We heard from Kimberly Haven and Ronald Simpson-Bey who talked about how journalists get it wrong and can get it better when reporting on criminal justice.
Ronald Simpson-Bey in a 2016 conversation about solitary confinement.
Ronald spent 27 years in Michigan on a wrongful conviction he was released from. “My co-defendants and I were arrested, we were splashed across the front of the news paper, handcuffed and chained together like we just got off the slave ship,” he said. That image followed him like a “scarlet letter”.
As a JustleadershipUSA Outreach and Alumni Engagement Director, Ronald now travels the country advocating for justice reform. JLUSA advocates for people first language and context of who people are when accused of a crime. “They are not just the one thing they have been accused of – they have stories,” Ronald said.
After spending three days without showering behind bars after he was first arrested, his co-defendants and him were brought out in front of the public. “We looked like animals, [and] the media was out there taking pictures.”
And the impact of those images – “we didn’t have a chance [for a fair trial].” He felt the media coverage led the to a public decision of guilt before he was even tried.
Kimberly Haven, a coalition and policy director for Reproductive Justice Inside, gets frustrated when reporters always include her criminal history in articles about her advocacy work. As far as covering plea bargains and arrests on slow news days “If the only reason your covering a sentencing is into fill space, think again.”
“You have to make the decision what’s the story and also what’s the point of the story,” she said.
According to a release of a DC Green study on food insecurity in D.C. jails, study found that a vast majority of respondents reported being
Former Councilmember Mary Cheh proposed measures to further prohibit solitary confinement twice prior to the 2022 introduction of the ERASE bill, but none succeeded. Measures including the Inmate Segregation Reduction Act of 2017. Because the DOC denies its use of solitary confinement, there are concerns that the isolated confinement is not monitored or recorded.
An interview with The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project founder, Tia Bell, a gun violence prevention organization in Washington, D.C. that provides support to young people. The organization’s mission is to “denormalize and destigmatize gun violence in communities of color across the nation.”
New data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the number of people sentenced to more than one year in prison increased in 35 states
The Marion Barry Summer job program in D.C. was a ground breaking program mimicked across the country to stop youth gun violence, but results are mixed.
Founder of The Des and freelance criminal justice reporter based in Washington, D.C.