Everyday Injustice

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...

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 indivi...

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 reunification...

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...

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 Franc...

“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 goi...

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 inn...

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 wro...

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 i...

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...

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...

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...

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 a...

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...

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...

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. Yo...

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...

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 d...

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...

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 wo...

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...

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 can...

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...

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...