Everyday Injustice

In this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Daniel Forkkio, CEO of Represent Justice, a national organization that amplifies the voices of formerly incarcerated people through storytelling. Forkkio explains that Represent Justice partners with filmmakers, advocates, and ambassadors across the country to humanize those impacted by the criminal legal system and shift public perception. “It’s all storytelling all the time,” he says, emphasizing dignity, authenticity, and lived experience as central to systemic change.

Forkkio traces the organization’s origins to the Just Mercy campaign in 2019, when screenings of the film inspired powerful audience reactions and led him to found Represent Justice as a permanent platform for narrative change. Today, the nonprofit supports projects like Chasing Redemption, which explores life-without-parole sentences, and A Million Dollar Cage, a film exposing the staggering costs of youth incarceration in Los Angeles. Through these campaigns, Represent Justice uses stories to influence legislation, reshape culture, and empower communities to envision a justice system rooted in transformation rather than punishment.

Throughout the conversation, Forkkio challenges the myths surrounding crime, punishment, and safety, calling for broader public understanding of trauma, housing insecurity, and mental health as drivers of incarceration. He urges greater media literacy and a rejection of fear-based narratives that dominate headlines, reminding listeners that “authentic stories can shift beliefs by the thousands.” His advocacy for restorative justice reflects a vision of reconciliation and healing — a vision that contrasts sharply with America’s overreliance on prisons and punishment.

Forkkio concludes by inviting audiences to take action: watch a film, learn about its campaign, and support the storytellers who are reshaping the conversation around justice. “Everyone has a role to play when it comes to narrative,” he says. “Take a stand by watching something and changing the way that you think.” Represent Justice, through its growing network of ambassadors, films, and partnerships, is redefining how stories of incarceration and redemption can move a nation toward empathy and reform.

A Conversation with Courtney Teasley

On this episode of Everyday Injustice, attorney and activist Courtney Teasley shares her journey from growing up in East Nashville during the crack epidemic to becoming what she calls a “legal disruptor.” Teasley defines this role as going beyond the bare minimum in the legal system—intervening proactively to prevent unjust outcomes before they are sealed by guilty pleas or convictions.

Her story begins with personal experience. Raised by her grandmother while her mother struggled with addiction and incarceration, Teasley witnessed firsthand how the system punished users as if they were dealers. Watching her mother receive inadequate legal defense sparked her determination to become an attorney who fights differently—challenging the systemic complacency that fuels mass incarceration.

Today, Teasley has expanded her work beyond the courtroom. She coaches lawyers on building independent practices, lectures on legal literacy, and organizes court watch programs. Her book series, The Easy Way to Learn Your Rights, seeks to empower families, churches, and schools to teach communities how to protect themselves against systemic abuse. “Every lawyer is not an advocate, and every advocate is not a lawyer,” she emphasizes, urging people to step into the fight for justice regardless of professional title.

Throughout the conversation, Teasley underscores the urgent need for systemic change. From highlighting the low threshold for probable cause that drives mass incarceration to calling for more transparency in prosecutorial practices, her work reflects a vision of empowerment and accountability. At its core, her message is clear: building justice requires disrupting the status quo and equipping disproportionately affected communities with the knowledge and tools to defend themselves.

The latest episode of Everyday Injustice takes on one of the least understood but most destructive aspects of the criminal legal system: fines and fees. Host David Greenwald speaks with Lillian Patil and Tanisha Pire of the Fines and Fees Justice Center about their new report, Imposing Instability: How Court Fines and Fees Destabilize Government Budgets and Criminalize Those Who Cannot Pay. Their research exposes how state and local governments across the country rely on fines and fees not only as a tool of punishment, but also as a hidden and unstable source of revenue.

Patil and Pire explain how fines and fees are imposed at nearly every stage of the system—from traffic tickets and public defender applications to probation supervision—and how this creates what they describe as a “hidden tax” on low-income communities. Over five years, courts in just 24 states imposed nearly $14 billion in fines and fees. Yet much of this debt is uncollectible because the people charged cannot pay, leaving families destabilized and governments still facing budget gaps.

The conversation highlights the human toll: people losing driver’s licenses, facing arrest warrants, being pushed into cycles of debt, and even incarceration because they lacked the ability to pay. As Pire notes, courts rarely conduct ability-to-pay assessments, meaning people are penalized not for their actions but for their poverty. Patil points out that governments often spend more trying to collect this money than they ever receive, making the practice both unjust and fiscally unsound.

Despite these harms, reform has been slow. Some states, like California, have eliminated license suspensions and discharged uncollectible debt, but many continue to depend on fines and fees even as revenues decline. Patil and Pire argue that sustainable, equitable funding must replace this failing system. Their report makes clear that fines and fees are “bad for people, bad for budgets,” and that bold reform is urgently needed.

On the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with David Gaspar, CEO of The Bail Project, for a powerful conversation about the inequities of America’s bail system. The discussion opens with an exploration of how cash bail disproportionately punishes poor and marginalized communities, while offering little real protection to the public. As Gaspar explains, the system often criminalizes poverty, untreated trauma, mental health crises, and substance use, leaving people jailed not because they pose a danger, but because they cannot afford freedom.

Gaspar shares his own remarkable journey through the criminal legal system. At 22, he was arrested and pressured into accepting a plea deal he didn’t fully understand, leading to a wrongful sentence and a decade behind bars. While incarcerated, he earned his GED, taught himself the law, and eventually won his own freedom through a self-written appeal to the state Supreme Court. That experience, he notes, fuels his determination to ensure others don’t face the same despair without access to support and fairness.

The conversation highlights the devastating ripple effects of pretrial detention. Losing a job, housing, or custody of children can happen within days or weeks behind bars, destabilizing lives long after release. Gaspar underscores that what people need most is not punishment, but stability and opportunity to move forward. He points to the $14 billion spent annually on detaining legally innocent people as a moral and fiscal failure, arguing those resources could be redirected toward real solutions like housing, treatment, and community support.

Throughout the interview, Gaspar makes the case for reimagining pretrial justice—moving away from “assembly line” bail hearings toward meaningful due process and investments in services that actually promote safety. With stories of resilience and redemption, including clients who have rebuilt their lives after release, Gaspar emphasizes that human potential doesn’t vanish because of a mistake or hardship. Instead, with compassion and support, people can and do thrive.

Mac Muir, former senior investigator with New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board and author of Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing, joined Everyday Injustice to discuss his years of investigating misconduct and the systemic failures he witnessed firsthand. Muir, who later directed Oakland’s Police Oversight Agency, explained that his book grew out of a desire to document what he and co-author Greg Finch saw daily: officers engaged in misconduct, victims left without justice, and an accountability system designed to protect the institution rather than the public.

Reflecting on the years after George Floyd’s murder, Muir described the public conversation as focused on extreme incidents like Derek Chauvin’s, while the more pervasive harm lies in “everyday injustice.” He highlighted the stops, frisks, harassment, and surveillance that disproportionately target Black and Brown communities. These practices, he said, create a culture where officers become cynical, disconnected from public service, and shielded from accountability—even when their actions cause unnecessary harm.

Muir also spoke about the limitations of asking police to serve as default first responders to mental health crises, family disputes, and social problems they are neither trained nor equipped to handle. He emphasized the importance of investing in alternatives—such as community safety programs and mediation—rather than relying on police as a blunt instrument in situations that require empathy and specialized care. “We’re asking a single profession to do everything,” he noted, calling for structural reforms that expand community-based responses.

The conversation closed with Muir outlining six proposals from his book, including hiring more women in policing, ending the war on drugs, expanding civilian oversight, and building truth and reconciliation processes between communities and officers. These ideas, he argued, move the debate beyond slogans like “defund the police” toward practical reforms that could reduce harm and rebuild public trust. For Muir, real accountability means both exposing misconduct and creating conditions where good officers can thrive while communities feel safe and respected.

On this week’s episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with Adam Clausen, director of Innovation and Social Impact, whose life story embodies both the failures and possibilities of the American justice system. Once sentenced to 213 years in federal prison, Clausen not only found a way to survive the impossible but has since emerged as a national leader advocating for reform and second chances.

Clausen’s journey began with a troubled adolescence in New Jersey, marked by probation at 11 and escalating encounters with the justice system. By 18, he was a standout athlete with scholarship offers, but his life unraveled into crime and drug use, ultimately leading to lengthy incarceration. When federal prosecutors stacked mandatory firearm charges against him, he was handed a sentence that amounted to multiple lifetimes. Rather than allow despair to consume him, Clausen chose optimism, discipline, and eventually transformation.

During more than two decades in prison, Clausen poured his energy into fitness, introspection, and building community. With the support of forward-thinking administrators, he helped establish the nation’s first program of incarcerated life coaches, turning prison into a space for growth and preparation for life beyond the walls. That work laid the foundation for his role today in Social Purpose Corrections, where he collaborates with leaders to reshape correctional culture, promote wellness, and ensure that people leave prison better prepared than when they entered.

Now free through compassionate release after the First Step Act opened a legal path, Clausen is dedicated to using his story to inspire change. He works alongside national organizations, testifies before policymakers, and continues to press for reforms that recognize dignity, opportunity, and accountability. His conversation with Everyday Injustice is a powerful reminder that behind every sentence, no matter how long, is a human being capable of redemption—and that a justice system focused on restoration can serve both individuals and society far better than one built on punishment alone.

Martha Arevalo, executive director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles, described an atmosphere of fear and chaos as federal authorities escalate enforcement in immigrant communities. Speaking on Everyday Injustice, she said residents are facing armored vehicles, masked officers, and indiscriminate detentions that sweep up people regardless of their immigration status.

Arevalo warned that Los Angeles has become a “testing ground” for aggressive tactics that could soon spread nationwide. “What we’re seeing is an administration that is not following the law,” she said, pointing to raids where individuals are detained without warrants, dialogue, or regard for constitutional protections.

She emphasized that those being targeted include not only undocumented individuals but also lawful residents, DACA recipients, and even U.S. citizens. “If you look Latino, if you look like you could be an immigrant, they might get you,” she said. The impact has rippled across the city, leaving schools half-empty, businesses deserted, and families uncertain about the whereabouts of loved ones.

Despite the escalating crisis, Arevalo said her organization remains committed to defending immigrant rights through legal services, rapid response, and advocacy. She stressed that the broader public should see this not only as an immigrant issue but as a test of democracy itself: “Today is this community in Los Angeles and the immigrant community. Tomorrow it could be you”.

In the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, Tony Viola, a former Cleveland real estate professional, shares his story of being wrongly accused and convicted in what was billed as the nation’s largest mortgage fraud case. Viola was indicted in both state and federal court, accused of stealing $46 million, and cast in the media as the architect of a massive scheme that he says never existed.

Viola described how prosecutors pressed forward despite banks stating they suffered no losses and despite evidence showing he had no connection to the companies at the center of the case. He said the government relied on informant testimony, pursued a faulty narrative, and engaged in intimidation and misconduct. Missing evidence, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and the destruction of key materials made it impossible for him to mount a fair defense, he said.

The case shifted when Dawn Pella, a staffer inside the prosecutor’s office, came forward with evidence of misconduct, including emails that showed prosecutors knowingly relied on false testimony. Viola used that material to secure a victory in a second trial, though he spent 10 years in prison before being released. Pella, who was expected to testify on his behalf, later died under suspicious circumstances, and her computer containing key documents disappeared.

Now exonerated, Viola has turned his experience into advocacy, calling for accountability and an end to prosecutorial immunity. He said his case highlights how systemic misconduct in the justice system is not limited to street-level crimes but extends to complex financial cases as well. “If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone,” Viola said. More information is available at FreeTonyViola.com and JusticeForDawn.com .

Elizabeth Ross, from the Challenging Discrimination in the Law Project at Yale Law School, discusses touring the Valley State Prison law library with carceral studies scholar Elizabeth Hinton, All of Us or None journalist Alissa Moore, and Witness journalist Ghostwrite Mike. She also reflects on her experience at the inaugural Inside Knowledge Carceral Journalism Symposium and shares updates on the Yale Institute on Incarceration and Public Safety’s Racial Justice Toolkit initiative—efforts that aim to bring meaningful access to data, law, and storytelling inside prison walls.

On this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with Kara Gotsch, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, for a wide-ranging conversation about the ongoing challenges—and hard-won progress—toward ending mass incarceration in the United States. Gotsch opens with a stark but measured assessment: while the prison population has declined since its peak in the late 2000s, there are troubling signs of political backsliding, with states like Louisiana reversing youth justice reforms and a broader erosion of bipartisan momentum.

Throughout the conversation, Gotsch underscores a central paradox: the U.S. imposes some of the longest prison sentences in the world, yet there is little evidence those sentences improve public safety. In fact, most people who serve decades behind bars—especially those who were young at the time of their offense—pose minimal risk of reoffending upon release. Gotsch calls for capping sentences at 20 years and stresses the importance of “second look” legislation that gives incarcerated people a meaningful chance at rehabilitation and release.

The episode delves into youth justice reform and recent breakthroughs in state courts, which are increasingly recognizing the science behind emerging adult brain development. These rulings challenge life without parole for people under 21 and show the growing influence of evidence-based policy grounded in neuroscience and compassion.

Ultimately, Gotsch argues that data alone won't change hearts and minds. What’s needed, she says, is storytelling—bringing the public closer to the lives of those impacted by incarceration. “There’s no compassion for a number,” she says. “But there is compassion for a human being.” It’s a moving call to reframe justice not as retribution, but as restoration.