Everyday Injustice

This week Everyday Injustice discussed the death penalty with Nathaniel Batchelder. Batchelder has spent over 30 years working with Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

He graduated from Oklahoma City University in the seventies. In 1984, he met the Sisters of Benedict who started the Benedictine Peace House, and he became involved there. He is now the director of the Oklahoma City Peace House, a center for education and non-violent action on issues relating to human rights.

Listen at Nathaniel Batchelder discusses the recent history of the death penalty in Oklahoma, its prevalence in the state – one of only a handful of states currently executing people – and the ongoing problems with the death penalty including some recent high profile cases in Oklahoma that have created national attention – particularly Richard Glossip.

1974 marked a tumultuous time in Boston where white parents of school children pushed back – at times violently against the use of busing as a form of integration.

This year, marking the fiftieth anniversary, the Boston Globe carried an investigative retrospective.

They found, “50 years after busing decision, a school system still unequal, still segregated.”

Further, “Busing was set in motion by rightfully furious Black parents making modest demands: equal educational opportunity for their children and good schools in their own neighborhoods. It never happened.”

What went wrong? Everyday Injustice spoke recently to Melissa Barragan Taboada, editor the Globe’s award-winning Great Divide team, which investigates educational inequities in Boston and throughout the state, who spent 20 years as a reporter and editor in Austin, TX and Kris Hooks, who began his career in Sacramento.

The team of reporters were able to track down many of the families involved in the lawsuit – most of whom were willing to speak about their experiences 50 years ago – their regrets and frustrations.

Listen as Everyday Injustice talks about the injustices of 1974 and 2024 in Boston – what made this situation so volatile and why ultimately all the struggle and sacrifice produced no discernible change.

Through the telling of the story about William Freeman, Harvard Historian Robin Bernstein effectively rewrites an historical narrative. Whereas the recent narrative had it that convict leasing and prison for profit began in the post Civil War South, the story of William Freeman shows that the for profit prison system actually began much earlier and it happened in the North.

Bernstein discusses with Everyday Injustice the story of William Freeman, what made his case so unusual and how his experience set the stage for numerous developing issues in the carceral system de facto slavery, black criminality, convict leasing, for profit prisons and more.

You can find her book here: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo213968137.html

This spring, the Bureau of Prisons announced they were shuttering the women’s prison at FCI Dublin – after it was rocked with revelations of sexual abuse and whistleblower retaliation that led to the former warden to be indicted and convicted.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), a criminal justice advocacy group, has been coordinating legal representation for women who were formerly incarcerated at Dublin.

Everyday Injustice spoke with Shanna Rifkin, the deputy general counsel at FAMM. She discussed the situation at Dublin, the unique nature of this case, but called the overall situation a canary in the coalmine, believing that the problems at Dublin are likely systemic.

Rifkin also discussed the poorly handled transfer and her efforts to gain compassionate release for many of the victims at Dublin.

Listen as Shanna Rifkin of FAMM discusses the latest situation regarding the former FCI Dublin prison.

A decade ago, California voters passed Prop 47 which reduced the punishment of simple drug possession and petty theft to misdemeanors while raising the felony threshold from $400 to $950 for petty theft.

From the start, the measure passed by the voters has garnered criticism from law enforcement and other tough on crime groups and has been blamed for the rise in fentanyl use as well as a rash of high profile retail thefts and smash and grabs.

However, as Tinisch Hollins of executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, the state’s leading public safety advocacy organization told the Vanguard – this is a false narrative.

“The troubling incidents we’ve all seen on television like smash and grabs were not changed by Proposition 47, nor are they implicated by this attempted repeal,” she said in a recent statement.

Moreover, as discussed this week on Everyday Injustice – crime is down.

“Since Proposition 47 passed property crime is down, recidivism is down, and racial disparities in the justice system are down,” Hollins said.

Listen as Tinisch Hollins discusses Prop 47, efforts to roll it back, and the future of criminal justice reform, and how efforts to reform the system actually lead to enhanced public safety.

Rahsaan “New York” Thomas grew up in the notorious Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, where he faced gun violence, bullying, redlining, abusive policing policies, generational incarceration, and drug infestation.

He ended up with a 55 to life sentence. But while at San Quentin, he turned his life around and became a writer, curator, director, producer, social justice advocate, restorative justice circle keeper, youth counselor, and runner.

He is most known as “New York” on the Pulitzer Prize finalist and Dupont Award-winning podcast Ear Hustle.

In February 2023, he earned parole and continues work to help others develop their talent and continues to co-host Ear Hustle, make films, and serve on boards.

Listen as Everyday Injustice talks with New York about his life journey.

“Policing is violent. And its violence is not distributed equally: stark racial disparities persist despite decades of efforts to address them,” writes Texas Professor Michael Sierra-Arévalo in his recently published book, The Danger Imperative.

In his book, Sierra-Arevalo delves into how police culture shapes officers’ perception and practice of violence.

He conducted over 100 interviews and spent over 1000 hours on patrol.

Everyday Injustice asks the Michael Sierra-Arévalo to describe a culture where the police are more focused on protecting themselves rather than the public as well as the war on cops myth.

Can police culture be reformed? Is the violence something that can be extracted from police culture? Or do you think it must be abolished and reworked completely?

In April, four incarcerated people at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, Rhode Island died. Everyday Injustice, spoke with Melonie Perez and Brandon Robinson from Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), a non-profit that organizes low-income families in communities of color for social, economic, and political justice.

Perez and Robinson expressed concern for the lack of training by staff and lack of urgency in some of the incidents that might have been preventable. Moreover, there has been an overall lack of transparency.

In an April 29 letter from advocates, the groups wrote, “As organizations working for criminal justice reform and advocating for the rights of incarcerated individuals, we are deeply concerned about both the limited information that the Department has provided the families and the public about these deaths and the allegations that medical concerns raised by at least two of the individuals before their deaths were not treated with the urgency they deserved.”

They add, “Under the circumstances, we believe it is essential that prompt steps be taken by the Department to address this situation, with the goal of promoting greater transparency and accountability in the reporting and investigation of these deaths.”

Listen as Perez and Robinson speak about the need for a full investigation into the deaths at ACI in Rhode Island.

In April, an unprecedented lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of California challenging the state’s death penalty statute as racially discriminatory and unconstitutional under the Equal Protection guarantees of the California Constitution.

The filers which include the ACLU, LDF (Legal Defense Fund), and the Office of the State Public Defender on behalf of OSPD, Witness to Innocence, LatinoJustice PRLDEF (Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund), the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and Eva Paterson, co-founder of the Equal Justice Society, claim, “This is the first time a petition of this nature has been filed with the court.”

“Numerous empirical studies by leading social science experts reveal troubling disparities: Black people are about five times more likely to be sentenced to death when compared to similarly situated non-Black defendants, while Latino people are at least three times more likely to be sentenced to death.”

The 95-page complaint stated, “The parties agree that persistent and pervasive racial disparities infect California’s death penalty system.”

The Vanguard recently hosted a webinar to discuss this historic suit.

Panelists:

Avi Frey, Counsel from ACLU of Northern California

Lisa Romo, Office of State Public Defender (OSPD)

Morgan Zamora, prison advocacy coordinator at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Karen Munoz, from LatinoJustice

Moderators:

Madison Whittemore, Vanguard News

Sophie Yoakum, Vanguard News

Civil Rights Attorney John Burris announced a $7.5 million settlement against the Antioch, CA Police in the 2020 death of Angelo Quinto.

Quinto, suffering from a mental health incident was killed when police held him in a prone position similar to George Floyd for over ten minutes despite pleas from his mother.

John Burris said: “While no amount of money can make up for the tragic circumstances surrounding Angelos’s death, his family is to be commended for their unwavering commitment to improving the relationship between the community and Antioch police.”

He added, “The Quinto family took their pain and anguish and immediately challenged the City to reform its approach to engaging the mentally and emotionally impaired. Their efforts at partnering with the City have resulted directly or indirectly with (1) body-worn cameras, a mental health crisis team, a mobile crisis unit, a police review commission, and state legislation outlawing excited delirium. The family efforts turned a heartbreak into a source of social justice activisms that will benefit the community for years to come. This is citizenship at its best.”

Assembly Bill 360 was passed and signed into law, banning the term “Excited Delirium”, and its corollaries, like “Agitated Delirium” from being recognized as a valid medical diagnosis or cause of death in the State of California and prohibiting such terms from appearing on death certificates issued in the State of California.

The Vanguard talks with Civil Rights Attorney Ben Nisenbaum and father Robert Collins about what the settlement means to them, but also the changes to law and policy they were able to get – due in large measure to the organization and activism of Mr. Quinto’s surviving family members (Cassandra, Isabella, Andrei, and Robert), in partnership with Assemblyman Mike Gipson.