New Podcast Episode - Limits of American Criminal Justice Part 2: Prisons
On this season of our podcast Move It Forward we've been exploring violence in Philadelphia and similar cities across the US. What’s driving it? How are we experiencing it? And how can we transform conditions so we can stop the crisis? This hasn't been a true crime podcast but a deep dive into the real causes of gun violence in Philadelphia. We have looked at income inequality as a driver of violence, the drug economy and more as we try to understand why our city has been wracked with so many shootings and homicides.
We’re back again with more exploration of how our criminal justice system intersects with gun violence. In the first part of this conversation, we looked at policing and how it has fallen short of addressing the crisis. In this episode, we’re focusing on prisons and prosecution. We spend an enormous amount of taxpayer money on both policing and prisons compared to decades past, but that increased spending has not led to increased safety. There has been a lot of public attention since the murder of George Floyd on police reform but there has been less focus on how we can change prosecution and our prison system.
In this episode you’ll hear from past guest Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on some of the approaches his office has taken to reduce the harm that mass incarceration has wrought on our communities as well as anthropologist Phillipe Bourgois, Aqeela Sherrills of Newark Community Street Team, journalist and professor Chenjerai Kumanyika, former Chief Public Defender Keir Bradford-Grey, and Kendra Van de Water of the youth anti-violence initiative YEAH Philly.
Splitting up families and taking people from our communities long term has destabilized them and laid the groundwork for the crisis we are experiencing today. Check out this important episode to learn how we can band together and find a way to truly make our neighborhoods safer.
Listen to the latest episode of Move It Forward on the player below or check us out on Spotify, Apple, Google or Stitcher.
