The Appeal

There's a growing acceptance of the idea that we need to overhaul our system of mass incarceration. But methods for doing so vary enormously––and some are causing more harm than good. Today's guest, Civil Rights Corps founder Alec Karakatsanis, has written a new book, "Usual Cruelty," that explores how even self-proclaimed "reformers" can be part of the problem and prevent true reform from taking hold.

Many states pay incarcerated workers just 20 or 30 cents per hour--and some don't pay them at all. But incarcerated workers also have virtually no labor rights or civil rights when it comes to battling discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and other protected classes. Today we are joined by journalist Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard who explains why this disparity exists and what's being done to fight it.

Jailhouse informants are a fixture of pop culture, helping TV prosecutors secure convictions in exchange for leniency or other favors. But the public—and by extension, juries—are largely ignorant of just how common, and how damaging, jailhouse informants are to the criminal legal system.This week, University of California, Irvine School of Law professor Alexandra Natapoff joins us to discuss how and why the reform movement is pushing back on the use of jailhouse informants in criminal cases.

In addition to being unique among Western nations in executing people, the U.S. keeps many of its death row prisoners in prolonged solitary confinement, which is known to inflict physical and psychological harm. Today's guest, Appeal staff reporter Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, discusses advocates' push to change that practice in Oklahoma, a state whose notorious H Unit has taken death row conditions to new lows.

As cannabis use is legalized in more and more jurisdictions across the country, child protective systems aren't always keeping pace. Allegations of drug use are still raised in family court, particularly against parents of color, and those who admit using cannabis are often subject to heightened surveillance. We are joined today by Miriam Mack and Elizabeth Tuttle Newman, staff attorneys from the Bronx Defenders, to discuss the lessons to be gleaned from states like New York and Colorado.

Progressive prosecutors have swept into office across the country, winning district attorney seats in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, and beyond. But what does it mean to be a "reform prosecutor"? What is the ideology of the movement and those who lead it? To answer these questions and more, we are joined this week by Chesa Boudin, a public defender running for San Francisco district attorney. He'll discuss his vision for the city and what being a reform DA means to him.

Earlier this year, lawmakers in New York proposed a bill that would bar people convicted of multiple sex offenses from ever using New York City's subway system again. The plan, which would inflict a form of banishment in the name of public safety, has echoes elsewhere in the criminal legal system. Sex offender registries increasingly include children under the age of 18, and some states permit children as young as 7 to be registered. But a growing body of evidence suggests that our reliance on registries—not just for sex crimes but also for terrorism, gun, and drug offenses—may allow politicians to look like they're taking action while actually doing little to curb abuse. To discuss the rise in registries, we are joined by Appeal contributor Guy Hamilton-Smith and Elizabeth Letourneau, professor and director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Thanks for all your support! We'll be back in September.

In recent years, lawmakers and the media have dusted off the 1980's War on Drugs script to respond to an uptick in overdoses caused by a new, potent, heroin-like substance called fentanyl. Military officials are considering classifying it as a "weapon of mass destruction," and highly regarded media outlets like 60 Minutes have spread the fable that police can be badly harmed from merely touching the drug. This week's guest, Appeal contributor Maia Szalavitz, explains how medical professionals and reformers are pushing back against this media-fed panic.