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Breaking the Chains

Cell door

Grant Durr (CC0)

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Original Air Date:

June 20, 2020

America is in the midst of what seems like a race revolution. Street protests are continuing across the country. Police departments are enacting changes. Confederate statues are coming down. What's next in the fight for Black equality? We take a hard look at how racism infects not only the police, but the entire criminal justice system.

'The New Jim Crow'? Our Criminal Justice System

Audio

Is the American criminal justice system perpetuating racial castes? Civil rights attorney and activist Michelle Alexander breaks down the systemic racism inherent to our justice system.

Length:

10:02

The Violence of a Violent Justice System

Empty prison

Audio

Scholar and activist Ruth Wilson Gilmore says when you put mass incarceration in a larger context, it's pretty clear — you don't solve a problem by repeating the kind of behavior that brought you the problem in the first place.

Length:

14:03

Can Capitalism Reduce Mass Incarceration?

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Dangerous Ideas

"Just Mercy" author Bryan Stevenson believes in creating incentives to reduce the country's prison population.

Length:

2:34

Fearing the Black Man

Demonstrators protest police brutality at a June 2 event in front of the White House.

Articles

At the heart of many Americans' fear of Black men is an ugly stereotype — the stereotype of the Black criminal. Historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad traces some of our current attitudes about race and crime to the late 19th century, when sociologists first began looking at crime statistics.

Length:

12:29

Malcolm Gladwell on 'When Police Kill'

Malcolm Gladwell

Bookmarks

Journalist Malcolm Gladwell is famous for mining behavioral science for his work, and when it comes to better understanding the intersection of crime, violence, and policing, he turns over and over to criminologist Frank Zimring.

Length:

4:00

'Why Do Police Do Traffic Stops?' Journalist Malcolm Gladwell On Rethinking Law Enforcement

Malcolm Gladwell

Articles

The narrative that police brutality is a question of a few "bad apples" is precisely the wrong way to think about police brutality, says journalist Malcolm Gladwell.

Reforming The LAPD

Articles

In 2010, then-LAPD Chief William Bratton asked civil rights attorney Connie Rice to investigate the biggest police corruption scandal in Los Angeles history, and to train 50 LAPD officers in what she calls "public trust policing."

Length:

13:14

Extras

Eternal Blue Sky by ILL CLINTON

Show Details 📻

Airdates

June 20, 2020

Guests:

Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander

Civil Rights Lawyer and Legal Scholar

Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson

Lawyer

Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Prison Abolitionist and Scholar

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell

Journalist

Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Director, Schomburg Center For Research in Black Culture

Connie Rice

Lawyer and Author

Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead

Author

Categories:

Politics and History

Last modified:

June 24, 2020

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