Years of campaigning for basic human rights for people caught up in America’s criminal justice system may finally be paying off. 2013 saw significant changes from sentencing reform, to drug policy, to how people are treated behind bars. On this edition, we look at year victories in the struggle to bring humanity to the world’s largest prison industrial complex. Are these changes really a sign of progress? Or will the ‘tough on crime’ crowd rise once again for another crackdown?

Featuring:  

Larry Everest, Stop Mass Incarceration Network member; Stephen Czifra, activist and formerly incarcerated person; Ralph Diaz, Associate Director for the Department of Institutions at Pelican Bay State Prison; Jules Lobel, Center for Constitutional Rights President; Marie Levin, sister of Pelican Bay SHU prisoner Ronnie Dewberry; Alex Friedman, Human Rights Center Associate Director; Margaret Winters, ACLU National Prison Project Director, Isaac Ontiveros, Critical Resistance organizer; Tom Shear, Ilinois Department of Corrections spokesperson; Christopher Epps, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner; Bethany Fraser, parent of children with incarcerated father; Mignon Clyburn, Federal Communications Commission Acting Chair.

More information:

Holder Creates an Opening for Real Public Safety Leaders: Communities

Rethinking Solitary Confinement

Phone Calls from Prison

Human Rights Defense Center

Prison Phone Justice Campaign

Eric Holder Speech- VIDEO

Eric Holder Speech- TEXT

Thousand Kites

Center for Media Justice

The post Making Contact – 2013: The Year the Criminal Justice System Changed? appeared first on KPFA.