Podcasts about mass incarceration

In this powerful episode, we explore the life, legacy, and activism of Mike Africa Jr., a Philadelphia-born writer, speaker, podcaster, and member of the MOVE Organization. Born in prison after his parents, Debbie and Mike Africa Sr., were incarcerated as part of the MOVE 9, Mike transformed personal trauma into a lifelong fight for justice, family reunification, and historical truth. Our conversation examines the 1978 MOVE confrontation, the 1985 Philadelphia MOVE bombing, mass incarceration, police accountability, Black liberation movements, and the resilience required to challenge systems built to silence dissent. We also discuss his book On a MOVE, his role in the HBO documentary 40 Years a Prisoner, and his ongoing work preserving MOVE history for future generations. This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in civil rights, criminal justice reform, Philadelphia history, political activism, and the human cost of state violence. Listen, reflect, and share this urgent story.

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Dawn Deaner, Executive Director of the Choosing Justice Initiative and a candidate for Davidson County Judge Criminal Court Division III. Dawn and Hunter discussed some major changes to the legal system in Tennessee that make it easier for the state to incarcerate people pre- and post-trial. As these policies have come into effect, Dawn has vocally opposed these practices because she understands the harms they do to the community, and that is part of why she hopes to join the bench in Davidson County.       Guest: Dawn Deaner, Executive Director of the Choosing Justice Initiative and a candidate for Davidson County Judge Criminal Court Division III   Resources: Learn More About Dawn's Campaign https://www.dawnfornashville.com/   More from CJI https://cjinashville.org/     Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patreon www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home **** ALL OPINONS SHARED BY HOST HUNTER PARNELL DO NOT REFLECT THE THOUGHTS OR OPINIONS OF THE AURORA MUNICIPAL PUBLIC DEFENDER****

Christina Foor is joined by Pastor Wilber Marenco, who shares his story of detention in the South Florida Detention Facility, also known as Alligator Alcatraz. He shares his story of migration, reflects on his church's response in this moment, and how this experience of detainment has affected him, his family, and his community.Learn more about Pastor Wilber's detention here.Learn more about The Faithful Witness Campaign and how you can get involved. April 12-19, 2026 is Locked in Solidarity, as CCDA's National Awareness & Action Week on Mass Incarceration. We invite you to join us by learning more and loving those affected by incarceration in your community. Then, we encourage you to courageously take a step to host awareness events and advocate for them in your spheres of influence. Learn more at ccda.org/lis.Learn more about CCDA and how you can get involved at ccda.org. Connect with CCDA on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Follow CCDA on YouTube.

Sam Heath is joined by Bianca Tylek of Worth Rises and Rev. Dr. Kevin Riggs of Franklin Community Church to discuss mass incarceration and CCDA's Locked in Solidarity Week. They discuss the profitability of prisons, stories of people behind bars, and ways that we can get involved in this work.Bianca Tylek is one of the nation's leading experts on the prison industry, the author of The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits, and the Founder and Executive Director of Worth Rises, a national non-profit dismantling the prison industry and ending the exploitation of those it touches.Rev. Dr. Kevin Riggs (Pastor Kevin) has been the Senior Pastor of Franklin Community Church for more than thirty years. He is also the founder and Executive Director of Franklin Community Development and the Williamson County Homeless Alliance. All three organizations are located in Franklin, TN.Sam Heath spent ten years teaching high school history before moving into the organizing and advocacy world with Equal Justice USA, a national nonprofit doing work on death penalty repeal, restorative justice, and community safety. He is the founder and Executive Director of The Commonwealth Justice Coalition. He and his wife Rachel have three energetic kids and still live in Charlottesville, VA.Learn more about CCDA's Locked in Solidarity Week and how you can get involved at ccda.org/lis.References made in the episode: PPI's Follow the Money article: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/money2026.html Read Today! - The Best Day of My Life Learn about the End the Exception campaignLearn more about CCDA and how you can get involved at ccda.org. Connect with CCDA on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Follow CCDA on YouTube.

Today I am honored to speak with veteran journalist Victoria Law.  She is the author of such books as Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women, Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (co-authored with Maya Schenwar), and “Prisons Make Us Safer” and 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration. Today we talk about her new book, Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration.In this devastating study, Law shows how instead of focusing on care during the outbreak of COVID, prisons took the pandemic as an opportunity to amplify their inhumanity: we learn how things like solitary confinement and strip searches only intensified their worse aspects, and how extractive communications systems preyed on those hungry for news from loved ones. Law also tells of the personal stories she was able to track that give a human dimension to the statistics of the pandemic, and also remarkable stories of self-sacrifice and solidarity, as prisoners gave each other the care and support so badly needed. We end by learning about organizations that are at the forefront of fighting for decarceration and restructuring of parole boards, and other actions to fight against the inhumane and cruel practices of the prison industrial complex. Victoria Law is a freelance journalist and author who has written about incarceration, particularly women's incarceration, for nearly two decades. Her books include Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women, Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (co-authored with Maya Schenwar), and “Prisons Make Us Safer” and 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration. Her latest book, Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration, is sadly still relevant. You can find her work at victorialaw.netOrganizations mentioned in our conversation:Release Aging People in Prison: https://rappcampaign.com/California Coalition for Women Prisoners: https://womenprisoners.org/Californians United for a Responsible Budget:https://curbprisonspending.org/Participatory Defense: https://www.participatorydefense.org/hubsArticle on Participatory Defense NOLA:https://progressive.org/magazine/whose-justice-system-is-it-anyway-law/Survived & Punished, a national network which works with criminalized abuse survivors:https://survivedandpunished.org/  

Marshall Project staff writer Maurice Chammah is the author of the newsletter, "Redemption Songs: The Music of Mass Incarceration." The newsletter shares stories of songs made by incarcerated people. BL Shirelle is one of its subjects, a formerly incarcerated musician who now runs the label FREER Records, which releases music by prison-impacted artists. Chammah and Shirelle discuss their efforts, share some of the songs featured by the newsletter and label, and explore what the tracks suggest about mass incarceration in the U.S. Album cover courtesy of FREER Records

Evie Litwok walked out of federal prison in 2014 with $30 and a Greyhound ticket. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Evie founded Witness to Mass Incarceration to help formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives with dignity and support. Her work is deeply informed by her family’s experience of survival and her commitment to bearing witness to injustice. Witness to Mass Incarceration provides practical reentry support like laptops and phones for newly released individuals, offers vocational training, documents the stories of incarcerated people, connects formerly incarcerated business owners to build economic empowerment, and advocates to change conditions inside prisons, particularly around sexual violence and abuse. The Good People Fund gave Evie her very first grant, making this transformative work possible. Witness to Mass Incarceration is supported by the Good People Fund, which invests in innovative grassroots organizations making a difference in their communities.

The term “mass incarceration” is inaccurate and misleading, Distinguished Professor and author Dylan Rodríguez says: “The masses are not being policed, targeted, and incarcerated; it's a targeted war with asymmetrical casualties.” In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Rodríguez speaks with former political prisoner and Black Panther Mansa Musa about the horrifying truth behind the US prison-industrial complex—and about the "pseudo-abolitionist" politics that often dilute the power of radical movements trying to dismantle it.Follow Rattling the Bars on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Guests:Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer, and collaborator who has worked at the University of California-Riverside since 200. He is a Distinguished Professor in the recently created Department of Black Study as well as the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He is the author of three books: Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime; Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition; and White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide, which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.Additional links/info:Mansa Musa, Ratting the Bars / TRNN, “Manifest Destiny never ended: the domestic war for white supremacy”Credits:Producer, Videographer, Editor: Cameron GranadinoBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Before ICE raids, there were pamphlets warning Americans about immigrant "peasants" stealing their jobs and "hell ships" dumping people into the Mexican desert with no food, water, or way to reach their families. Sharon looks back at the parallels between the mass deportations of the past and what's happening now.  Plus, historian and author Ana Raquel Minian joins Sharon to discuss her book In the Shadow of Liberty and the cruelty of immigrant detention in the United States. She explains why brutality was the point.  And be sure to read our newsletter at ThePreamble.com – it's free! Join hundreds of thousands of readers who still believe understanding is an act of hope. Credits: Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Craig Thompson (00:00:00) The Long History of Demonizing Immigrants (00:13:03) Ellis Island Was a Prison (00:27:48) Mass Incarceration of Immigrants  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The term “mass incarceration” is inaccurate and misleading, Distinguished Professor and author Dylan Rodríguez says: “The masses are not being policed, targeted, and incarcerated; it's a targeted war with asymmetrical casualties.” In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Rodríguez speaks with former political prisoner and Black Panther Mansa Musa about the horrifying truth behind the US prison-industrial complex—and about the "pseudo-abolitionist" politics that often dilute the power of radical movements trying to dismantle it.Guests:Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer, and collaborator who has worked at the University of California-Riverside since 200. He is a Distinguished Professor in the recently created Department of Black Study as well as the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He is the author of three books: Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime; Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition; and White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide, which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.Additional links/info:Mansa Musa, Ratting the Bars / TRNN, “Manifest Destiny never ended: the domestic war for white supremacy”Credits:Producer, Videographer, Editor: Cameron GranadinoBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support.Follow Rattling the Bars on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkHelp us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer

One of the most difficult issues to solve is the careful balance of criminal reform with the punitive aims of state power. While most of us don't want to needless lock up our neighbors, we are also in favor of the systematic creation of spaces of safety for our families and friends. But with underlying aims of justice comes the sins of man's overreach in search of solutions. Alas, enters mass incarceration. I talk today about this pervasive problem through the lenses of Christian Realism. My guest once again is Jeff Baker, the first Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. His scholarship focuses on issues of human rights and dignity, social justice, legal education, and ethics, at the intersections of law, theology, jurisprudence, and public policy. Full bio. His paper, Christian Realism and The Sins of Mass Incarceration, is a clarion call for applying ethical lawyering to issues of present concern. We discuss what is mass incarceration, how it's connected to financial incentives, ways we come to appreciate the prisoner as an image bearer, and so much more. [NOTE: A few other conversations I've had along this topic includes the history of law and order, reforming criminal justice, prison abolition, second chances, and prison ministry.] Cross & Gavel is a production of CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY. The episode was produced by Josh Deng, with music from Vexento

Over the past thirty-five years, the United States has quietly transformed its criminal-justice system into something resembling a permanent domestic battlefield.In this episode, we trace how successive “wars” at home—the war on crime, the war on drugs, the war on terror, and the war on immigration—have steadily altered the relationship between the citizen and the state. Each was justified as temporary. None truly ended.Drawing on constitutional history, crime data, and lived legal experience, this episode examines how fear replaced evidence as the engine of policy, even as violent crime fell dramatically across much of the country. The language of emergency survived the numbers that once justified it.We explore how punishment displaced treatment, how surveillance migrated downward toward the poor and powerless, and how federal authority expanded deep into local policing. From welfare drug testing to armored vehicles on city streets, the tools and posture of war became normalized in everyday American life.The episode also looks at what happened to the Bill of Rights under pressure—how guarantees of counsel, bail, due process, and protection from unreasonable searches were narrowed by exception, doctrine, and rhetoric. The Constitution remained on the page, but its reach shrank in practice.Finally, we examine how immigration enforcement and the war on terror completed the turn inward, creating parallel systems of justice and “Constitution-lite” zones where ordinary protections fade. The result is not chaos, but something more troubling: a stable, militarized normal.This is not a partisan argument. It is a structural one.A republic that repeatedly declares war on its own internal enemies must eventually decide whether rights are promises—or obstacles.The Mitten Channel is a network of podcasts.  

The Sex & Power Podcast: Truth-telling that liberates with Mike Steve Collins: The Anti-Civil Rights MovementMike Collins is the author of The Anti-Civil Rights Movement: Affirmative Action as Wedge and Weapon (University Press of Kansas, 2024), Understanding Etheridge Knight, updated edition (University of South Carolina Press, 2023), and The Traveling Queen (poems, Sheep Meadow Press, 2013). His essays have appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Oxford American, The Cambridge Companion to American Prison Writing and Mass Incarceration, Fight & Fiddle, Callaloo, PMLA, and elsewhere. His poems have appeared in New Letters, About Place, 32 Poems, The Rupture, JAMA, The American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. He teaches at Texas A & M University.https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700637140/  Our conversation today focuses on his recent book The Anti-Civil Rights Movement: Affirmative Action as Wedge and Weapon, where Mike examines how policies created to promote opportunity and fairness were slowly reshaped into tools that divided the very groups they were meant to empower.FIND MIKE on TikTok @mike.steve.collinsFIND JANICE SELBIE:Janice Selbie's best-selling book, Divorcing Religion: A Memoir and Survival Handbook, is available here. https://amzn.to/4mnDxuoRecordings from the Shameless Sexuality: Life After Purity Culture conference 2025 available here. https://www.shamelesssexuality.org/Religious Trauma Survivor Support Groups happen online Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern. Sign up here. https://www.divorcing-religion.com/servicesFor help with recovery from religious trauma, book a free 20-minute consultation with Janice here. https://www.divorcing-religion.com/servicesFollow Janice and Divorcing Religion on Social Media:linktr.ee/janiceselbieThe Divorcing Religion Podcast is for entertainment purposes only. If you need help with your mental health, please consult a qualified, secular, mental health clinician. The views expressed by guests are not necessarily held by the host.Support the show

https://www.theforbiddenknowledgenetwork.comThe modern prison system presents itself as a mechanism for justice, safety, and rehabilitation. But behind the walls, a far more troubling structure may be at work. This episode investigates the prison industrial complex—an interconnected network of private corporations, government contracts, and financial incentives that critics argue profit directly from mass incarceration.From private prisons and inmate labor programs to political lobbying and sentencing policies, this investigation explores how incarceration became a multi-billion-dollar industry. We examine documented cases where profit motives appear to influence prison conditions, parole decisions, and incarceration rates, raising serious questions about whether justice has been replaced by revenue.Is the system designed to reduce crime—or to sustain a steady supply of inmates? And if incarceration generates profit, who truly benefits from longer sentences and overcrowded facilities? This episode follows the money, the policies, and the power structures shaping one of the most controversial systems in modern society.

Federal Judge Jed Rakoff has spent decades inside the justice system - as a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and now a judge. In this conversation, he challenges how we think justice works and explains why outcomes often have little to do with guilt or innocence.

Today, Hunter was joined by Thomas Gant, a Community Organizer with the Center for Community Alternatives. Thomas joins the show to describe three different bills pending in New York that could chip away at the impacts of mass incarceration.   Guest: Thomas Gant, Community Organizer, Center for Community Alternatives   Resources:   Email Thomas tgant@communityalternatives.org Join the Coalition here https://www.communitiesnotcagesny.org/take-action https://www.communityalternatives.org/     Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patreon www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home  

Hundreds of years ago, a loophole in the 13th Amendment was plotted to keep enslaving Black people after slavery was abolished. But did you know another loophole was created to haunt us - and it's affecting 97% of this group TODAY? — 2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. We exist to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work. The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://www.theforbiddenknowledgenetwork.com What if the U.S. prison system isn't broken—but operating exactly as designed? In this episode of Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter, we expose the dark reality behind the prison industrial complex: a network of corporations, lobbyists, and lawmakers profiting from mass incarceration. With private prisons incentivized to keep cells full and sentencing laws built to feed them, is justice really the goal—or is it just business? From prison labor to political influence, this isn't just punishment—it's profit, power, and control.

Send us a textConcrete Genius Podcast | Hosted by Sauce MacKenzie (@concretegeniuspod)In this episode, Sauce walks you straight through the blueprint that broke Black America on purpose — from highways cutting through Black neighborhoods to crack, mass incarceration, and the removal of fathers and discipline from the home.This ain't a conspiracy rant. It's history, lived experience, and game from the barbershop to the block:How interstate highways were strategically dropped through thriving Black communitiesProjects, FHA loans, redlining, and displacement that stole Black wealth and stabilityThe shift from Black teachers, Black schools, Black leadership… to busing and cultural confusionHow crack, trades disappearing, and Clinton/Biden crime bills fed mass incarcerationWhy taking away parents' right to discipline destroyed respect, focus, and consequencesHow every new “movement” copies Black struggle but never protects Black peopleThe truth about LeBron, Black athletes with Black wives, and why the media really hates themWhat we MUST do now: reading to our kids, rebuilding Black family structure, re-teaching culture, history, and emotional toughnessThis episode is for Black people who want to understand how we got here and how we fix it — and for anybody from other races who actually wants to listen instead of project.

Today, Hunter was joined by Danielle Harris, Managing Attorney of the Freedom Project at the San Francisco Public Defender Office. Thanks to mass incarceration policies like mandatory minimums and three strikes laws, thousands of people in California languish away serving brutally harsh sentences. Recognizing the cruelty, the state passed a series of laws aimed at giving people a pathway to early release, and for years, Danielle and her team at the Freedom Project have helped people get early release. Sadly, their grant funding is at an end, and this episode is a reminder that if we are serious about reducing the harms of mass incarceration, we must be willing to fund the mechanisms that undo it.   Guest: Danielle Harris, Managing Attorney for the Freedom Project, San Francisco Public Defender   Resources: Read about the stories in today's episode https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/magazine/juvenile-justice-california.html https://wearedefender.com/forty-four-years & https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-public-defender-unit-helps-Oakland-man-go-free-15301831.php Learn More about the Freedom Project https://missionlocal.org/2024/05/public-defender-resentencing-program/ Contact the SF Public Defender ttps://sfpublicdefender.org/ https://www.facebook.com/sfpublicdefender https://x.com/sfdefender https://www.instagram.com/sfpublicdefender/         Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patreon www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home  

Today, Hunter was joined by Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull, Co-authors of the book, Jailhouse Lawyer. In this book, Sophie and Calvin tell the story of Calvin's life. As a teenager, Calvin was wrongfully charged with and ultimately convicted of a homicide. He faced a life sentence in Angola State Prison. For the nearly three decades that Calvin was wrongfully incarcerated, he worked as a jailhouse lawyer. In that role, he helped countless men, in hopeless legal situations challenge the conditions and legality of their confinement. Now, Calvin and Sophie are here to share the power that a jailhouse lawyer can have in radically challenging mass incarceration.     Guest: Calvin Duncan, Co-Author of The Jailhouse Lawyer¸ Director of the Light of Justice Program Sophie Cull, Co-Author of The Jailhouse Lawyer, Louisiana   Resources: Contact Calvin https://www.loyno.edu/academics/faculty-and-staff-directory/calvin-duncan https://www.calvinduncan.com/ Pick up a Copy of the Book https://www.calvinduncan.com/p/book-the-jailhouse-lawyer Follow Them on Socials https://www.instagram.com/jailhouse_lawyer/?hl=en     Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patreon www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home  

Today, Hunter was joined by Eric Seiferth and Nick Weldon of the New Orleans Historic Collection to discuss a historic exhibit they curated. The Captive State traces the story of mass incarceration to its historical roots to Louisiana's colonial slave holding past. Guest: Eric Seiferth, Curator/Historian, New Orleans Historic Collection Nick Weldon, Senior Editor, New Orleans Historic Collection Resources: Buy the Book Here https://hnoc.org/publishing/books/captive-state Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patreon www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home

In Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (University of Mass. Press, 2024), Dr. Jason Higgins examines the connections between the military and carceral system through the stories of those most knowledgeable about it: veterans who were incarcerated after their military service. Combining a thorough historical narrative with the oral histories of veterans who had been imprisoned after their return to civilian society, Dr. Higgins shows how the so-called war on drugs and war on crime intersect with the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Through this history he shows how government policies built on racism, ableism, and patriarchy contributed to many young Americans being pushed into the military, punished during their service, and then being kicked out with no access to any type of support which then leads them into the carceral system. Dr. Higgins also tells the story of how incarcerated veterans helped organize amongst themselves leading to Veterans Treatment Courts which have helped reduce the number of veterans going into prison and also show a model for non-punitive responses to crime. Prisoners after War has been awarded the Oral History Association's book award for 2025. It is available open access: https://uplopen.com/books/m/35... Jason Higgins is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing and Press and an Assistant Professor affiliated with the Virginia Tech University Library and the Department of History. You can find a transcript of this interview here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (University of Mass. Press, 2024), Dr. Jason Higgins examines the connections between the military and carceral system through the stories of those most knowledgeable about it: veterans who were incarcerated after their military service. Combining a thorough historical narrative with the oral histories of veterans who had been imprisoned after their return to civilian society, Dr. Higgins shows how the so-called war on drugs and war on crime intersect with the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Through this history he shows how government policies built on racism, ableism, and patriarchy contributed to many young Americans being pushed into the military, punished during their service, and then being kicked out with no access to any type of support which then leads them into the carceral system. Dr. Higgins also tells the story of how incarcerated veterans helped organize amongst themselves leading to Veterans Treatment Courts which have helped reduce the number of veterans going into prison and also show a model for non-punitive responses to crime. Prisoners after War has been awarded the Oral History Association's book award for 2025. It is available open access: https://uplopen.com/books/m/35... Jason Higgins is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing and Press and an Assistant Professor affiliated with the Virginia Tech University Library and the Department of History. You can find a transcript of this interview here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

In Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (University of Mass. Press, 2024), Dr. Jason Higgins examines the connections between the military and carceral system through the stories of those most knowledgeable about it: veterans who were incarcerated after their military service. Combining a thorough historical narrative with the oral histories of veterans who had been imprisoned after their return to civilian society, Dr. Higgins shows how the so-called war on drugs and war on crime intersect with the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Through this history he shows how government policies built on racism, ableism, and patriarchy contributed to many young Americans being pushed into the military, punished during their service, and then being kicked out with no access to any type of support which then leads them into the carceral system. Dr. Higgins also tells the story of how incarcerated veterans helped organize amongst themselves leading to Veterans Treatment Courts which have helped reduce the number of veterans going into prison and also show a model for non-punitive responses to crime. Prisoners after War has been awarded the Oral History Association's book award for 2025. It is available open access: https://uplopen.com/books/m/35... Jason Higgins is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing and Press and an Assistant Professor affiliated with the Virginia Tech University Library and the Department of History. You can find a transcript of this interview here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

In Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (University of Mass. Press, 2024), Dr. Jason Higgins examines the connections between the military and carceral system through the stories of those most knowledgeable about it: veterans who were incarcerated after their military service. Combining a thorough historical narrative with the oral histories of veterans who had been imprisoned after their return to civilian society, Dr. Higgins shows how the so-called war on drugs and war on crime intersect with the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Through this history he shows how government policies built on racism, ableism, and patriarchy contributed to many young Americans being pushed into the military, punished during their service, and then being kicked out with no access to any type of support which then leads them into the carceral system. Dr. Higgins also tells the story of how incarcerated veterans helped organize amongst themselves leading to Veterans Treatment Courts which have helped reduce the number of veterans going into prison and also show a model for non-punitive responses to crime. Prisoners after War has been awarded the Oral History Association's book award for 2025. It is available open access: https://uplopen.com/books/m/35... Jason Higgins is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing and Press and an Assistant Professor affiliated with the Virginia Tech University Library and the Department of History. You can find a transcript of this interview here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

In Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (University of Mass. Press, 2024), Dr. Jason Higgins examines the connections between the military and carceral system through the stories of those most knowledgeable about it: veterans who were incarcerated after their military service. Combining a thorough historical narrative with the oral histories of veterans who had been imprisoned after their return to civilian society, Dr. Higgins shows how the so-called war on drugs and war on crime intersect with the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Through this history he shows how government policies built on racism, ableism, and patriarchy contributed to many young Americans being pushed into the military, punished during their service, and then being kicked out with no access to any type of support which then leads them into the carceral system. Dr. Higgins also tells the story of how incarcerated veterans helped organize amongst themselves leading to Veterans Treatment Courts which have helped reduce the number of veterans going into prison and also show a model for non-punitive responses to crime. Prisoners after War has been awarded the Oral History Association's book award for 2025. It is available open access: https://uplopen.com/books/m/35... Jason Higgins is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing and Press and an Assistant Professor affiliated with the Virginia Tech University Library and the Department of History. You can find a transcript of this interview here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join host Kathryn Rubino on The Jabot podcast with Yale Law's Judith Resnik. Discover how historical detention practices challenge democracy today. Explore her new book, "Impermissible Punishments," for insights on humane reforms. A thought-provoking must-listen!   Episode Highlights Discussion of upcoming book, "Impermissible Punishments" Journey to Academia: From Law School to Professor Prison as a Social Service: Complexities and Paradoxes Judicial Debate on the Permissibility of Whipping in Prisons Historical Roots: The League of Nations and Prison Standards Evolution of Prisoners' Rights and Dignity Importance of Recognizing Incarcerated as Rights Bearers Global Perspective: Common Problems in Prisons Worldwide The Cost of Maintaining the Current Prison System Inhumane Practices and the Need for Solid Lines on Punishments Changing Nature: Prison is a Construct, Not a Standard Solitary Confinement: A Physical and Emotional Burden Episode Sponsored By  https://www.lexisnexis.com/lexisplus   Links and Resources https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo243487113.html  https://impermissiblepunishments.law.yale.edu/  judith.resnik@yale.edu    Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player. Subscribe with Apple Podcasts Follow on Spotify Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

The Quaker experiment at Eastern State Penitentiary was meant to be a sanctuary for the soul, a place to reform criminals through silence and reflection. Instead, it accidentally engineered a form of psychological torture: solitary confinement. This episode uncovers the complicated history of this "Great Experiment" and then journeys to the offices of AFSC Prison Watch, where a new generation of Quaker activists are confronting this legacy by listening to the raw, firsthand accounts of people who have survived the modern system.  ---------------------------------------------Westtown School, a leading Quaker day school for Pre-K to 12th grade is hosting Open Houses this Fall. Upper School, Saturday, October 25th, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.Middle School, Thursday, October 30th, 9:00 to 11:30 a.m.Lower School, Wednesday, November 5th, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.Learn more at www.westtown.edu/fall. Become a monthly supporter! Sign up for the Daily Quaker Message.

On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we look at how criminal organizations offer basic order and security in Latin America and how decades of authorities resorting to repressive strategies in order to address underlying social problems have provided fertile platforms for criminal shadow governments. Misguided state policies have shown that political questions have to change and there is now the need to rethink how to deal with the engines powering criminal governance in the region. We discuss how mass incarceration and repression strengthens the criminal groups it aims to constrain. We are joined by Benjamin Lessing, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of the forthcoming book: "Criminal Leviathans: How Gangs Govern from Behind Bars." Follow LatinNews for analysis on economic, political, and security developments in Latin America & the Caribbean. Twitter: @latinnewslondon LinkedIn: Latin American Newsletters Facebook: @latinnews1967 For more insightful, expert-led analysis on Latin America's political and economic landscape, read our reports for free with a 14-day trial. Get full access to our entire portfolio.

What accounts for the dramatic growth of kids living without their biological father in the home? What are some of the social impacts of what is called “dad deprivation?” What is the effect of dads on the mental health of kids? We'll discuss these questions and more with our guest, Dr. Anthony Bradley, well known scholar and author, current distinguished research fellow at the Acton Institute and professor at Kuyper College. Anthony Bradley serves as a distinguished research fellow at The Acton Institute and Research Professor of Interdisciplinary and Theological Studies at Kuyper College. Dr. Bradley lectures at colleges, universities, business organizations, conferences, and churches throughout the U.S. and abroad. His writings on religious and cultural issues have been published in a variety of journals, including: the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Examiner, Al-Jazeera, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Detroit News, Christianity Today, and World Magazine.Dr. Bradley is called upon by members of the broadcast media for comment on current issues and has appeared on C-SPAN, NPR, CNN/Headline News, and Fox News, among others. His books include: Liberating Black Theology (2010), Black and Tired (2011), The Political Economy of Liberation (2012), Keep Your Head Up (2012), Aliens In The Promised Land (2013), John Rawls and Christian Social Engagement (2014), Black Scholars In White Space (2015), Something Seems Strange (2016), Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration (2018), Faith In Society (2019), Why Black Lives Matter (2020), and Heroic Fraternities (2023).==========Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith and Culture is a podcast from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, which offers degrees both online and on campus in Southern California. Find all episodes of Think Biblically at: https://www.biola.edu/think-biblically. Watch video episodes at: https://bit.ly/think-biblically-video. To submit comments, ask questions, or make suggestions on issues you'd like us to cover or guests you'd like us to have on the podcast, email us at thinkbiblically@biola.edu.

Angela Rye is joined by leaders and members of the Black community in Washington D.C. to discuss Trump’s takeover of the D.C. police, the deployment of the national guard, and his threats toward Black youths. Cora Masters is a political scientist and the forever first lady of D.C, where she logged decades of service, including as leader of the Recreation Wish List Committee. She is the widow of the former D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Tony Lewis Jr. is a D.C. community activist and author of Slugg: A Boy's Life In The Age of Mass Incarceration. Dionne Bussey-Reeder is the CEO of the non-profit Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative based in D.C. Welcome home y’all! —--------- We want to hear from you! Send us a video @nativelandpod and we may feature you on the podcast. Instagram X/Twitter Facebook NativeLandPod.com Watch full episodes of Native Land Pod here on YouTube. Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We discuss how certain radical acts of justice by everyday people challenge the legitimacy of the criminal system and form the underpinning of a new collective legal thought, demosprudence. Collective understanding of justice and safety is changing away from the concept that justice equals cages.    Jocelyn's civic action toolkit recommendations are: 1) Be a court watcher! 2) Learn about your city's or county's budget    Jocelyn Simonson is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, a former public defender, and the author of Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration.      Let's connect! Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Discover new ways to #BetheSpark:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/spark    Follow Mila on X:  https://x.com/milaatmos    Follow Jocelyn on X:  https://x.com/j_simonson    Read Radical Acts of Justice:  https://bookshop.org/shop/futurehindsight    Sponsor:  Thank you to Shopify! Sign up for a $1/month trial at shopify.com/hopeful.   Early episodes for Patreon supporters: https://patreon.com/futurehindsight  Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Jocelyn Simonson Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with Kara Gotsch, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, for a wide-ranging conversation about the ongoing challenges—and hard-won progress—toward ending mass incarceration in the United States. Gotsch opens with a stark but measured assessment: while the prison population has declined since its peak in the late 2000s, there are troubling signs of political backsliding, with states like Louisiana reversing youth justice reforms and a broader erosion of bipartisan momentum. Throughout the conversation, Gotsch underscores a central paradox: the U.S. imposes some of the longest prison sentences in the world, yet there is little evidence those sentences improve public safety. In fact, most people who serve decades behind bars—especially those who were young at the time of their offense—pose minimal risk of reoffending upon release. Gotsch calls for capping sentences at 20 years and stresses the importance of “second look” legislation that gives incarcerated people a meaningful chance at rehabilitation and release. The episode delves into youth justice reform and recent breakthroughs in state courts, which are increasingly recognizing the science behind emerging adult brain development. These rulings challenge life without parole for people under 21 and show the growing influence of evidence-based policy grounded in neuroscience and compassion. Ultimately, Gotsch argues that data alone won't change hearts and minds. What's needed, she says, is storytelling—bringing the public closer to the lives of those impacted by incarceration. “There's no compassion for a number,” she says. “But there is compassion for a human being.” It's a moving call to reframe justice not as retribution, but as restoration.

With just 5% of the world's population, the United States holds nearly 25% of its prisoners. In this one-on-one, NYU Law Professor Rachel Barkow joins Harry to discuss her new book Justice Abandoned, which reveals how a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions helped enable the rise of mass incarceration. From pretrial detention to stop-and-frisk, Barkow explains how the Court's embrace of “law and order” politics quietly gutted constitutional protections—and how today's conservative majority could, ironically, be positioned to help reverse course. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melissa and Kate run through the latest legal news, including the Court greenlighting the dismantling of the Department of Education. Then, they speak with NYU law professor Rachel Barkow about her book, Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration. Hosts' favorite things:Kate: Legalistic Noncompliance, Leah Litman and Dan Deacon (University of Michigan); Trump's Plans to Put Emil Bove on the Supreme Court, Jeffrey Toobin (NYT); Bonus 167: The Case for Not Writing, Steve Vladeck (One First)Melissa: Wedding People by Alison Espach; What Reading 5,000 Pages About a Single Family Taught Me About America, Carlos Lozada (NYT); The Kent Family Chronicles, John Jakes; Emily in Paris walking tour Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025! 10/4 – ChicagoLearn more: http://crooked.com/eventsOrder your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad VibesFollow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

Incarceration numbers are lower than they've been in decades, does this mean we are less racist? We'll discuss.   Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined,   BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!   Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents?   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles   Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/   Read Jason in Unaligned here: https://substack.com   Read, "We're All Sellouts Now" here: https://benburgis.substack.com/.../all-we-ever-wanted-wa

We discuss the main goals of copaganda: narrowing our conception of safety and threat, constantly warning us that those harms are increasing, and telling us that the solution to our fears is more investment in the punishment bureaucracy.   Alec's civic action toolkit recommendations are:  1) Educate yourself on how copaganda works 2) Read the Copaganda book in a group!   Alec Karakatsanis is the founder and executive director of Civil Rights Corps and author of Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News.     Let's connect! Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Discover new ways to #BetheSpark:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/spark    Follow Mila on X:  https://x.com/milaatmos    Follow Alec on X:  https://x.com/equalityalec/    Read Copaganda:  https://bookshop.org/shop/futurehindsight    Sponsor:  Thank you to Shopify! Sign up for a $1/month trial at shopify.com/hopeful.   Early episodes for Patreon supporters: https://patreon.com/futurehindsight  Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Alec Karakatsanis Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Kalief Browder was jailed at Rikers Island at the age of sixteen; he spent three years locked up without ever being convicted of a crime, and much of that time was spent in solitary confinement. In 2014, the New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman wrote about Browder and the failings of the criminal-justice system that his case exposed: unconscionable delays in the courts, excessive use of solitary confinement, teen-agers being charged for crimes as adults, brutality on the part of correction officers. Ten years ago, on June 6, 2015, Browder died by suicide. On The New Yorker Radio Hour, Gonnerman shares excerpts from the interviews she recorded with Browder, in which he described the psychological toll of spending years in a twelve-by-seven cell.This segment originally aired on June 3, 2016.

The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (UNC Press, 2024) reveals that Americans often assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. Mustering tens of thousands of previously overlooked arrest and prison records, John K. Bardes demonstrates the opposite: in parts of the South, enslaved and free people were jailed at astronomical rates. Slaveholders were deeply reliant on coercive state action. Authorities built massive slave prisons and devised specialized slave penal systems to maintain control and maximize profit. Indeed, in New Orleans—for most of the past half-century, the city with the highest incarceration rate in the United States—enslaved people were jailed at higher rates during the antebellum era than are Black residents today. Moreover, some slave prisons remained in use well after Emancipation: in these forgotten institutions lie the hidden origins of state violence under Jim Crow. With powerful and evocative prose, Bardes boldly reinterprets relations between slavery and prison development in American history. Racialized policing and mass incarceration are among the gravest moral crises of our age, but they are not new: slavery, the prison, and race are deeply interwoven into the history of American governance. Kishauna Soljour is an Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at San Diego State University. Her most recent writing appears in the edited collection: From Rights to Lives: The Evolution of the Black Freedom Struggle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (UNC Press, 2024) reveals that Americans often assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. Mustering tens of thousands of previously overlooked arrest and prison records, John K. Bardes demonstrates the opposite: in parts of the South, enslaved and free people were jailed at astronomical rates. Slaveholders were deeply reliant on coercive state action. Authorities built massive slave prisons and devised specialized slave penal systems to maintain control and maximize profit. Indeed, in New Orleans—for most of the past half-century, the city with the highest incarceration rate in the United States—enslaved people were jailed at higher rates during the antebellum era than are Black residents today. Moreover, some slave prisons remained in use well after Emancipation: in these forgotten institutions lie the hidden origins of state violence under Jim Crow. With powerful and evocative prose, Bardes boldly reinterprets relations between slavery and prison development in American history. Racialized policing and mass incarceration are among the gravest moral crises of our age, but they are not new: slavery, the prison, and race are deeply interwoven into the history of American governance. Kishauna Soljour is an Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at San Diego State University. Her most recent writing appears in the edited collection: From Rights to Lives: The Evolution of the Black Freedom Struggle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (UNC Press, 2024) reveals that Americans often assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. Mustering tens of thousands of previously overlooked arrest and prison records, John K. Bardes demonstrates the opposite: in parts of the South, enslaved and free people were jailed at astronomical rates. Slaveholders were deeply reliant on coercive state action. Authorities built massive slave prisons and devised specialized slave penal systems to maintain control and maximize profit. Indeed, in New Orleans—for most of the past half-century, the city with the highest incarceration rate in the United States—enslaved people were jailed at higher rates during the antebellum era than are Black residents today. Moreover, some slave prisons remained in use well after Emancipation: in these forgotten institutions lie the hidden origins of state violence under Jim Crow. With powerful and evocative prose, Bardes boldly reinterprets relations between slavery and prison development in American history. Racialized policing and mass incarceration are among the gravest moral crises of our age, but they are not new: slavery, the prison, and race are deeply interwoven into the history of American governance. Kishauna Soljour is an Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at San Diego State University. Her most recent writing appears in the edited collection: From Rights to Lives: The Evolution of the Black Freedom Struggle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (UNC Press, 2024) reveals that Americans often assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. Mustering tens of thousands of previously overlooked arrest and prison records, John K. Bardes demonstrates the opposite: in parts of the South, enslaved and free people were jailed at astronomical rates. Slaveholders were deeply reliant on coercive state action. Authorities built massive slave prisons and devised specialized slave penal systems to maintain control and maximize profit. Indeed, in New Orleans—for most of the past half-century, the city with the highest incarceration rate in the United States—enslaved people were jailed at higher rates during the antebellum era than are Black residents today. Moreover, some slave prisons remained in use well after Emancipation: in these forgotten institutions lie the hidden origins of state violence under Jim Crow. With powerful and evocative prose, Bardes boldly reinterprets relations between slavery and prison development in American history. Racialized policing and mass incarceration are among the gravest moral crises of our age, but they are not new: slavery, the prison, and race are deeply interwoven into the history of American governance. Kishauna Soljour is an Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at San Diego State University. Her most recent writing appears in the edited collection: From Rights to Lives: The Evolution of the Black Freedom Struggle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Professor Alice Yang helps us put the systematic othering we are seeing in the U.S. today into historical context. She discusses the oppression and disappearance of people, and points out how protest movements are often erased from the history Asian American and other immigrant groups in the United States, when the truth is that we can embrace and continue a deep heritage of resistance. Alice emphasizes the urgency of knowing our history to expand what we think is possible in the present, and why it is important to resist the othering of any community member whether they are in our ethnic group or not. GuestALICE YANG is Chair and Professor of History at UCSC. She is also a founding faculty member of the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department at UCSC. Her publications include What Does the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? Historical Memories of the Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress, and Major Problems in Asian American History. She co-directs the Center for the Study of Pacific War Memories and recently curated the exhibit Never Again is Now: Japanese American Women Activists and the Legacy of the Mass Incarceration.HostREVEREND DANA TAKAGI (she/her) is a retired professor of Sociology and zen priest, practicing zen since 1998. She spent 33 years teaching sociology and Asian American history at UC Santa Cruz, and she is a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies. 

Last year, we told the story of how President Nayib Bukele came to power in El Salvador on a promise of ending gang violence. He succeeded, turning a state that was the world's murder capital into one with one of the lowest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere. But in the process, he systematically dismantled democratic checks and balances and arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of people, including children. El Salvador now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. This year, the story took a darker turn. The Trump administration deported over 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, where they were locked up in a maximum-security prison with no way to challenge their detention. We're re-airing this episode with a chilling update on the dangerous deal between Trump and Bukele— and how it signals Trump's growing alliance with authoritarian leaders to advance his hardline agenda. Juanita Goebertus Estrada: Director of Human Rights Watch's Americas Division José Miguel Cruz: Director of Research at Florida International University's Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center

On this episode, Crystal and Graham are joined by Antoinette Ratcliffe, Executive Director at Initiate Justice. Together, they kick off Season 4 and dive into the history of mass incarceration.-Season 4 is all about the journey of incarceration. From arrests, to sentencing, to family connections, parole hearings, and reentry. To access the episode transcript, visit ⁠InitiateJustice.org/Podcast⁠

Over the years, American colleges and universities have made various efforts to provide prisoners with access to education. However, few of these outreach programs presume that incarcerated men and women can rise to the challenge of a truly rigorous college curriculum. The Bard Prison Initiative is different.In his book, College in Prison: Reading in an Age of Mass Incarceration (Rutgers University Press, 2017), Daniel Karpowitz chronicles how, since 2001, Bard College has provided hundreds of incarcerated men and women across the country access to a high-quality liberal arts education. Earning degrees in subjects ranging from Mandarin to advanced mathematics, graduates have, upon release, gone on to rewarding careers and elite graduate and professional programs. Yet this is more than just a story of exceptional individuals triumphing against the odds. It is a study in how the liberal arts can alter the landscape of some of our most important public institutions giving people from all walks of life a chance to enrich their minds and expand their opportunities.Drawing on fifteen years of experience as a director of and teacher within the Bard Prison Initiative, Daniel Karpowitz tells the story of BPI's development from a small pilot project to a nationwide network. At the same time, he recounts dramatic scenes from in and around college-in-prison classrooms pinpointing the contested meanings that emerge in moments of highly-charged reading, writing, and public speaking. Through examining the transformative encounter between two characteristically American institutions—the undergraduate college and the modern penitentiary—College in Prison makes a powerful case for why liberal arts education is still vital to the future of democracy in the United States. Interviewee: Daniel Karpowitz has worked on public and private sector systems change for over twenty-five years. He is the former director of policy and academics for the Bard Prison Initiative and the cofounder of the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, an organization that launches and cultivates college-in-prison programs across the country. Host: Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press). Visit him online at ZalmanNewfield.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Dr. Matt Kautz explores how evolving school disciplinary practices, changes in crime reporting, and political pressure in the decades following school desegregation led to the rise of student suspensions, expulsions, dropouts, and the school-to-prison pipeline in Detroit and other cities. Kautz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership and Counseling at Eastern Michigan … Continue reading Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World

Prisons are a microcosm of how carceral apartheid operates as a larger governing strategy to decimate political targets and foster deceit, disinformation, and division in society. White supremacy within the institutional conditions in US prisons produces a power dynamic of racist intent in the prison system that culminates in what Professor Brittany Friedman terms carceral apartheid. Host Sahar Aziz discusses the many shocking discoveries that Friedman finds from the research for her book Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prison published in 2025. Beginning in the 1950s, California prison officials declared war on imprisoned Black people and sought to identify Black militants as a key problem, creating a strategy for the management, segregation, and elimination of these individuals from the prison population that continues into the present day. In Carceral Apartheid, Professor Friedman delves into how the California Department of Corrections deployed various official, clandestine, and at times extralegal control techniques—including officer alliances with imprisoned white supremacists—to suppress Black political movements, revealing the broader themes of deception, empire, corruption, and white supremacy in American mass incarceration. Professor Friedman uncovers how the US domestic war against imprisoned Black people models and perpetuates genocide, imprisonment, and torture abroad.#MassIncarceration #Apartheid #WhiteSupremacy #Prison #BLM #RacismSupport the showSupport the Center for Security, Race and Rights by following us and making a donation: Donate: https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr Follow us on Threads: https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://csrr.rutgers.edu/newsroom/sign-up-for-newsletter/

As the dumpster fire of U.S. politics shoots sparks across the globe, will the Pentagon supply safeguards or sycophants? What will MAGA authoritarianism look like for our communities and those abroad? And should Democrats be reconsidering their approach to law and order? Congressman Adam Smith sits down with Tommy to discuss the state of American national security, and what Democrats need to do differently to broaden their coalition. Then, Tommy and Jon answer listeners' questions on whether Democrats need their own Tea Party, Gen Z's rightward shift, and if podcasting is for the faint of heart.