Sometimes challenging, often disturbing, occasionally absurd, always timely: Criminal Injustice explores the most complex and urgent issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system in conversation with the field's most knowledgeable experts.
Professor David Harris and guests take on everything from racial bias to use of force... from surveillance technology to mass incarceration... and from police abuse and misconduct to the astonishing, often hilarious misdeeds of "Lawyers Behaving Badly."
It's not a lecture hall, and you don't need a law degree to keep up. But you'll walk away from each episode with a deeper understanding of what's wrong with the criminal justice system – and what to do about it.
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Ep. - 111: College Behind Bars
David A. Harris
In the U.S., our prisons are full of people raised in the poorest neighborhoods, who only had access to the worst schools. So what happens when they can enter a first-class college program – inside prison?
On this episode, Wesley Caines, an alum of the program and now Chief of Staff at Bronx Defenders, and Lynn Novick, award-winning documentary filmmaker, discuss College Behind Bars, premiering Nov. 25 and 26, 2019 on PBS.
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Ep. 124 - Voices from Death Row
David A. Harris
More than two million Americans are incarcerated in prisons and jails. These are often violent, difficult, and unhealthy places. But if prison is dangerous, how much more so – is Death Row? And how does a person live, knowing the only way out is death by execution?
Our guests are writer Tessie Castillo, and Terry Robinson, a resident of Death Row in North Carolina. Along with others on Death Row, they wrote “Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row”
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Ep. 131 - Re-entry: The Real Experience....
David A. Harris
Leaving incarceration, and returning to life outside of prison. It’s a difficult process, and many end up back behind bars. What does it take to make it work? What more can be done to support those coming home? We hear it directly from two men who have done it. Mr. F. and Mr. R. (identities withheld) describe their steps into the free world after each served decades in prison.
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Ep. 135 - The Unlikely Philly DA
David A. Harris
In the US, the local prosecutor – usually the district attorney -- has a huge influence on the criminal system. The DA influences who gets prosecuted, for what, how long they serve if convicted – even who gets the death penalty. So what happens when the usual tough on crime DA gets replaced – by someone determined to bring transformational change to prosecution?
We’ll talk with Larry Krasner, the unlikely Philly DA; his election and attempt to bring that change to an entrenched system is told in “Philly DA,” a multi-part documentary airing on PBS beginning April 20. Krasner’s memoir, “For the People,” about his life and career up to the day of his swearing in, will be published the same day.
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Ep. 140 - Police Reform: What Works?
David A. Harris
Since the murder of George Floyd, cities and towns everywhere have proposed reforms that they hope can transform their police departments. Proposals range from more body cameras to eliminating police departments entirely. But what really works? Which of these will improve public safety, for everyone?
Our guests are Nancy LaVigne, Executive Director of the Task Force on Policing of the Council on Criminal Justice, and Walter Katz, Task Force member and Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures.
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Ep. - 141: Police Misconduct: On Our Watch
David A. Harris
In the world of police reform, accountability for misconduct depends on transparency – and that kind of transparency exists in very few places. So when a state finally does open its files on police discipline, what do we learn?
We talk to Sukey Lewis and Sandhya Dirks, two reporters at KQED in San Francisco; their new podcast, On Our Watch, is a deep dive into the inner workings of the police disciplinary process.
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Ep. 26 - The Serial Effect (with Sarah Koenig of Serial)
David A. Harris
The Serial podcast, and its host Sarah Koenig, pulled off two amazing feats. Serial broke podcasting open: it was the first podcast to see 5 million downloads and now has well over 80 million. But it also pointed the lens of a full, in-depth journalistic examination on just one murder case.
Our vast criminal justice system forces us to think about big issues like fairness and safety, but what can we learn from a deep examination of a single case, in which we dive as far as we can to learn every detail?
Serial host and co-producer Sarah Koenig answers these questions and more. She's also a regular contributor to This American Life.
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Ep. 62 - Social Psychology and the Police (w/Phil Goff)
David A. Harris
Killings of unarmed black people by police have worsened historically troubled police-community relations. Until recently, little research existed that might help explain this or improve the situation. Social psychologists have created work that helps us understand why things go wrong in policing, what role race plays, and how we can do better.
Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff is the Thomas Professor of Policing Equity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the president and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity. He's one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field.
Keep up with his work on the National Justice Database here.
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Ep. 63 - Correcting a Corrections Department
David A. Harris
Mass incarceration in the U.S. created crisis conditions in prisons everywhere, and modern prison systems now have to address much more than just locking inmates up.
State Corrections Secretary John Wetzel explains the unique challenges of providing for Pennsylvania's inmate population, and what his team does to get them ready for life on the outside.
Wetzel is the Secretary of Corrections for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He came to the job in 2010 after decades as a corrections officer, counselor, trainer, and warden.
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Ep. 86 - Transformation in Prison: The Inside Out Program
David A. Harris
In the US, we incarcerate our fellow citizens at the highest rate in the world. And once they are in prison, we give the incarcerated not another thought. But one program works to help improve our imprisoned population, by teaching them college courses inside – along with college students, from the outside. It’s called the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program – and it’s grown from a single program at a Philadelphia sponsored at Temple University, to a force in 130 prisons around the world involving 130 universities and colleges.