Show: 023 Top Priority Podcast | Mark Holden on Criminal Justice Reform 

Host: Duane Lester, Manager of Issue Education, Grassroots Leadership Academy 

Guest: Mark Holden, Senior Vice President, Stand Together and Board member of Americans for Prosperity  

• Why does Mark Holden care about Criminal Justice Reform? min [6:20] 
• Mark Starts his career as a prison guard and now finds himself advocating for CJR with Snoop Dog | Koch Industries’ Prison Reform Warrior min [17:01] 

. . . solutions are possible if – together – we embrace the wisdom of Frederick Douglass, which for years has guided our organization’s efforts in public policy: “I would unite with anybody to do right, and with nobody to do wrong. min [21:21] 

• How serious are the unintended consequences of Overcriminalization? min [30:14] 
• Mark’s good friend Alice Marie Johnson min [36:11] 

Additional Resources  

• Families Against Mandatory Minimums – FAMM 
• Reason Foundation 
• Mark Holden issues a celebratory statement on the first anniversary of the First Step Act 
• Adversaries, Mark Holden and Van Jones, unite to achieve historic criminal justice reform 
• Ep 002 Top Priority | Overcriminalization & Criminal Justice Reform 
• Ep 003 Top Priority | Policing & Criminal Justice Reform 
• Ep 004 Top Priority | Qualified Immunity & Criminal Justice Reform 
• Ep 006 Top Priority | The Trial Process & Criminal Justice Reform 
• Ep 009 Top Priority | The Sentencing Process & Criminal Justice Reform 
• Ep 011 Top Priority | The Prison and Reentry Process & Criminal Justice Reform 
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson 
• Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey Silverglate 
• How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender by Mike Chase 
• Radly Balko’s WaPo piece 
• Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces by Radley Balko