Prison Sentencing and 'The Real American Exceptionalism'
New York state has recently committed more funding for prison education programs, but Georgetown Professor Marc Morjé Howard says the whole nation needs to change its approach to prison sentencing and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In the ‘prison capital of Canada,’ a group of musicians recorded an album...
Pros and Cons, a grassroots music-making initiative that gives inmates the tools, instruments and confidence to showcase their talent, has taken old in Ontario, Canada, where restorative programs have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bringing Theater Behind Bars
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. Theater has the power to transport and to heal. Josie Whittlesey is trying to harness that power, but her stage isn’t on Broadway, it’s in...
View ArticleMeet the Candidate: Mayor de Blasio; Inside the Gop Tax Plan; Civil War...
Coming up on today's show: Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City, talks about his re-election bid. Heather Long, former senior economics reporter at CNN and economics correspondent for The Washington...
View ArticleWhat to Do with Private Prisons
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior counsel in the Brennan Center's Justice Program and the author of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Columbia University Press,...
View ArticleHow the U.S. Has Made it a Crime to Be Poor
Georgetown law professor Peter Edelman discusses his new book Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America. Edelman reveals how not having money has been criminalized and shines a...
View ArticleCriminalizing Poverty, James Joyce for the Stage, Psychedelic Therapy, Please...
A note from our Executive Producer: Before the show starts officially, I wanted to say something. I'm Melissa Eagan. Some of you who listen til the very end of the show might recognize my name as the...
View ArticleA Year of Bail Reform in New Jersey
Last year, New Jersey stopped requiring people accused of crimes to post a cash bail to get out of jail. Now other states are looking to the Garden State to see how the new system is working. Nancy...
View ArticleFirm With Trump Camp Ties Obtained Data on 50 Million Facebook Users
Here's what you'll find on today's show:— Late Friday, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions after a yet-to-be-released inspector general report found...
View ArticleOur Parole System is Broken. How Do We Fix It?
Every year, tens of thousands of prisoners become eligible for parole. But many officials reviewing parole applications are overworked, under-trained and rarely grant parole. Journalists Katie Rose...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Theater of War Productions: Prometheus in Prison
Join us for a dramatic theatrical reading of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, a play that sheds light on the challenges faced by people who have been incarcerated, on probation or on parole, or who have...
View ArticleThe Nationwide Prison Strike Continues in New York
For weeks, incarcerated people at prisons across the U.S. have gone on strike. The nationwide movement was sparked by a recent deadly prison riot in South Carolina and is set to last until Sept. 9, the...
View ArticleThe Prison Strike in Context
Author and John Jay College professor Baz Dreisinger discusses the nationwide prison strike that began on August 21 and ended on September 9. Dreisinger discusses how a violent riot in a South Carolina...
View ArticleBob Woodward's Look Inside the Trump Administration, Understanding the Human...
Bob Woodward looks at the volatile nature of the Trump administration and examines what's driving the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One, and the White House...
View ArticleCity Plan To Close Rikers Moves Ahead, Faces Pushback
Members of the de Blasio administration continue to move toward the closure of the notoriously dangerous Rikers Island jail complex, calling the project "a moral imperative." But securing community...
View ArticleHow the U.S. Prison System Fails Those With Hepatitis C
People in the U.S. prison system are ten times more likely to have Hepatitis C than someone in the general population. But several lawsuits in states across the country allege that prisons and jails...
View ArticleThe Battle Against Building New Jails
Rikers Island, one of the nation’s most notorious jails, is set to close. New York City’s island complex has been infamously bad, with inhumane conditions, violence, and one of the nation’s highest...
View ArticleCan Restorative Justice Save The Internet?
As prison populations soar, advocates on both side of the spectrum agree that the law-and-order approach to criminal justice is not making us safer. On this week's On the Media, we look at restorative...
View ArticleLife After Prison
As a kid, Jonathan was good at soccer and making friends. But by the age of eighteen, he was a drug dealer facing his first serious conviction. For his third conviction, although the charges were for...
View ArticleTen Years After “The New Jim Crow”
The United States has the largest prison population in the world. But, until the publication of Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow,” in 2010, most people didn’t use the term mass...
View ArticleThe Pandemic Is Wreaking Havoc in America’s Prisons and Jails
Three months ago, Kai Wright, the host of WNYC’s the United States of Anxiety, joined David Remnick for a special episode about the effects of mass incarceration and the movement to end it. Now, as the...
View ArticleChance the Rapper’s Art and Activism, and the Perils of Prison Reform
Chance is one of the biggest stars in hip-hop, and one of the most political musicians working today. In the midst of nationwide protests for racial justice, he talks with David Remnick about his...
View ArticleThe Perils of Prison Reform
In the past few years, there has been a growing bipartisan demand to reduce the extraordinarily high rate of incarceration in the United States, on both moral and fiscal grounds. But some of the key...
View ArticleThe Perils Prison Reform, and the Vision of a Visually Impaired Artist
In the past few years, there has been a growing bipartisan demand to reduce the extraordinarily high rate of incarceration in the United States, on both moral and fiscal grounds. But some of the key...
View Article30 Issues: How Big A Step Is The First Step Act?
Ekow Yankah, professor of law at Cardozo Law School, discusses the First Step Act—a criminal justice bill aimed at reforming sentencing laws, reducing recidivism and decreasing the federal inmate...
View ArticleArchitectural Alternatives to Prison
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...
View ArticleInjustice In Prisons and Imagining Alternatives to Incarceration, Immigration...
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...
View ArticleBig Tech; Mask-Wearing Best Practices; Design and Prisons; Black History in...
On today's show:Emily Bazelon, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, co-host of Slate's Political Gabfest podcast, Truman Capote fellow for creative writing and law at Yale Law School and...
View ArticleDoes More Staff Mean Less Violence Inside Jails?
Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Rises are holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry,...
View ArticleAlbany News; Equity & Vaccinations; 13th Amendment; Gen Z on Gender & Sexuality
On today's show:Karen DeWitt, Capitol bureau correspondent for New York State Public Radio, talks about the legislature's response to the accusations against Gov. Cuomo and how the controversy might...
View ArticleHow Companies That Sell Equipment To Prisons Affect How People Are Treated
When companies sell supplies to prisons, does their influence over inmates' lives stop with the inventory?On Today's Show:Bianca Tylek, Worth Rises’s executive director, and WNYC/Gothamist reporter...
View ArticleThe Digital Panopticon
Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Risesare holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry, asking:...
View ArticleHow Prison Phone Companies Profited During the Pandemic
Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Rises are holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry,...
View ArticleWhen Prison Is Also Your Bank
Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Rises are holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry,...
View ArticleThe Injustice of Prison Food
Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Rises are holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry,...
View Article24 Days on a Bus: The Torturous World of Prison Transport
Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Rises are holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry,...
View ArticleAs Mass Incarceration Becomes Less Popular, The Market for 'Community-Based'...
Every Tuesday evening through May 4th, The Greene Space and the non-profit advocacy organization Worth Rises are holding virtual panel discussions about the business side of the prison industry,...
View ArticleWhat Makes a Murderer?
One night in the spring of 2005, Anissa Jordan was sitting in a car in San Francisco while her boyfriend attempted to rob a young man nearby. Shortly after, police arrested both Anissa and her...
View ArticleOn the Inside Looking Out
The past year most of us were awash in a news cycle driven by the pandemic. Daily we grappled with infection data, vaccine updates, social restrictions, and public officials trying to balance fatigue,...
View ArticleFormer Gov. Paterson; Reformers Leading Jails; NYC Public Schools Plan;...
On today's show:David Paterson, former governor of New York, talks about Gov. Cuomo's resignation through the lens of his own experience as New York's governor and his long experience with politics in...
View ArticleRecurring Nightmares on Rikers Island
The first jail on Rikers Island opened in 1932, and the complex has since expanded to include ten jails holding thousands of inmates every day. Violence among Rikers inmates is common, and there are...
View ArticleThe True Cost of Prison Phone Calls
Ashley C. Ford was just a baby when her father was sentenced to 30 years behind bars. Prison phone calls—a $1.4 billion industry in the United States—were often prohibitively expensive for her family,...
View Article'Attica' Doc from Directors Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry
A new documentary, "Attica," recounts the 1971 uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility fifty years later, investigating the enduring racism of the American prison system, as well as the urgent...
View ArticlePrison Populations Increase Despite Success of Early Release Programs
In December of 2018, the bi-partisan bill, First Step Act, was passed and called for reducing prison sentences and improving conditions within federal prisons. After months of debate regarding the...
View ArticleJanuary 6 Hearing Recap; Mass Incarceration & Bail Reform; Brad Lander on...
On today's show:Claudia Grisales, NPR Congressional correspondent, recaps what was likely the final January 6 hearing by the House Select Committee, and explains where the investigation goes from...
View Article203 - A San Quentin Wedding
Edmond Richardson is an audio producer for Uncuffed, a KALW podcast produced by people in prison. Recently, Edmond and his love, Avelina, got married inside San Quentin and Uncuffed produced this...
View Article206 - Curtis "Wall Street" Carroll - The Stock Market Wizard of San Quentin...
In 2015 we presented this story about Curtis Carroll, the Stock Market Wizard of San Quentin. Everyone in San Quentin called him Wall Street. He was teaching his fellow prisoners about stocks and had...
View ArticleReplay: Reuniting Families on Mama's Day Bail Out
Original Air Date: May 6, 2022According to the Prison Policy Initiative, over half of the women who are in federal prisons and 80% of women in jails are mothers. The National Bail Out Collective is an...
View ArticleHow America Can Cut the U.S. Prison Population in Half
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. The plight of mass incarceration is the result of decades of injustice, over-aggressive policing, and a prison system that is long overdue for...
View ArticleRikers Island and Solitary
New York City Councilmember Carlina Rivera (D-2, East Village, Gramercy Park, Kips Bay, Lower East Side, Murray Hill, Rose Hill) talks about the mayor's emergency order that delays implementation of...
View Article