Repairing Justice: An Alternative to Prison

On the Media

• Episode: Repairing Justice: An Alternative to Prison
• Website: On the Media
• Feed URL: http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia
• Duration: 00:31:06
• Published: 2019-07-31 18:00

Last week on the show, we examined the power of the prosecutor in our justice system, and how voters are electing a new wave of so-called “progressive prosecutors” to try to turn the tide on mass incarceration. If you haven’t heard it yet, be sure to check it out. It was part one of a three-part series we’re calling “Repairing Justice”; this is part two. We’ve talked about how the law-and-order approach doesn’t work, and that we don’t want to keep locking people in jail for every infraction. But that raises the question: what, then, do we do to address injustice when it appears?

Rather than the isolation and violence that prison breeds, some advocates are pushing for a new approach… one based not on punishment, but on truth and reconciliation. It’s called "restorative justice," and in this podcast extra, Bob speaks with Danielle Sered, executive director of Common Justice and a pioneer of the practice. 

This is Part 2 of our “Repairing Justice” series.