Everyday Injustice

A July ruling in New York marked a victory for the public and transparency. Federal judge Victor Marrero held that the public has a First Amendment right to know what authorities have done with allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

The court issued its July 22 decision in the case CRC v. Cushman, finding that the Second Department and Grievance Committees can no longer conceal from public view the decisions they have made, or will make, regarding 21 ethics complaints filed against current and former Queens prosecutors.

In total, from 2021 to 2023, law professors and attorneys filed 50 ethics complaints alleging prosecutorial misconduct by New York prosecutors and published them online at AccountabilityNY.org.

The ethics complaints include very serious misconduct allegations, such as providing secret benefits to a witness, allowing a witness to lie to the jury, concealing evidence of innocence, unlawfully discriminating against Black jurors, and misleading the jury about the evidence in the case.

Following the recording of this interview, the state announced that it is appealing the federal court decision discussed in this episode.

Everyday Injustice spoke with Peter Santina, the Managing Attorney of the Prosecutorial Accountability Project at Civil Rights Corps who talked about the problem of prosecutorial misconduct and the difficulty of exposing it to the public.

For years, Preston Shipp served as an appellate prosecutor in the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. While serving as a volunteer and teaching college classes for a conservative Christian College in Tennessee prisons, he became good friends with many people who were incarcerated, one of whom he had actually prosecuted.

These relationships caused Preston to wake up to the many injustices that are present in the American system of mass incarceration

In his book, Confessions of a Former Prosecutor: Abandoning Vengeance and Embracing True Justice, published in April 2024, he discusses meeting Cyntoia Brown.

The amazing part of this start is that he had been the Attorney General who argued (successfully) against her appeal. But that all changed as she joined his class.

Listen to this remarkable story of transformation as Preston Shipp walks us through how his thinking changed and how we went from a tough on crime prosecutor, to a crusader for reform.

Decades of allegations of sexual abuse at the women’s prison at FCI-Dublin led to the stunning decision by the Bureau of Prisons to shut down the prison altogether.

A special master was appointed by the judge, who noted, “that some of the deficiencies and issues exposed within this report are likely an indication of systemwide issues within the BOP, rather than simply within FCI-Dublin.”

Everyday Injustice sat down with two survivors: Darlene Baker and Kendra Drysdale along with staff attorney Susan Beaty, Senior Attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.

“I think what happened at Dublin was horrendous and egregious and just the scale and sort of blatant … of the abuse that went on for years and years and dozens and dozens of people were assaulted and abused is pretty shocking,” she explained. “. I think though what anyone who’s been inside and folks who’ve worked alongside people in prison for long enough will tell you is that fortunately Dublin’s not unique. That abuse is inherent to our prison system. It’s happening in anywhere where people are incarcerated.”

Drysdale said the retaliation was horrible – they fired her from her job, took her commissary rights for seven months, and “The biggest thing they took from me was my date – my (release) date. I was supposed to leave in October, and they raised my points, so I wasn’t unable to leave.”

She ended up being over-incarcerated by four or five months.

Listen to the stories of abuse, retaliation but also perseverance and ultimately strength and survival.

This week on Everyday Injustice, we have UC Berkeley Sociologist Stephanie Canizales - Faculty Director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative.

Born and raised in Los Angeles – Canizales is herself the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants whose experiences growing up as unaccompanied youth in Los Angeles.

She just published her first book: Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States.

She interviewed 75 unaccompanied migrant children in Los Angeles to uncover their harrowing experiences and is eager to share their stories and ways to support them.

Listen as Stephanie Canizales talks about her book on unaccompanied migrant youth and shares some of the remarkable stories and the insight she gained from doing this field research.

Joining Everyday Injustice Podcast this week is Beth Shelburne, a journalist and writer with more than 25 years of experience.

In 2023, a podcast series she created, reported and wrote called “Earwitness,” the story of Tofest Johnson.

As described:

Toforest Johnson is a father, a son, a brother. He was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He has been on Alabama’s death row since 1998 for a crime he had nothing to do with. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy William G. Hardy. According to more than 10 witnesses, Toforest was across town at the exact time Deputy Hardy was killed. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime in any way. Prosecutors presented no eyewitnesses. And he has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested.

Prosecutors could not make up their mind about who committed the crime. At five different court hearings, they presented five different stories about what they claimed happened. The State’s case against Toforest hinged on the testimony of one witness: a woman who did not know him and had never met him claimed to hear Toforest confess to the murder in an eavesdropped phone call. She was paid $5000 for her testimony, a fact that was not finally revealed to Toforest’s attorneys until almost two decades later, when prosecutors revealed paperwork they said had been “misfiled.”

Listen as Beth Shelburne describes in detail the incredible story of Toforest Johnson, convicted on “earwitness” testimony.

This week on Everyday Injustice we have Erik Altieri, the Interim Director of Campaigns for the Clean Slate Initiative.

The Clean Slate Initiative passes and implements laws that automatically clear eligible records for people who have completed their sentence and remained crime-free, and expands who is eligible for clearance.

Their vision: “People will no longer be defined by their records and will have the opportunity to contribute to their community, have a fair opportunity to work, get an education, and achieve their full potential.”

Listen as Everyday Injustice talks with Erik Altieri about the impact of low level convictions and the difficulty of getting jobs, housing, benefits and even being able to attend universities and colleges.

This week on Everyday Injustice we have Insha Rahman, the Director of Vera Action, a non-profit organization that harnesses the power of advocacy, lobbying, and political strategy to end mass incarceration, protect immigrants’ rights, restore dignity to people behind bars, and build safe and thriving communities.

Listen as Rahman talks about Prop 36 in California – the effort to roll back Prop 47 – which penalties for low level and non-violent offenses. She discusses the issues of retail theft and fentanyl use.

In addition, we discuss the ongoing Presidential election and the evolution of Kamala Harris from a traditional law and order DA in San Francisco toward a more progressive political leader on the cusp of her party’s nomination for President.

Rahman talks about how Harris can navigate the space between tough on crime and progressive reform.

This week on Everyday Injustice we are joined by Ludovic Blain and Michael Daly of the California Donor Table.

Ludovic was hired as CDT’s first full time staff-person in 2009. Michael Gomez Daly is the Senior Political Strategist for the California Donor Table.

California Donor Table is a statewide community of donors who pool their funds to make investments in communities of color so they have the power and resources they need to (1) elect people who represent their values and needs and (2) help govern and hold decision-makers accountable.

Listen as we talk about the election, progressive candidates, and criminal justice reform.

In July, the book - Dismantling Mass Incarceration was released edited by Premal Dharia, James Forman, Jr and Maria Hawilo.

The book, which is an anthology of literature on mass incarceration and criminal justice reform, offers a variety of approaches to confronting the carceral state.

Everyday Injustice was joined by Maria Hawilo, one of the co-editors, and a former public defender who is a distinguished professor at the Loyola University Law School in Chicago.

She pointed out that the book rather than prescribing solutions, the book offers a forum for discussions—and disagreements—about how to best confront the harms of mass incarceration.

The book features distinguished authors that, in addition to the editors include Angela Y. Davis, Clint Smith and Larry Krasner in addition to local organizers, advocates, scholars, lawyers, and judges, as well as people who have been incarcerated.

Listen as Maria Hawilo discusses their project and what she learned about mass incarceration.

This week on Everyday Injustice, we sit down with LaToya Mitchell, Navigator Project Manager, CA Bridge Program and talked about the innovative program that helps get people from ER into drug treatment and reduce annual drug overdoses.

A few weeks ago, she was part of a rally at the California Capitol to push for a package of bills that would improve access to programs such as the Bridge Navigator Project.

The navigator program allows ER patients to connect with treatment medication and staff immediately.

Mitchell explained, “What most people don’t know is that it is the easiest substance use disorder to treat because medication like buprenorphine, which is commonly known by the brand name Suboxone, acts fast to stop the withdrawals without euphoria and allows the patient to feel like themselves before the addiction.”

Her job is to lower the barriers for patients to receive the treatment.

She said that “there’s a lot of stigma for people who use drugs and that creates barriers like obtaining a Suboxone prescription from big chain pharmacies, so it’s essential that I know which pharmacies are Suboxone friendly and provide that list to the patients.”

Mitchell noted, “We found that with the presence of the navigator, patients felt more comfortable coming in and saying, I’m here because I’m having opioid withdrawals, as opposed to them naming their symptoms and because they were afraid of admitting their substance use. Because of that, we’re able to get them treated and in and out in a couple of hours. Instead of spending six hours in the emergency room getting unnecessary and costly tests, we found that it actually saved resources and a lot of money.”

Listen as Latoya Mitchell discusses the importance of harm reduction and the use of treatment over incarceration.