The Briefing with Michael Waldman

Most of the more than 1 million Americans in prison — disproportionately low-income people of color — will return to their communities after serving long sentences with few resources and little support. Recidivism rates remain stubbornly high. The criminal justice system, then, fails to produce public safety even as core values such as equality, fairness, and proportionality have fallen by the wayside.

The new book Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration, edited by the Brennan Center’s Lauren-Brooke Eisen, features essays from scholars, practitioners, activists, writers who experienced incarceration, and others. The contributors explore the social costs of excessive punishment and how to ensure public safety without perpetuating the harms of mass incarceration.  

Listen to the recording of our virtual panel from earlier this month with contributors to the book:

Jeremy Travis, Senior Fellow at Columbia Justice Lab

Nkechi Taifa, President of the Taifa Group

Khalil Cumberbatch, Senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and co-CEO of Edovo

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Find out more about the book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/excessive-punishment-how-the-justice-system-creates-mass-incarceration-lauren-brooke-eisen/20877826?ean=9780231212168 

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing: https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing

Misdemeanors, not violent offenses, dominate criminal justice. A decade of reforms has shrunk the sprawling misdemeanor system, but the prosecution of shoplifting, traffic violations, and other lesser offenses remains a burden on vulnerable communities and law enforcement resources even as public concern over physical and social disorder in public spaces spurs calls for renewed enforcement. 

A new Brennan Center report zooms in on New York City as a case study for how misdemeanor enforcement has changed in recent years, offering insights into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and reform initiatives like the decriminalization of low-level drug possession. But even as overall caseloads have declined, stark racial disparities persist.   

Listen to the recording of our virtual panel from earlier this month, “Misdemeanors by the Numbers.” Bria Gillum, senior program officer at the MacArthur Foundation Criminal Justice Program, and Michigan County Sheriff Jerry Clayton join Brennan Center Senior Research Fellow Josephine Hahn in a discussion moderated by the Brennan Center’s Rosemary Nidiry. 

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You can check out the Brennan Center’s report Misdemeanor Enforcement Trends in New York City, 2016–2022 here: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/misdemeanor-enforcement-trends-new-york-city-2016-2022 

You can keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing: https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing

Listen to the recording of our in-person event from last month, Decoding the Trump Indictments. Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann, coauthors of the new book The Trump Indictments, discuss the historic charges against the former president in a discussion moderated by Brennan Center President Michael Waldman. Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law Faculty and director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law. Weissmann, a professor of practice at NYU Law and a legal analyst for MSNBC, previously served as general counsel to the FBI and one of the senior prosecutors on Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.

If you enjoy this program, please give us a boost by liking, subscribing and sharing with your friends. If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, please give a 5 star rating. 

You can find Melissa and Andrew’s bestselling new book, “Decoding the Trump Indictments,” at your favorite local bookseller or online: https://wwnorton.com/books/the-trump-indictments

You can keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to Michael Waldman’s weekly newsletter, The Briefing: https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing

What role do members of the cultural and media elite play in the ascent of nationalist rule? In her new book, Twilight of Democracy, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum examines the surrogates who enable autocracy. She discusses the patterns of weakening democracies around the world with Washington Post columnist Max Boot.

In his most recent book, North of Havana, legendary trial lawyer Martin Garbus recounts one of his most high-profile cases: the Cuban Five. In this episode of Brennan Center Live, Garbus talks to Victoria Bassetti about what this case can teach us about the U.S. justice system, American politics, and U.S.-Cuba relations.

In recent years, the Supreme Court has empowered moneyed interests to wield disproportionate influence in elections, gutted the Voting Rights Act, and upheld President Trump’s travel ban. These decisions fit a troubling, decades-long pattern, argues journalist Adam Cohen. He talks with NYU Law professor Melissa Murray about his new book, Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America, and his finding that since the Nixon era, the Court has done little to protect the rights of the poor and disadvantaged.

How did George Washington view the presidency? What might he think of politics today? Historian Alexis Coe examines America's first president in a freshly humanizing light in her new book You Never Forget Your First. She talks with Julian Zelizer in this new episode of Brennan Center Live.

In her memoir Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For, former National Security Advisor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice reveals pivotal moments from her career on the front lines of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. In this episode of Brennan Center Live, Rice talks with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell about the current state of foreign affairs and the challenges facing American leadership. What are the greatest threats to democracy around the world? To what extent does our current approach to foreign policy advance or endanger our national security? And how do we repair our relationships with our democratic allies?

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed several problems with the American elections system, but even outside of global pandemic, Americans are increasingly questioning the fairness and accuracy of our elections. In his new book Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy, law professor Richard L. Hasen examines sources of voters’ distrust. In this new episode of Brennan Center Live, he speaks with legal expert Victoria Bassetti and proposes steps to restore voters' confidence.

When Should Law Forgive?, former Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow argues that we should build forgiveness into the administration of American law. She speaks with NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray in this new episode of Brennan Center Live."}" data-sheets-userformat= "{"2":13245,"3":{"1":0},"5":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"6":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"7":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"8":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"10":0,"11":4,"12":0,"15":"Calibri","16":12}"> Today, with a criminal justice system designed to punish, the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. What if the American legal system was set up to weigh grounds for forgiveness? In her new book, When Should Law Forgive?, former Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow argues that we should build forgiveness into the administration of American law. She speaks with NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray in this new episode of Brennan Center Live.