Century of Lies

"Stimulants and Harm Reduction webinar. This week we hear portions of “Tweaking our Harm Reduction: A stimulants Webinar.” Participants included:
Dr. Sheila P Vakharia, Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement for the Drug Policy Alliance; Christine Rodriguez, a consultant in drug user health and harm reduction who recently founded Higher Ground Harm Reduction, which is focused at the intersection of harm reduction and climate change/systems disruption; Mindy Vincent, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in mental health and addiction treatment and the founder and Executive Director of the Utah Harm Reduction Coalition; and Brandie Wilson, the moderator, who is the Executive Director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance."

T he House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on June 10, 2020 entitled Oversight Hearing on Policing Practices and Law Enforcement Accountability. We’ll hear from some of the witnesses, including: Vanita Gupta, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Paul Butler, Albert Brick Professor in Law at Georgetown University Law Center; and Professor Phillip Atiba Goff, PhD, the inaugural Franklin A. Thomas Professor in Policing Equity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and co-founder and president of the Center for Policing Equity.

The Council on Criminal Justice’s Task Force on Federal Priorities recently released a report entitled “Next Steps: An Agenda for Federal Action on Safety and Justice.” We hear from two Task Force members, Eddie Bocanegra, Senior Director of READI Chicago, and Nancy LaVigne, Vice President for Justice Policy at the Urban Institute. Plus, the Oregon Legislature’s Interim House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on COVID-19 within the state’s prison system. We hear from two of the witnesses, Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, and Tim Woolery, Oregon AFSCME Council 75 Corrections Coordinator.

The COVID crisis is having a particularly deadly impact within the criminal justice system. Unfortunately systems are slow to change, institutional inertia and the unwillingness of policymakers to do the right thing - quite literally a deadly combination. On this week's Century we hear from a panel of experts including Dr. Rashawn Ray from the University of Maryland and the Brookings Institution; Dr. Annelies Goger, also with the Brookings Institution; Marcus Bullock, founder and CEO of Flikshop; and Marc Schindler, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute.