WEBVTT

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I have never been arrested,

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never spent a night in jail,

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never had a loved one thrown
into the back of a squad car

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or behind bars,

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or be at the mercy of a scary,
confusing system

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that at best sees them with indifference,

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and at worst as a monstrous.

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United States of America locks up
more people than any other nation

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on the planet.

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And Louisiana is our biggest incarcerator.

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Most of you are probably like me --

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lucky.

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The closest we get to crime and punishment
is likely what we see on TV.

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While making "Unprisoned,"

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I met a woman who used to be like us --

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Sheila Phipps.

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(Recording) Sheila Phipps: Before
my son went to jail,

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I used to see people be on television,

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fighting, saying, "Oh, this person
didn't do it and this person is innocent."

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And you know, you snub them

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or you dismiss them,

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and like, "Yeah, whatever."

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Don't get me wrong --

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there's a lot of people
who deserve to be in prison.

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There's a lot of criminals out here.

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But there are a lot of innocent
people that are in jail.

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EA: Sheila's son, McKinley,
is one of those innocent people.

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He served 17 years of a 30-year sentence
on a manslaughter charge.

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He had no previous convictions,

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there was no forensic
evidence in the case.

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He was convicted solely
on the basis of eyewitness testimony,

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and decades of research have shown

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that eyewitess testimony isn't as reliable
as we once believed it to be.

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Scientists say that memory isn't precise.

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It's less like playing back a video,

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and more like putting together a puzzle.

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Since 1989, when DNA testing
was first used to free innocent people,

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over 70 percent of overturned convictions
were based on eyewitness testimony.

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Last year,

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the district attorney whose office
prosecuted McKinley's case

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was convicted of unrelated
corruption charges.

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When this district attorney
of 30 years stepped down,

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the eyewitnesses
from McKinley's case came forward

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and said that they had been pressured
into testifying by the district attorneys,

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pressure which included
the threat of jail time.

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Despite this, McKinley is still in prison.

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(Recording) SP: Before this happened,

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I never would've thought it.

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And --

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well, I guess it's hard for me to imagine

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that these things are going on,

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you know,

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until this happened to my son.

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It really opened my eyes.

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It really, really opened my eyes.

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I ain't gonna lie to you.

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EA: Estimates of how many innocent
people are locked up

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range between one and four percent,

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which maybe doesn't sound like a lot,

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except that it amounts
to around 87,000 people:

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mothers, fathers, sons locked up,

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often for decades,

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for crimes they did not commit.

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And that's not even counting
the roughly half a million people

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who have been convicted of nothing --

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those presumed innocent,

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but who are too poor to bail out of jail

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and therefore sit behind bars
for weeks upon months,

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waiting for their case
to come to trial --

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or much more likely,

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waiting to take a plea just to get out.

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All of those people
have family on the outside.

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(Recording) My brother missed
my high school graduation

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because the night before my graduation,

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he went to jail.

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My brother missed my birthday dinner

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because that day actually,

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he went to jail.

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My brother missed his own birthday dinner

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because he was in the wrong place
at the wrong time.

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(Recording) EA: So all these times
when he ended up going to jail,

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were charges pressed,

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or did he just get taken to jail?

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(Recording) Um, the charges
would be pressed

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and it would have a bond posted,

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then the charges will get dropped ...

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because there was no evidence.

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EA: I met Kortney Williams
when I went to her college classroom

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to talk about "Unprisoned."

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She ended up interviewing her aunt,

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Troylynn Robertson,

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for an episode.

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(Recording) Kortney Williams:
with everything that you went through

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with your children,

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what is any advice that you would give me

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if I had any kids?

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(Recording) Troylynn Roberston:
I would tell you when you have them,

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you know the first thing that will
initially come to mind is love

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and protection,

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but I would tell you,

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[even with] the protection to raise them
with knowledge of the judicial system --

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you know, we always tell our kids
about the boogeyman,

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the bad people,

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who to watch out for,

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but we don't teach them how
to watch out for the judicial system.

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EA: Because of the way
our criminal legal systema

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disproportionately targets
people of color,

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it's not uncommon for young people
like Kortney to know about it.

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When I started going into high schools
to talk to students about "Unprisoned,"

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I found that roughly one-third
of the young people I spoke with

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had a loved one behind bars.

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(Recording) The hardest part is like,

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finding out [where he's at],

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or like, when his court date is.

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Yeah, he went to jail
on my first birthday.

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(Recording) My dad works as a jail guard.

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He saw my uncle in jail.

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He's in there for life.

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EA: According to the Annie E.
Casey Foundation,

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the number of young people with a father
incarcerated rose 500 percent

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between 1980 and 2000.

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Over five million of today's children
will see a parent incarcerated

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at some point in their childhoods.

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But this number disproportionately
effects African-American children.

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By the time they reach the age of 14,

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one in four black children will see
their dad go off to prison.

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That's compared to a rate
of one in 30 for white children.

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One key factor determining the future
success of both inmates and their children

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is whether they can maintain ties
during the parent's incarceration,

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but prisoners' phone calls home
can cost 20 to 20 times more

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than regular phone calls,

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so many families
keep in touch through letters.

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(Recording) Dear big brother,

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I'm making the big 16 this year,

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LOL.

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Guess I'm not a baby anymore.

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You still taking me to prom?

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I really miss you.

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You're the only guy that kept [... ...]

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I wish you were here so I can vent to you.

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So much has happened since
the last time I seen you.

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I have some good news.

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I won first place in the science fair.

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I'm a geek.

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We're going to regionals,

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can't you believe it?

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High school is going by super fast.

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In less than two years,

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I hope you'll be able to see me
walk across the stage.

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I thought to write to you because
I know it's boring there.

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I'm trying to put a smile on your face.

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EA: Anyssa wrote
these letters to her brother

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when she was a sophomore in high school.

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She keeps the letters he writes to her

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tucked into the frame
of her bedroom mirror,

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and reads them over and over again.

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I'd like to think
that there's a good reason

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why Anissa's brother is locked up.

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We all want the wheels of justice
to properly turn,

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but we're coming to understand

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that the lofty ideals we learned
in school look really different

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in our nation's prisons
and jails and courtrooms.

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(Recording) You walk
into that courtroom and you're just --

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you know I've been
doing this for a quite a while,

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and it still catches your breath.

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You're like, "there are so many
people of color here,"

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and yet I know that the city is not
made up of 90 percent African-Americans,

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so why is it that 90 percent
of the people who are in orange

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are African-American?

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(Recording) EA: Public defender
Danny Engelberg

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isn't the only one noticing how many
black people are in municipal court --

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or in any court.

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It's hard to miss.

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(Recording) Who's sitting in court
waiting to see the judge?

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What do they look like?

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(Recording) Man: Uh, mostly
African-Americans,

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like me.

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(Recording) Man: It's mostly,

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I could say, 85 percent black.

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That's all you see in the orange,

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in the box,

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[back there], locked up, just waiting.

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(Recording) Man: Mostly black.

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I mean, there was a couple
of white people in there.

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(Recording) Woman: I think it was about
85 percent African-American

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that was sitting there.

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EA: How does a young black person
growing up in America today

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come to understand justice?

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Another "Unprisoned" story
was about a troupe of dancers

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who choreographed a piece
called "Hoods Up,"

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which they performed
in front of city council.

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Dawonta White was in the seventh grade
for that performance.

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(Recording) Dawonta White: we was wearing
black with hoodies because Trayvon Martin,

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he was wearing his hoodie

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and he was killed.

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So we looked upon that,

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and we said we're going to wear
hoodies like Trayvon Martin.

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(Recording) EA: Who came up
with that idea?

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(Recording) DW: The group.

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We all agreed on it.

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I was a little nervous,

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but um, I had to stick through it,

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but I felt like it was a good thing

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so they could notice what we do.

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(Recording) EA: Shraivell Brown
was another choreographer and dancer

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in "Hoods up."

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He says the police criticize
people who look like him.

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He feels judged based on things
other black people may have done.

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(Recording) EA: How would you
want the police to look at you

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and what would you want them to think?

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(Recording) Shraivell Brown: I want
them to think I'm not no threat.

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EA: Why would they think
you're threatening?

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What did you say --

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you're 14?

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SB: Yes, I'm 14, but how do we --

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because they said a lot of black males
are thugs and gangsters and all that,

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but I don't want them thinking
that about me.

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EA: For folks who look like me,

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the easiest and most comfortable
thing to do is to not pay attention --

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to assume our criminal
legal system is working,

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but if it's not our responsibility
to question those assumptions,

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whose responsibility is it?

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There's a synagogue here that's taken on
learning about mass incarceration,

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and many congregant have concluded

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that because mass incarceration
throws so many lives into chaos,

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it actually creates more crime,

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makes people less safe.

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Congregant [Terry Hunter] says

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the first step towards action
has to be understanding.

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She says it's crucial for all of us
to understand our connection to this issue

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even if it's not immediately obvious.

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(Recording) Terry Hunter:
It's on our shoulders

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to make sure that we're not
just closing that door

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and saying, "Well, it's not us."

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And I think as Jews,

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it's --

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you know, we've lived that history --

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"It's not us."

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And so if society closes
their back on one section,

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we've seen what happens.

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And so it is our responsibility as Jews
and as members of this community

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to educate our community --

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at least our congregation --

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to the extent that we're able.

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EA: I've been using the pronouns us and we

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because this is our criminal legal system

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and our children.

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We elect the district attorneys,

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the judges and the legistlators
who operate these systems

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for we the people.

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As a society,

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we are more willing to risk
locking up innocent people

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than we are to let guilty people go free.

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We let politicians who fear
being labled "soft on crime,"

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encouraging them to pass harsh legislation

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and allocate enormous resources
toward locking people up.

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When a crime is committed,

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our hunger for swift retribution
has fed a police culture

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bent on finding culprits fast,

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often without adequate resources
to conduct thorough investigations

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or strict scrutiny
of those investigations.

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We don't put checks on prosecutors.

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Across the country,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
over the last couple of decades,

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as property and violent crimes
have both fell,

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the number of prosecutors employed
and cases they have filed has risen.

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Prosecutors decide whether
or not to take legal action

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against the people police arrest

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and they decide what charges to file,

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directly impacting how much time
a defendant potentially faces behind bars.

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One check we do have
on prosecutors is defense.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Imagine Lady Liberty:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the blindfolded woman holding the scale

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meant to symbolize the balance
in our judicial system.

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Unfortunately, that scale is tipped.

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The majority of defendants in our country

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are represented by
government-appointed attorneys.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
These public defenders receive
around 30 percent less funding

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
than district attorneys do,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and they often have caseloads
far outnumbering

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
what the American Bar
Association recommends.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As Sheila Phipps said,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"There are people who belong in prison,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but it's hard to tell
the guilty from the innocent

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when everyone's outcomes are so similar.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We all want justice.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But with the process weighed
so heavily against defendants,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
justice is hard to come by.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Our criminal legal system
operates for we, the people.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
If we don't like what's going on,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it is up to us to change it.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Thank you very much.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Applause)