News Beat

In this special bonus episode, we examine whether recent criminal justice reform laws are strong enough to significantly reduce jail and prison populations in the United States. 2019 has been particularly prolific in terms of new laws passed, yet some experts warn more needs to be done to dismantle mass incarceration. Also, we address poverty in America and the battle over felony disenfranchisement in Florida. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced and engineered by Michael “Manny Faces” Conforti: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since a U.S. Supreme Court-imposed mandate in 2011, the Golden State has sought to address prison overcrowding through myriad reforms, including by moving people from state prisons to county jails, reducing prison sentences for certain crimes, and creating resources to help people reenter society. Crime in California is now at historic lows. Yet some reforms have been met with resistance from law enforcement organizations and “tough-on-crime” politicians concerned these initiatives will endanger public safety. While there’s still a lot to be done concerning criminal justice reform, California has presented itself as a model for the rest of the nation. This is a special podcast collaboration with The Marshall Project, a New York City-based nonprofit news organization dedicated to covering, and creating and sustaining a sense of national urgency about, the U.S. criminal justice system. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced and engineered by Michael “Man

Tens of thousands each year, and hundreds of thousands collectively, are shackled with electronic monitors—devices that track a person’s every move. In most cases, these are attached to those on parole. In others, courts may even choose to lock them onto a person’s body as a condition of pretrial release. Critics of e-carceration are warning the increased use of this technology could be the beginning of a future where more people will be incarcerated inside their homes than within traditional penitentiaries, effectively undermining the movement to decarcerate jails and prisons and dismantle mass incarceration, and transforming communities into digital prisons. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced and engineered by Michael “Manny Faces” Conforti: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?tok

How is the Fourth Estate, perhaps the single-most important defender of the public, faring in the ongoing digital revolution, where the internet and smartphones provide real-time access to posts and stories authored by anyone with a mere Wi-Fi connection? This episode examines the current state of journalism, featuring insights from a wide range of writers and editors spanning the media spectrum. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced and engineered by Michael “Manny Faces” Conforti: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

History remembers Rosa Parks as a tired, middle-aged woman who stood up to racism and segregation in the South by literally sitting down and refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger when ordered, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement. As transformative a moment as it was, this singular act has come to define the entirety of her dynamic and multidimensional life—much in the same way the first four syllables of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech have come to replace the civil rights leader’s radical legacy. The truth is that Rosa Parks lived an entire life of activism, beginning as a child. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced and engineered by Michael “Manny Faces” Conforti: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=E

In this episode, we take an alternative look at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, examining how the civil rights icon was so much more than simply the “I Have a Dream” soundbite, which has become known as the cornerstone of his public perception. Along with Pastor Roger C. Williams of the First Baptist Church of Glen Cove, NY, Larry Hamm, of the People's Organization for Progress, hip-hop artist Silent Knight, and King’s own words, listeners learn of MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign, which he believed would be his true legacy. More than likely, it was this that got him killed. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced and engineered by Michael “Manny Faces” Conforti: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&lo

Prison abolition may appear to be a radical conception, but it wasn't always that way. In fact, in the '60s and '70s, the idea of prison abolition in the United States was a very real issue being discussed among academics and politicians alike. This was before the passage of sweeping policies and laws targeting impoverished black and brown communities, a resurgence of the racist war on drugs, and Clinton-era criminal justice policies that collectively transformed America into the world's largest prison state. The prison abolition movement is alive and well, and those who ascribe to its principals are still hoping for drastic change. News Beat: Social Justice Never Sounded So Good News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer: Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/don

In an era when women comprise the fastest-growing prison population in the U.S., those incarcerated are screaming #MeToo, too. But is anyone listening? News Beat: Social Justice Never Sounded So Good News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer: Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the age of Trump, Democrats parade as democracy's saviors yet serve same corporate overlords as the GOP, abandoning progressive left ideals & the people. Episode features interviews with Jill Stein, Chris Hedges, Glen Ford and Richard D. Wolff, and lyrical contribution from Rebel Diaz. Distributed in partnership with Left Forum. News Beat: Social Justice Never Sounded So Good News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer: Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new wave of progressive prosecutors hopes to reform the criminal 'injustice' system & dismantle mass incarceration by sweeping the midterm elections. News Beat: Social Justice Never Sounded So Good News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer: Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The U.S. government has a long and sordid history of surveilling, infiltrating, and disrupting peaceful political and social movements it deems threatening, or adverse to the status quo. Perhaps most infamous was a secret FBI-led program codenamed COINTELPRO (‘Counter Intelligence Program’), initiated in the ‘50s against such civil and human rights icons as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and many others. While purportedly shut down in 1971, its sinister tactics and spirit are very much alive today, deployed against modern-day activists and groups, including Black Lives Matter, environmentalists, Muslims, and indigenous rights groups. Recently, African Americans seeking social equality have been dubbed “Black Identity Extremists.” News Beat: Social Justice Never Sounded So Good News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer: Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Chri

The United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898, and as colonists, Puerto Ricans—since 1917, "U.S. citizens"—have endured atrocities ranging from assassinations and bombings to covert mass sterilizations and incarcerations, and the island for decades has been used as a testing ground for experimental weapons and pharmaceuticals, while also serving as a triple-tax-free paradise for U.S. corporations, hedge funds and Wall Street, who've enslaved an entire people, all but seized their nation out from beneath them, and are fighting tooth and nail for more. Puerto Ricans can't vote for U.S. president, can't import/export goods unless via U.S. ships, and don't control their own destiny, Congress does. Historically, any attempts at independence have been crushed by force, and its proponents massacred. Yes, U.S. colonialism decimated Puerto Rico long before Hurricane Maria, and its legacy of physical, psychological and socioeconomic destruction resonates on through today. News Beat: Social Justice Never Sounded So Goo

The third season of the award-winning News Beat podcast is set to drop. Here's a quick look at some of the upcoming episodes, including topics such as the immigration crisis, prison abolition, the threat of sexual assault facing incarcerated women, and how the government spies on its citizens. News Beat: Social Justice Never Sounded So Good News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twenty-two million people are at risk of starving to death in Yemen due to the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing campaign there against Iranian-supported Houthi rebels. Amal is a 26-year-old woman who fled the destruction, only to have her once-approved visa to the United States revoked. Her and her husband's story is just one of countless tragedies created by U.S. President Donald Trump's self-professed Muslim Ban barring families from five Muslim-majority countries from ever reuniting—even to escape near-certain annihilation. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati

More than 6 million Americans are barred from voting due to Jim Crow-era laws that strip citizens' voting rights following a felony conviction. Nearly all states have mechanisms in place amounting to civil death sentences for those who served their time and were released back into society, but remain oppressed by a system that refuses to abolish Civil War-era policies. Florida is home to a quarter of the voting-revoked population, with nearly 1.7 million former offenders stripped of their rights. It’s one of the rare barriers to voting that intersects with America’s broken criminal justice system—a system that disproportionately incarcerates black and brown citizens at higher rates than whites. As a result, one in 13 disenfranchised voters are black. Meanwhile, efforts are underway across the country to do away with these discriminatory laws, which literally prevent millions of U.S. citizens from exercising their right to participate in the democratic process. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production

All around the United States, peaceful protesters are being met with armed resistance from local authorities, and restrictive anti-protest laws criminalizing dissent. Across the United States, more than 60 anti-protest bills have been proposed in the last two years. While the far majority haven't been passed, there's a clear attempt by local governments to suppress dissent amid massive waves of discontent since President Trump took office. Not only that, peaceful demonstrators are being confronted by militarized police forces equipped with military tanks, water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, drones, and more. At a time of intense debate about racist policies, killings of unarmed citizens and anger over immigration raids, Americans' right to protest is under direct assault from the powers that be. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chi

In 1968, an 11-member panel appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson was instructed to examine the causes of the multiple uprisings in African-American communities in 1967, and recommend solutions. The "Kerner Commission" did just that, in a 426-page report released in early 1968. Much of the problem, the report stated, was African-American frustration over a lack of economic opportunity, due to white racism. It then detailed multiple potential solutions to help avoid its ominous prediction that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” This year, the Kerner Report's 50th anniversary, new research shows that civil rights gains since that time have either stalled or even reversed. This episode examines what the Kerner Report sought to change, and why that change hasn't happened. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is 

The News Beat crew expands on the information presented in the full Youth Prisons: Juvenile Detention’s Racial Disparity, Rampant Violence & Lasting Damage episode. Join News Beat's producer and host, Manny Faces, editor in chief Chris Twarowski in this BackBeat episode. Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are tens of thousands of kids incarcerated across the United States within youth prisons, which are often outdated, antiquated, and dilapidated former military prisons dating back to the Civil War. Conditions inside mirror those of adult prisons. There’s rampant violence and abuse, both physical and psychological. Kids are placed in solitary confinement and even hog-tied by guards. And just as with the United States’ adult prison population, it’s African American children and kids of color who are locked up at a grossly disproportionate rate than whites. News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production: www.MoreyCreative.com News Beat is produced, engineered and hosted by Manny Faces: www.MannyFaces.com News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3tAkNd-KVPG&country.x=US&locale.x=US See omnystudi

The News Beat crew expands on the information presented in the full MS-13: Made in the USA episode, which explores the origins of the murderous gang which is being used as something of a scapegoat for the immigration policies of the Trump administration. This episode's featured musical guests were revolutionary hip-hop duo Rebel Diaz, with a special appearance from El Savadorian rap artist, Cruz Kontrol. Rebel Diaz are no stranger to social justice and immigrant issues. These children of political prisoners from Chile have been extremely active and outspoken as artist-activists through the years. Their contribution to the podcast was amazing, but we needed to hear more, and the result was an in-depth, fascinating, must-hear interview. Join News Beat's producer and host, Manny Faces, editor in chief Chris Twarowski, managing editor Rashed Main and Rebel Diaz in this special BackBeat episode. Support the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=EYkdQRkbZ6vNTGfNSGWZjx7_15orqqDl8vkmrAg3TkxLprft1OguFwxlheC3t