Josh and Joel discuss prosecutors as a cause of mass incarceration.
Full Episode
Notes From Episode 3
Preview
Orange Is the New Black?
My recaps and writing about the television series “Orange Is the New Black” is covered thoroughly in this guide.
Tarra Simmons and Shon Hopwood
The story of Tarra’s Washington Supreme Court case was retold recently by the New York Times with, in my opinion, a very indelicate and inappropriate headline (we who are formerly incarcerated do not believe we should be reduced in language to ONLY our worst moments).
Prosecutors and Mass Incarceration
This is the John Pfaff study where he explained the importance of unrestrained prosecutions in the rise of Mass Incarceration.
Mr. Pfaff is also the author of the book “Locked In” which has had a huge influence on my thinking about criminal justice and incarceration.
My claim about prosecutors running unopposed came from this ACLU study.
My claims about racism in prosecutions has been documented in the notes for previous episodes but it can be tied back to this factoid as well.
Many of my claims about prosecutors came from this article about how prosecutor’s unions work together against criminal justice reform and this article defining the scope of the problem we face from District Attorneys. There is also this article about the inertia that continues to favor reelecting the same DA’s over and over.
Here is the article about innocence denial that Joel referred to.
Prosecutors and Resource Advantages
The evidence suggesting that 60% of prison budgets go to facilities and staff was from this Vera Institute 2017 study.
The differential between prosecutors and indigent defense can be quite substantial, here is some evidence of that.
Here is a link to Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow.”
Okay, that is my list for Episode 3. If I find more resources to share, I will come back and post them when I get a chance.
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