to be the ugly duckling of her family and live on the streets beginning at the age of 12. From navigating her addictions, to her rollercoaster of incarceration, and then separation from her own children...

Opportunity, advocacy, and second chances is always a priority conversation when 1 in 3 Americans are justice-impacted. In this episode we highlight, for an inaugural conversation, Rahsaan Hall, President & CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. This enlightening conversation explores the Urban League's mission, its national impact with 93 cities under the Urban League umbrella, and...

April is Second Chance Month, and this episode brings two powerful stories that show what can happen when opportunity meets determination. First, we welcome back Brandon Downey, who first joined us in Episode 19 while rebuilding his life after incarceration. Now, several years later, Brandon returns to share how recovery, persistence, and the support of second chance employers helped him transform...