ReImagining Our Criminal Justice System
The country spends over 80 billion dollars a year on incarceration, so we need transformation, not reformation. On today's podcast we are ReImagining Our Criminal Justice System with special guest Brittany K Barnett!
0:00 Episode starts
0:44 Personal check-ins start
1:16 Rob talks about time with family and being outside more
2:13 Rob mentions the relevance of The Social Dilemma and the case for tribalism
5:01 Jes talks about fall and life and cooler weather
8:31 Brittany K Barnett signs onto the conversation
10:20 Jes introduces Brittany and the importance of her focus being reframing how we look at justice
11:43 Brittany takes some time for a personal check in
12:44 Jes asks Brittany to tell her story and how she got involved in the work she’s doing
12:48 Brittany tells about growing up in a small town
13:12 Brittany brings up her mom’s drug addiction and it eventually leading to prison
13:48 Brittany mentions from very early on learning about the brokenness of the system, recognizing that her mom needed treatment, not prison
16:05 Brittany shares that she always wanted to be a lawyer, but as she grew older, it felt more out of her reach
17:04 Brittany started school for accounting
17:46 Brittany mentions a critical race theory course that changed her life
19:48 Rob asks Brittany about Sharonda Jones’ case, how it impacted her, and the importance of getting proximate
20:15 In 1986, the US Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act with a 100-to-1 weight ratio with cocaine
24:30 Brittany wrote to Sharonda about taking her case and how quickly they became like family
26:27 Brittany shares how Sharonda was released from prison by President Barack Obama after 16 years and 9 months
28:31 Jes asks Brittany what she could fix with a magic wand to be able to change
28:52 Brittany answers that she would change the retro-activity in the laws that are changing
29:40 Do we want a justice system? Do we want to pay to incarcerate people, like Sharonda Jones, for lifelong sentences?
29:52 The country spends over 80 billion dollars a year on incarceration, so we need transformation, not reformation
31:01 Rob asks Brittany about what gives her hope for what fuels her
31:16 Brittany gets hope from her clients and the Buried Alive Project
32:47 Brittany shares the importance of humanizing the data and how important it is for her work
33:44 A Knock at Midnight brings the story of incarceration and Sharonda Jones to light
34:54 Jes asks Brittany about how listeners can show up
35:09 Brittany encourages people to educate themselves about the issue and to reach out to local organizations doing the work and exercising the right to vote
37:49 Brittany shares more about how to get the book, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and audio book
39:03 Brittany signs off conversation
39:40 We have to look past the numbers to the heartbeat
40:01 Rob shares that his takeaway is the importance of the humanity aspect
41:17 Jes shares that her takeaway was thinking about Brittany’s comment of how much genius gets locked up beyond bars because of one mistake
41:49 Rob admits that the language we use to define someone behind bars does not give credit to genius
43:51 Sign-off
43:59 Outro
Thank you to DJ Pdogg and Producer Lo Key for our awesome music throughout the show!
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Follow Producer Lo Key
Our sponsors:
Our hosts:
Jes Averhart, cofounder of Black Wallstreet Homecoming
Rob Shields, executive director of the Recity Network.
Our Producer:
Ben Azevedo, owner of Bear Cave Audio
Our Editor
Chris Pappalardo