The recidivism rate is between two thirds and three quarters.

Our jails are so ineffective in dealing with the problems that bring those people there

that they're back for another stint in a short time.

This program is made possible by the members and donors to the show to support the work

we do and get commercial free versions of every episode, plus members only bonus content

to find us on Patreon or visit the Contribute tab at bestofalife.com.

Now welcome to the award-winning Best of A Left Podcast with Cups Today from the David

Pacman Show, Economic Update with Professor Richard Wolfe, the Tom Hartman program, the

Young Turks, Ring of Fire Radio, Intercepted and the Laura Flanders Show.

It's great to be joined today by Maya Shenwar, who's editor-in-chief of Truth Out and

Author of Lockdown Locked Out.

Why prison doesn't work and how we can do better?

Maya, I think I'm going to try to get into this with you maybe in a different way because

we know about the failure of the war on drugs.

We know about the disaster that many of the individual sort of logistics of prison have

been for many people.

We know about the devastating effect that imprisonment has on the communities surrounding

and the families of those imprisoned.

So let's see if we can work backwards.

Is there anything that you feel about the American prison system that is either effective,

working well, any silver lining at all?

So I think that when we think about this system and when we evaluate it, as opposed to kind

...