Hey y’all fascinating conversation — part 1 of 2 — with Angelique Tomeo and Sabrina Ryan-Helton of the Bail Project about how maybe America isn’t really the land of the free after all, what with the absurd amounts of pre-trial detention going on all throughout America (and certainly in Spokane) and how, just maybe, we should totally dismantle and abolish such a horribly inhumane system all together.
As a supplement to this episode make sure to check out my essay on what happened to crime rates when Spokane let a bunch of people out of jail due to COVID. Really gives some extra urgency to the work.
Photo illustration by Connor Bacon
SUPPLEMENTS
- Spokane let people out of jail; Crime went down.
- The story of a 72-year-old man who was locked up for 33-months pre-trial.
- The Bail Project website
- Bryan Stevenson’s 2014 interview on Fresh Air about how “we have a criminal justice system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”
GOOFS
- Why yes, that is a mash-up of a climactic scene from 1996 blockbuster Independence Day and the Spokane County Jail.
- With this one sound effect you too can make stupid Law & Order spoofs.
