Overcoming intersectional discrimination that faces three overlapping populations – justice-impacted women, people living with HIV/AIDS, and the LGBTQIA+ community – is vital to creating supportive, inclusive, and safe communities.
Both Sides of the Bars
Both Sides of the Bars – Eradicating Housing Discrimination – Oct 2022
This episode focuses on understanding how eradicating housing discrimination against the formerly incarcerated and how opening up access to safe and stable homes would improve community safety.
Both Sides of the Bars – The Arts & Advocacy – Sept 2022
Creative arts – drawing, painting, acting, writing, music, and more – are becoming a prime tool for the calling for an end to mass incarceration in the United States, the promoting of alternatives to incarceration, and the supporting of successful reentry after imprisonment.
Both Sides of the Bars – Bridging the Digital Divide: Behind the Bars, Beyond Release. – August 2022
Technology is essential to modern life – now, more than ever. The reliance on technology has only increased as we navigate society during a pandemic. But government research shows that people behind bars are among the most digitally excluded in society. Too many people leave incarceration ill-prepared to navigate a digital world.
Both Sides of the Bars – Six Long Journeys Home From Prison – July 2022
This episode’s guests are Lauren Kessler as well as one of the individuals in the book, Sterling Cunio, a PEN America Writing for Justice fellow who was sentenced to life without parole at the age of 16 and then spent 27 years in prison before his sentence was commuted by the governor of Oregon.
Both Sides of the Bars – Beyond the Count – June 2022
The Prison Policy Initiative, a Northampton, MA-based non-partisan non-profit, has just come out with an analysis of a unique, large-scale survey of incarcerated people that provides a richer picture of just who is locked up in state prisons.
Both Sides of the Bars – Credible Messenger – May 2022
Serving as mentors in community programs, credible messengers are individuals who are able to connect with and motivate youth who are experiencing challenges because they come from the same communities.
Both Sides of the Bars – The Color of Justice – Apr 2022
This episode's guest is the author of that report, Ashley Nellis, Ph.D. Ashley's background is in analyzing criminal-justice policies and practices, racial disparities, youth justice, and long-term imprisonment. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on National Public Radio.
Both Sides of the Bars – The Importance of Higher Education Programs – Mar 2022
College opportunity is one of the most impactful activities that can be offered in prison. Restoring access to college financial aid to help low-income people in prison prepare to re-enter society is a moral imperative and a public good.
Both Sides of the Bars – Tapping Into An Untapped Labor Market – Feb 2022
The United States has a near-record number of job openings and companies complain they can't find enough help. One solution for employers? Open your doors to people with criminal backgrounds who have historically found themselves unemployed and unable to earn a living. It would be a win-win situation, according to this episode's guest, Jeffrey Abramowitz, the Executive Director of Justice Partnerships at Philadelphia-based JEVS Human Services.
Both Sides of the Bars- Criminal Justice Reform And The Road Ahead – Jan 12 2022
2021 has been a year of significant change within the criminal justice reform movement. In this episode, The Fortune Society’s CEO, JoAnne Page, will participate in “Both Sides of the Bar’s” year-in-review – a look at the year 2021 and a discussion of where we are now and where the criminal legal reform world is heading.
Both Sides of the Bars- Aging People in Prison – Dec 15 2021
The American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people, an alarming and ever-growing number of whom are aged men and women who cannot readily climb stairs, haul themselves up to their top bunk, or walk long distances to meals or the pill line. Their old bones suffer from thin mattresses and winter’s cold, and many of them need wheelchairs, walkers, canes, portable oxygen, and hearing aids. They cannot get dressed, go to the bathroom, or bathe without help. And they are...
Both Sides of the Bars- Automatic Expungement – Nov 18 2021
Over 70 million Americans have criminal records which keeps many from accessing basic opportunities, like employment and housing. Due to the prevalence of background checks, many people with past convictions feel they can never move forward with their lives.
Both Sides of the Bars- 50 Years Since Attica – Oct 16 2021
Fifty years ago, in 1971, the uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York – considered the deadliest in U.S. history – took the lives of 43 people … 10 correctional officers and civilian employees as well as 33 incarcerated people. It lasted for five days. The uprising grew out of long-held grievances over the abhorrent conditions inside the prison. The facilities were overcrowded, and individuals were forced to spend 14-16 hours a day in their cells. Incoming mail was...
Both Sides of the Bars- Focusing On The Wrongfully Convicted – Sept 14 2021
Today’s episode of “Both Sides of the Bars” focuses on Jeffery Deskovic, former exoneree and president of the Deskovic Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted, their recovery, and reform of the system that allows these miscarriages of justice to take place. A second guest, Keyon Sprinkle of Boston, was convicted of a crime he did not commit, and he spent 20 years wrongfully imprisoned. He was released in February 2020 after his conviction was...
Both Sides of the Bars – August 2021
People with a history of convictions face a toxic combination of factors when seeking and securing housing. Their income challenges make it hard or impossible for most to afford market-rate housing in high-cost markets like New York City, and the supply of affordable housing is sharply limited. Discrimination based on record as well as on race further limits the ability of people and their families to access an already limited supply of affordable housing.
Both Sides of the Bars- Impact of Being Transgender – July 12 2021
Being transgender in prison is discussed
Both Sides of the Bars- Ending Solitary Confinement – May 13 2021
Over these past several years, jail and prison advocates and activists have called for the ending of “solitary confinement,” a practice that has subjected generations of incarcerated men and women to inhumane punishment in segregated confinement with little to no human interaction for extended periods of time.
Both Sides of the Bars- Repairing Today’s Ineffective Justice System Strategies
American prisons house more than 1.5 million individuals, an increase of over 390% since 1978. This growth persisted even in the face of an overarching decline in crime rates since the 1990s and the longest terms of incarceration since we began to collect accurate data.
Both Sides of the Bars- What Will President Biden Mean For Criminal Legal Reform
Both Sides of the Bars- What Will President Biden Mean For Criminal Legal Reform- 03-21-21
Both Sides Of The Bar- 03-12-21
Equality, equity, justice – these ideas form the American creed. No, we have never lived up to it, but we’ve never stopped trying. This is especially true when it comes to our criminal justice system. Today, too many people are incarcerated in the United States -- and too many of them are black and brown. To build safe and healthy communities, we need to rethink who we’re sending to jail, how we treat those in jail, and how we help them get the healthcare, education, jobs, and housing they...
Both Sides of the Bars- Pell Grant Restoration- Its Significance For Affecting Meaningful Individual Change
Recently Congress presented a stimulus package that included significant changes to higher-education law, including the resumption of Federal financial aid to people in prison that was banned in the 1994 crime bill championed by then-Sen. Joe Biden. The restoration of Pell grants for incarcerated students is a watershed moment for the criminal justice overhaul movement as it unwinds decades of punitive practices in favor of finding avenues to reintegrate incarcerated people into society.
Both Sides of the Bars -Special- Rally to Protect Incarcerated People
On 2/8/21, The Fortune Society and HALTSolitary led a virtual and in-person rally at Edgecombe Correctional Facility and Danbury Correctional Institution to demand that officials provide access to vaccines, testing and PPE for incarcerated people; grant more early releases, change conditions of confinement, and recognize that INCARCERATED LIVES MATTER!
Both Sides of the Bars- 2020 Year in Review
In this episode of Both Sides of the Bars, host Andre Ward takes a look to 2020 along with his guest, gabriel sayegh, the co-founder of Katal Center for Equity, Health and Justice. They talk about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemia on the criminal justice system, the work done by Katal Center in response to the war on drugs, mass incarceration and police reform.