meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Hot and Bothered

Juneteenth Spotlight: The Final 5 Campaign

Hot and Bothered

Not Sorry Productions

Books, Feminism, Intersectionality, Arts, Relationships, Society & Culture

0.00 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2022

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We're cross-posting this special episode of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, which we've released today. This year in commemoration of Juneteenth, Not Sorry is spotlighting The Final 5 Campaign, a coalition working to close the final five youth prisons in Illinois. Vanessa is joined in conversation by one of their leaders, Alicia Brown, who tells us about what it means to be a prison abolitionist and her work with the campaign. 


Please join us by making a donation, learning more about the failures of youth prisons, contacting your legislators about prisons in your state, and listening to their new podcast, Free The Youth.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi, everyone. We are releasing a special episode today. We want to use Juneteenth as an opportunity

0:08.4

to discuss an issue that we are really passionate about at Not Sorry and that is prison abolition.

0:15.2

The reason that we are discussing this on Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating emancipation

0:20.5

of enslaved African Americans, is because the United States Prison Industrial Complex

0:26.0

is one of the places in our society where it is most strikingly clear that America has

0:31.3

failed in its commitment to emancipation. Black Americans make up 13% of our population,

0:38.6

but they make up nearly 40% of our prison population. Additionally, nearly half of people

0:45.4

incarcerated in state prisons in 2015 were convicted of non-violent crimes. In the Harry

0:53.5

Potter books, we are in pretty regular conversation with the Wizard Justice System. We see past trials

1:00.5

in current ones. We watch political prisoners who are exploited due to their marginalized

1:07.4

identities, like Hagrid, getting incarcerated, and we watch innocent men like Sirius, nearly

1:14.4

given the death penalty. This book, Prisoner of Azkaban, feels like the right book to pause

1:20.9

and look closely at our justice system. In Juneteenth seems the perfect day for us at Not Sorry

1:27.6

to pause and advocate for radical prison reform. As you all know, I have had a really hard

1:34.6

time defining hope for myself, and the definition that I have come to love is the belief that

1:41.5

people in the world can change for the better. This community has taught me that kind of

1:47.7

hope, and so I invite you to gather around this issue, which I believe is one of the human

1:55.4

rights violations that is going on in this country. You are now going to hear a conversation

2:02.0

between me and Alicia Brown, who is one of the lead organizers for the final five campaign,

2:08.8

an organization that is advocating for closing the last five juvenile detention centers in

2:13.4

the state of Illinois. Alicia is a fellow with the Michael McConnell piece with Justice Youth

2:19.2

Fellowship with American Friends Service Committee. Alicia is a restorative justice practitioner,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Not Sorry Productions, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Not Sorry Productions and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.