The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare some of the biggest injustices of mass incarceration in America. Scott Hechinger has been a public defender in Brooklyn for almost a decade and is currently the founder and director of the organization, Zealous. He joins us to discuss two projects: Gasping for Justice and 132 Calls, which are both part of the organization's broader efforts to amplify the experiences of people who are directly impacted by mass criminalization. He is joined by Cassandra Greer-Lee, whose husband passed away from COVID-19 in Cook County jail in Chicago.
Prisons and jails are designed to confine and punish. Hence the barbed wire, metal bars, solitary confinement, and often inhumane conditions. Today, Deanna van Buren, director of the architecture firm Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, talks about how prison designs generate recidivists, and how alternative rehabilitation facilities can break people out of the cycle of mass incarceration.
With less than a month to go before the presidential election, we take a look at some of the key issues shaping the race. Today, a look at how the Trump administration has transformed nearly every aspect of immigration over the past four years. Our colleague, WNYC reporter Matt Katz, has been covering immigration and ICE detention in our area, and he joins us to discuss.
Described as “a poet for times of trouble” by The Wall Street Journal, author Maggie Smith joins us to discuss her newest book, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change.
The nominations for the Tony Awards are out today. WNYC culture editor Jennifer Vanasco joins to give us the rundown of nominees for this shortened theater season, and discuss what the show might look like in the midst of a pandemic.