In the face of increased push back in the US against criminal justice reform, what are strategies for continuing to transform safety and justice? In this special bonus episode, we’ll listen in on the closing plenary of the Fall 2022 Aspen Justice Network convening on this topic. The session features Erica Bond, Vice President of Social Justice Initiatives at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NYC, and DeAnna Hoskins, President and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA.

On this episode of "Shades of Freedom", we take a look at the intersections of the health care system and the justice system. For many communities, both systems rely on emergency or crisis response approaches, which can lead to unhealthy, and unjust, results for individual and neighborhoods. What is justice within health care? What would constitute health within the justice system? We’re joined by Tasha Blackmon, President and CEO of Cherry Health, a major provider of health services in Grand Rapids, MI, for a view into what it means to create health justice in one mid-sized American city.

We don’t make it easy for returning citizens to restart their lives. Though they’ve done their time, a whole host of federal, state and local laws – not to mention the discriminatory practices of private employers and landlords, for example – stand in the way of finding a new footing and starting afresh. Sheena Meade, currently the Executive Director of the Clean Slate Initiative, has focused her career on supporting formerly incarcerated people to get the second chance they deserve.

Daniel Nichanian discusses the national importance of local reporting and local elections on justice reform, how the financial challenges of local journalism play into this, and what he’s seeing across the country now as voters make choices about electing local justice leaders.

LaTonya A. Tate didn’t intentionally start on a career path to put herself on the Birmingham, Alabama, City Council, to be the Chair of its Public Safety Committee, but she has found herself where she needs to be right now. Please join us as we talk with Councilor Tate about her remarkable path, and how she wields power—and hope—to make change possible.

There seems to be more space—and less overlap—between conservatives and liberals on every topic these days, but justice transformation may be an exception. Is there some common ground, even common underlying values, that the different sides could come together around? Join us for a conversation with Marc Levin, Chief Policy Counsel at the Council on Criminal Justice, and founder of the Texas Right on Crime initiative, on finding middle ground on topics such as incarceration’s impact on fundamental rights, the role of restorative justice, and perhaps even agreement on shifting some current police responsibilities to other entities.

When offered the choice, violence survivors will choose restorative justice over prison time for those responsible. In the case of the nonprofit Common Justice, 90% of survivors of violent crimes agree to meet with the responsible party, and allow alternative punishments to time in prison.

Common Justice’s founder, Danielle Sered, joins us in conversation about the remarkable work of this nonprofit and the people – both survivors and responsible persons – whose lives have been impacted, and how such alternatives meet the deep, underlying needs of survivors for more meaningful closure. Sered also discusses alternatives to policing, and how these too can offer communities, long harmed by the justice system, the chance to heal and find safety on their own terms.

Renita Francois walks us through some innovative approaches to neighborhood safety and justice reform underway in New York City, and the impacts they are seeing in the housing communities where they’ve implemented resident-sourced solutions. Please join us for this exciting look at how engaging communities in defining and solving their own challenges can lead to real change.

Prisons in the U.S. are, by design and operation, focused on punishment. But does punishment have to be traumatizing? Could prisons and jails be places of healing? In this episode of Shades of Freedom, our guest Nneka Jones Tapia, Managing Director for Justice Initiatives at Chicago Beyond and a former warden of the Cook County Jail, joins us to discuss the new Square One Project report, Harm Reduction at the Center of Corrections.

In this episode of "Shades of Freedom," guests Daryl Atkinson (Forward Justice) and Jeremy Travis (Arnold Ventures) join us to discuss the new Square One Project report, "The Power of Parsimony." If you are concerned about overincarceration, sentencing reform, and our culture of punishment - as meted out by the justice system, and in the added punishments which follow incarceration - this is the podcast for you.