As U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions prepares to take command of the Department of Justice, more than two million Americans find themselves incarcerated in state or federal prisons or local jails.
Reducing that number is a major goal for Glenn Martin, founder and president of JustLeadershipUSA, a group working to cut the U.S. correctional population in half by 2030.
Speaking on WNPR's The Wheelhouse, Martin said criminal justice reform begins with breaking down stereotypes, and with thinking about victims.
"Young black men are the most prevalent victim of violent crime by definition," Martin said. "Communities that are high crime, and high incarceration, are also high victimization. And yet that doesn't fit with the narrative that we've taught Americans, either, about what victims look like: usually white women in the hospital, post-attack. And what offenders look like: usually big, strapped, bald black men who are violent."
In addition to thinking more critically about victimization, Martin said it's also important Americans ask what values drive the justice system -- beyond retribution.
"We have a criminal justice system where two-thirds of the people who emerge from prison re-offend," Martin said. "So if you don't have a social justice bone in your body, but you care about victims and you care about public safety, then how can you continue to invest in a system that leads to re-offending across the board, systematically, for the past four-and-a-half decades?"
Martin, who spent six years in prison, and said he was stabbed four times during a one-year stay at Rikers Island, said many parts of his prison experience were transformational, including a visit with a corrections counselor who advised him to go to college.
"That was the first time anyone had ever said that to me, much less someone who was probably going to see 400-other-similarly situated people that very same day," Martin said. "I tell that story because that individual planted a seed that day that grew into a tree that he may never enjoy the shade of -- and every single American, every person who's hearing my voice, can plant seeds similarly in people who either have been through the system - are at risk of going through the system, or just don't have a clue about what it means to go through our criminal justice system."
For a full version of WNPR's conversation on prison reform, listen to Khalilah Brown-Dean guest host WNPR's The Wheelhouse.
