#55: The Story Behind America's Mass Incarceration Experiment

Summary: <p>In the late 1960s, criminologists like Todd Clear predicted America would soon start closing its prisons. They couldn’t have been more wrong. </p> Today on the show, Dan Denvir (<a href="https://twitter.com/DanielDenvir?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@DanielDenvir</a>) from <a href="https://www.blubrry.com/thedig/">The Dig</a> and Katherine Beckett from the <a href="https://jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/">University of Washington Center for Human Rights</a> join Sam to tell the story of mass incarceration in America. We talk to Rutgers criminologist <a href="https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/todd-r-clear">Todd Clear</a> on what we’ve learned from this “grand social experiment,” poet <a href="http://www.dwaynebetts.com/bio/">Reginald Dwayne Betts</a> about redemption and violent crime, and <a href="https://krasnerforda.com/">Larry Krasner</a>, a progressive lawyer who has shaken up a DA’s race in Philadelphia. Today’s show was made in partnership with <a href="https://jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/">The University of Washington Centre for Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://www.blubrry.com/thedig/">The Dig</a> and <a href="http://fairpunishment.org/">Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project</a>.