Unprisoned: Stories From The System

Victim/Criminal tells the story of Hakeem Carter, who was brutally attacked while walking home from work one night.

This episode comes from a live panel discussion about juvenile justice that followed the premiere of The Myth of the Super Predator.

The Myth of the Super Predator debunks an idea first made famous by then-first lady Hillary Clinton, an idea we still haven't fully shaken off: that some children are beyond redemption.

The Myth Justice is Blind to Money, Part 3 investigates the impact of the Federal Court’s involvement in Orleans Parish’s practices of imposing bail, fines and fees. How do the mayor’s office, the city council, the state legislature, and the criminal court judges comply or not comply with Federal rulings? In an era where police allocations are being questioned, where should a city apportion its taxpayers’ money?

The Myth Justice is Blind to Money, Part 2, tells the story of one prior attempt to get rid of money bail and how this attempt was thwarted by the status quo. It’s a dive into systems and the difficulty of dismantling a system as complex as our nation’s criminal legal system.

Season 2 of Unprisoned begins with a three-part series called The Myth Justice is Blind to Money.

Bring Your Own is a nomadic storytelling series that takes place in unconventional spaces within the community. Each month, eight storytellers have eight minutes to respond to a theme. BYO airs on All Things New Orleans and is a biweekly podcast on WWNO.org.

Louisiana is the incarceration capital of the world. But most people behind bars aren’t locked up forever. In fact, 90 percent of them will someday be released. So that makes Louisiana also the reentry capital of the world-- a role the state is ill-prepared for.

Bring Your Own is a nomadic storytelling series that takes place in unconventional spaces within the community. Each month, eight storytellers have eight minutes to respond to a theme. BYO airs on All Things New Orleans and is a biweekly podcast on WWNO.org.

In nearly every state, prison populations have exploded -- in large part, because of drug laws and the people, like Manny Hills, who are arrested and incarcerated for those laws. Over the last 25 years, Manny, an addict, has been convicted several times for drug possession and other petty crimes. His story is pretty typical of the people who fill up our nation's prisons.

Over the last forty years, as incarceration has surged across the nation, so has the number of children with a family member in prison. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the number of young people with a father in prison rose 500 percent between 1980 and 2000.

At all levels of government right now, laws about juveniles are rapidly changing. However, some states, including Louisiana, continue to prosecute and sentence juveniles for sentences of life without parole.

Asha Lane is an 18-year-old senior at the International High School of New Orleans, a charter high school. Asha wanted to find out why New Orleans charter schools don’t always feel nurturing. We live in a dangerous city, but when does security feel unsafe?

In the last few years, powerful images of police interacting violently with African Americans -- usually men, or teenagers, or even children -- have been on the news, all over the world.

The Listening Post is back collecting thoughts and experiences from communities around New Orleans on a new series of issues. The past month we’ve been collaborating with Independent radio producer Eve Abrams and her Unprisoned project.

If there’s one person in New Orleans – in the world of criminal justice – that you really ought to meet, it’s this guy.

“Our uniforms were completely different from the men’s uniforms,” recalls Yvonne Bechet, one of the first female officers in the New Orleans Police Department. “We wore skirts. We wore one-inch heels. We wore the cutest little sailor hats, but it didn’t stay on. And we carried our weapons in a purse."

Dominique Newton is a college sophomore. She’s only 20, but she’s already been through a lot. These days, she’s majoring in political science, with a minor in creative writing. Last time we got together, she was in the middle of writing a 10-page play, and also toting around some comic books.

Bring Your Own is a nomadic storytelling series that takes place in unconventional spaces within the community. Each month, eight storytellers have eight minutes to respond to a theme. BYO airs on All Things New Orleans and is a biweekly podcast on WWNO.org.