Taking Action to Shrink the Criminal Legal System

Today's guest hosts are Brent J. Cohen and Charlotte Hancock, Executive Director and Communications Director for Generation Progress.

With a new President in office and the balance of power in Congress shifted, many advocates and activists hope that bold action will be taken to shrink the criminal legal system and invest in communities to end the gun violence epidemic—which both disproportionately impact young people, especially young people of color.

Young people between the ages of 18 to 35 make up only 30 percent of the U.S. adult population, but they represent 60 percent of adult arrests and 42 percent of adult prison admissions. The consequences have lifelong implications for the young people caught up in this system—and the impacts fall hardest on Black and Latinx communities.

To discuss what it will take to solve these public health crises and address the harms that these systems have had on individuals and communities, Brent and Charlotte are joined by two expert guests.  They are Hassen Bashir, an advocacy associate with the team at Generation Progress, who is focused on criminal legal system reform and gun violence prevention, as well as Greg Jackson, the national advocacy director at the Community Justice Action Fund.

Greg's Twitter handle is @GregoryJackson and the handle for the Community Justice Action Fund is @CJACTIONFUND.  Generation Progress' website is GenProgress.org and their Twitter handle is @GenProgress.  Brent's Twitter handle is @BrentJCohen and Charlotte Hancock's handle is @Charlatanne.