The Hustler Files with Lisa Reilly - Stories That Challenge What You Thought You Knew

For more than two decades, Criminologist Dr. Kathryn M. Whiteley has been speaking to women with life sentences, to women who have committed murder. Dr. Whiteley believes that many of these women are more than the sum of their sentence, although she does not discount the pain and suffering of the families who lost a loved one. In this episode, topics of childhood trauma, abandonment, faith, and search for purpose are the common factors that emerge in the stories that Kathryn hears and reads through the hundreds of letters she's received through the years. Through her research and Self Identities podcast, Whiteley creates space for women to speak for themselves while recognizing the harm they have caused. It's a conversation about accountability, second chances, and the humanity of women who are too often forgotten. Plus, this week's Know Your Rights Minute from the Center for Social Justice at Western New England School of Law explores debt collection lawsuits and why showing up in court matters.

Being justice impacted can follow you forever and close doors to employment and housing. Consumer debt from loans and credit cards can leave people facing a courtroom alone. At Western New England University School of Law, the Center for Social Justice is helping people navigate both. Dean Zelda Harris and Center Director Zachary Bleckner discuss CORI sealing and expungement, consumer debt assistance, and how the pro bono work of their law students serves the community and a larger mission. Plus, in this episode, The Hustler Files is proud to launch its new partnership with the Center for Social Justice with the NEW Know Your Rights Minute. This weekly feature provides legal information, not advice, available for those in Massachusetts. For information regarding these subjects please contact your own State for your laws.

If you're justice impacted, getting hired can be a real roadblock, and even then, finding support and opportunity to build a different life isn't guaranteed. In this follow-up episode with Awake Window & Door co-founder Scott Gates, meet Joe Mason and Jessica Coz, two of Awake's team with one perspective on making fair-chance employment work. Joe, Awake's Director of Training and Development, explains how personal growth classes, practical resources, and a supportive workplace help their employees move forward. Jessica shares her journey through incarceration at Arizona's Perryville prison, where she helped develop programming to improve communication between correctional officers and incarcerated women. Today, she's gone from hearing "no" from employers to helping hire others. Together, they discuss accountability, setbacks, belonging, and what becomes possible when someone sees your potential.

Nearly 400 job applications, and one company finally saw the person behind the record. Today, that employee has earned multiple promotions and operates specialized manufacturing equipment at Awake Window & Door, in Gilbert, Arizona. Scott Gates, co-founder and CEO, shares why its mission came even before its products: creating meaningful employment for people with justice-involved backgrounds. With more than 60 percent of its workforce justice impacted, Awake combines luxury manufacturing with training, life skills, and opportunities for advancement. From accommodating parole requirements to helping employees build a vision for their lives, Scott explains what it takes to put a second chance into practice, and why other employers are overlooking some incredible talent.

Charlie Rosario spent 19 years in prison. While incarcerated, he was fortunate to be admitted to the Emerson Prison Initiative. This program earned him a bachelor's degree, and with that education he began to see new possibilities for his life. Now released from prison, he works for the same program, at Emerson, helping other students and returning citizens navigate education and reentry. Charlie also talks about growing up in Worcester, his experience in the youth and adult prison systems, and the persistence it took to reach college, gain parole, and why helping others recognize their own worth has become his purpose.

What changes when someone in prison is given the chance to become a college student? Dr. Mneesha Gellman, Founder and Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, (EPI), in Boston, Massachusetts, believed a rigorous college degree program could help create that change. It didn't take much with her background in education in prison, human rights, immigration, and the politics of violence to convince her that college behind bars was a necessity. In 2017 she launched EPI, sharing that she was also inspired by the Bard College Prison Initiative which was launched in 2001. Currently MCI - Norfolk is where her students behind the wall pursue an Emerson College Bachelor of Arts in Media, Literature, and Culture and are taught by Emerson professors and guest faculty. Mneesha shares the incarcerated students' passion for education and the ripple effect beyond the carceral classroom as many students who start their degree path behind the wall not only continue their education, after release, but also are helping others navigate reentry, and inspiring family members to pursue their own goals. Mneesha also created RECOUP which supports formerly incarcerated students with continuing education, employment, housing, healthcare, and other reentry needs.

Texas bail attorney Ken W. Good breaks down the often-confusing differences between bail, bond and pretrial release, and examines what happens when the safeguards designed to protect the public fail. This conversation centers on the case of Lee Gilley, a Houston man charged with capital murder in the death of his pregnant wife, Christa Bauer Gilley. After being released on a $1 million bond with GPS monitoring, Gilley removed his ankle monitor and fled through Canada to Italy using a fraudulent passport. How did he get such a significant head start? Ken explains how electronic monitoring alerts are handled, why GPS technology cannot replace human supervision, what happens when a defendant skips bond, and who may ultimately be responsible for the $1 million bond. This episode also explores Texas bail policy, judicial discretion, public safety and Gilley's continuing fight against extradition.

A second chance only matters when someone is standing there ready to help you believe your life can actually be different. Ron Waddell, co-founder of Legendary Legacies in Worcester, Massachusetts, knows firsthand how easily a young person can fall through the cracks. After losing his mother at 15, experiencing homelessness and navigating instability without many of the supports young people need, Ron eventually found his own path, and a calling to make sure other young men wouldn't have to find theirs alone. Founded in 2018, Legendary Legacies works with men affected by gangs, violence and incarceration through intensive life coaching, mentorship, workforce development and a deeply relational approach that meets people where they are. With many staff members bringing their own lived experience to the work, the organization is creating something bigger than a program: a community built around brotherhood, accountability, purpose and opportunity. Because sometimes changing a life isn't about erasing someone's past. It's about helping them build a different future, and a legacy for the generations that follow.

Twenty years, that's the sentence she received for refusing to take a plea deal. Now Elizabeth Mercedes Hernandez, a former nurse practitioner, a mother of five and a healthcare professional with no prior criminal record is serving in a Florida federal prison after being convicted of committing healthcare and wire fraud. In this episode, her mother, Esther Pino, and sister, Eve Hernandez, say the government got her story wrong. Elizabeth's journey from working in the rapidly expanding world of telemedicine to discovering what the prosecutors, at her trial, say was the misuse of her medical credentials and NPI number. Despite cooperating with investigators, refusing a plea agreement and ultimately taking her case to trial, Elizabeth lost her freedom. Esther and Eve share their continuing fight for Elizabeth's freedom and their larger effort to bring attention to healthcare practitioners they believe have been unjustly prosecuted. This is a story about one family's unwavering belief in Elizabeth's innocence, and the questions her case has left them asking about truth, justice and the power of the federal criminal justice system.

Rikers Island has been synonymous with violence, dysfunction and controversy for decades. But as New York City moves toward closing one of America's most infamous jail complexes, former NYC Correction Officer and union leader Elias Husamudeen believes there's another option: reinvent it. After 34 years working inside the New York City correction system, Elias brings a perspective shaped by firsthand experience. His ambitious Rikers Reset proposal would dramatically reduce the island's jail footprint while creating space for education, transitional housing, mental health and medical care, rehabilitation and other resources designed to address what happens both during incarceration and after release. Elias offers his insight about what Rikers is really like behind the headlines, why previous reform efforts have struggled, the enormous cost of closing and rebuilding New York City's jail system, and why he believes rehabilitation, not simply new buildings is the key to reducing recidivism. Is it time to close Rikers Island, or is it time to completely reimagine what it could become?