Hey folks, this week we are re-releasing episode 31 from 2020 because we think that this episode

about Khalif Browder is a great one to honor Juneteenth. In case you don't know what

Juneteenth is, it was on June 19th, so it was a couple days ago.

But we didn't want to be a giant bummer on Juneteenth because it does commemorate the day

on June 19th, 1865, when a Union General read orders in Galveston, Texas, saying that

all enslaved people in the state were free

according to federal law, and this marked the end of slavery in the United States.

So this was designated a federal holiday in 2021, and we just definitely wanted to make a point of honoring it but also not shitting all over

the day of celebration. So today I wanted to talk a little bit about modern day slavery. Of course,

I want to celebrate Juneteenth. I do still want to say that we have a ways to go.

So according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, the large growth of the United States criminal

legal system in the late 20th century brought a widening racial gap in incarceration.

By the year 2000, black people made up almost half of the state prison population,

but only about 13% of the U.S. population. And although a wave of changes to sentencing and

corrections policies over the past two decades has helped lessen disparities in federal and state

prisons,

black adults still were imprisoned in 2020 at five times the rate for white adults.

So obviously, that is pretty problematic.

And according to the American Civil Liberties Union and Leah Green, who is president of Maryland Cure,

which is an international movement for justice reform, she says, quote, my son is serving a life

with parole sentence and works in a sign shop. Prisons are too often like businesses and shouldn't be based on making a profit on the misery

of people.

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