The Hustler Files

"The future isn't about what you do. It's about what you're for”. Charlie Weiss never thought he’d become an attorney, but a chance meeting with a man of the cloth led him to a scholarship at Notre Dame Law School and a storied career fighting for the rights of those who are wronged. From his early days in law to his impactful pro bono work, Charlie shares inspiring stories of those wrongfully con...

To date, 99 incarcerated men have participated in the Nurturing Fathers program at the Hampshire County Jail and it’s nothing short of transformative.  Incarcerated fathers seeking to reconnect with their children attend this 13-week program, behind the wall, to help them become better fathers.  Listen as Sheriff Patrick Cahillane shares insights on the program's success since its inception in 201...

What started as a gym is now a community where people belong together. In this space, surrounded by weight machines, free weights, and mats, they are valued as equals, and those with lived experience are listened to as the experts. As April marks Fair Chance Hiring Month, guests Caz Walcott, Director of Inclusive Hiring at the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ), and Jon Feinman, Fo...

With over two decades of experience, reporter Katie Johnston shares her journey from reporting on arts and entertainment to focusing on work and income inequality, specifically with incarcerated and justice-involved populations. Katie’s dedication to offering a voice to those who don’t have one is the driving force behind her writing.  In this episode, Katie discusses her recent article highlighti...

To be in the wrong place at the wrong time cost William Allen 28 years behind bars for an unintended crime. William shares his tumultuous journey from his early days of family dysfunction, the guilt he carried from a childhood accident, and the pivotal moments that led him into a life of crime. He candidly recounts the fateful robbery that resulted in a tragic death and how he found himself facing...

In this powerful episode Miguel Vazquez engages in a heartfelt conversation about his journey from the streets of Brooklyn to an 18-year prison sentence. His story is nothing short of transformative. Miguel opens up about his challenging upbringing in a single-parent household, the loss of his mother, and the choices that led him down a path of crime and incarceration. His candid reflections revea...

At Baker Industries, an organization dedicated to providing fair chance hiring for marginalized communities in Eastern Pennsylvania, their mission is centered around four simple but powerful words. EMPLOY those who have the most difficulty in getting and holding jobs. TEACH the work ethic through real work experience. ACT as a transition step toward gaining and maintaining outside employment. HELP...

IF YOU'RE JUST FINDING OUR PODCAST, THE HUSTLER FILES, WELCOME! WE'RE VERY EXCITED TO HAVE YOU LISTEN IN!  THIS IS OUR THIRD SEASON AND WE'VE GOT OVER 100 EPISODES, SO FAR, FOR YOU TO CHOOSE FROM.  WE KNOW IT CAN BE OVERWHELMING WHEN YOU COME ACROSS A NEW SHOW. OUR EPISODES ARE CREATED WITH THE MISSION TO BREAK STIGMAS, RESHAPE NARRATIVES, AND AMPLIFY THE VOICES OF JUSTICE-INVOLVED INDIVIDUALS, AD...

Every incarcerated person knows the exact date and time of their parole hearing, even if it’s years in the future. For Chan Park, his first parole hearing took place after 13 years, 8 months of incarceration. His rejection by the Parole Board because he hadn’t served enough time. That was the first of what would be three more parole hearings over the next 20 years, four in total.  All ended in rej...

In March of 2023, Governor Newsom of California announced that the infamous San Quentin State Prison would have its name changed to the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.  Since the mid-1800s San Quentin has housed some of the most notorious criminals, but times are changing and that includes the use of tablet technology for the incarcerated population. California, like Massachusetts and other sta...

Some prison reform advocacy organizations call their mission, pillars. Some, key initiatives, and in the case of the advocacy organization, The Sentencing Project, are strategic priorities. But at The Sentencing Project, they take their mission one step further and bring a unique value to their prison reform work, as a bridge organization.  For Kara Gotsch, Executive Director, uniting their work o...

Gabrielle Perry was one of the lucky ones. Her birth mother was incarcerated when giving birth to Gabrielle. She engaged the aid of a friend who found a family to adopt Gabrielle, site unseen. Her parents were older, settled and without children and as she tells it, her beloved father Thurman Perry, answered the call to raise her as his own.  Gabrielle’s life was as normal as could be until as a t...

There are a little over 3,000 Sheriffs’ in the United States. Of that number only 60 are women. Sheriff Donna Buckley of Barnstable County, Massachusetts,(also better known as Cape Cod) is the first female in the County’s 331-year history to hold this office.  Sheriff Buckley will tell you that running for Sheriff in 2022 was not on her bucket list, but still, she saw an opportunity to use her for...

In the movie E.T., the alien builds a way to communicate with his planet. Inside the jails and prisons in the US, communication between an incarcerated individual and their family and friends, was for many decades, strictly by mail but technology waits for no one.   Today, many behind the wall have access to tablets, kiosks, and wall-mounted phones, with tablets being the most popular. Of course,...

According to the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice or, in short, RBIJ, everyone is entitled to respect, equality, fairness, and dignity under the law.  It is this mission that drives Maha Jweied and her team to work with companies and bring solutions that promote public safety, deliver justice, and strengthen communities.  But RBIJ doesn’t stop there.  They are dedicated to changing the...

The title of this episode is aptly named for guest Aron Roy.  Like many justice-impacted individuals, Aron's journey means digging down deep to find the grit to transform and not return to their past life.  But Aron also has the courage to share what sent him to prison for almost a decade and the transformation that took place during those years.  Aron’s story is semi-unique in that he entered pri...

As Joe Biden started winding down his Presidency, and Donald Trump started accelerating his, Joe Biden took advantage, like all Presidents, to commute 37 men sitting on death row.  These commutations reduce their sentences from the death penalty to life without parole. These 37 (out of 40) are in federal prisons vs. the thousands that sit on death row, in the State prison systems and can only be c...

Throughout this 2nd full season, one of the go-to themes has been to chat with various Sheriffs about their jails and the communities they have watch over. In case you’re not aware, there are approximately 3100 Sheriffs’ across the United States and a similar amount of jails. Also if you’re not aware, the various tiers of incarceration are Jail, State/Private, & Federal. While each Sheriff run...

In April of 2023, Episode #11, we first chatted with Economist and Author Jeff Korzenik. His book, Untapped Talent, had been recently released, and we were excited to hear about how a well-known, National U.S. Economist, became involved in the fair chance hiring movement.  Since then, Jeff has been crisscrossing the U.S. making a case for hiring justice-impacted individuals, one speaking engagemen...

In Episode 89 we became acquainted with Sheriff Karl Leonard of Chesterfield County, Virginia.  We circled back with the Sheriff to meet his Behavioral and Mental Health Division Director, Kerri Rhodes.  Kerri is no stranger to the tragedy of addiction, and in looking for a way to heal herself, she found a pathway at the Sheriff’s HARP program by helping incarcerated individuals with addictions an...

You have to love a person who has spent 43 years in a career and when asked ‘When are you retiring’ their response is, ‘When I don’t have anything else to learn’. Sheriff Karl Leonard of Chesterfield, Virginia, is that person.  For his entire career, he’s been a public servant; from a military career to the Chesterfield Police Department to the Pentagon and now the Sheriff of Chesterfield County,...

Sadly domestic violence is a 365-day-a-year issue, but the more survivors step forward, ask for help, and share their stories, the more aware society becomes of this ongoing epidemic.  Liz Dineen, CEO of the Western Massachusetts YWCA, has been one of many organizations across the country to take up the protection sword to help women and men, of domestic violence. In conjunction with the Hampden C...

Over the last couple of decades, tech companies and tech-minded entrepreneurs have been developing various ways to assist incarcerated and justice-involved individuals with job training both behind the wall and upon returning to the community.  Checkr, a California-based background tech company, has been leading the charge for more employers, like those they work with, to become more socially resp...

When you leave jail, there isn't much you take with you, so to receive a backpack filled with shampoo, conditioner, socks, female hygiene items, snacks, water, and other items can feel, as one formerly incarcerated individual, like Christmas.  Most ideas to help less fortunate, others, have the commonality of being hatched at a kitchen table, and LOVE In A Backpack is no different. When St. John’s...

Here in 2024, the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution still states; “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”.  This year, on the California ballot, was Proposition 6, a ‘yes’ vote would amend the California Constitution and pro...