Formerly incarcerated people have become major voices for reforming a broken criminal justice system

This week on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley:

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Two million people are in the nation’s prisons and jails. According to The Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy center, that’s a 500% increase over the last 40 years at an annual cost of $80 billion.

That reality has helped drive a movement for criminal justice reform which is now front and center in the national conversation. The cause has drawn together a motley group of advocates, from grassroots organizers to celebrities like Kim Kardashian and the conservative Koch brothers, where they are part of a roiling debate about systemic racism, reformative justice, no-knock warrants and sentencing policies. More recently, the formerly incarcerated have become major voices in the reform movement. How can their leadership help shape the effort to fix the broken system?

Guests:

John Valverde is the president and CEO of the global nonprofit YouthBuild USA.

Dehlia Umunna is a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and the Faculty Deputy Director of the law school’s Criminal Justice Institute.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, a lawyer, a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, and the founder of Freedom Reads.