Episode 1: History
Michael: Thank you for tuning in with us, i'm your host, michael and also accompanied by Jessica and Kenia. Our topic will be about criminal justice and the history behind it.
Jessica: Many people question when the prison system was established in the U.S. The government established it in 1891. The first Federal prison was Leavenworth in Kansas.
One of the first people to be convicted and imprisoned was Samuel R. Caldwell. He was arrested on October 2, 1937 and sentenced to 4 years of hard labor after not paying his marijuana tax.
Michael: In the United States, marijuana arrests now make up more than half of all drug arrests, according to the ACLU's initial analysis. 88% of the 8.2 million marijuana-related arrests that occurred between 2001 and 2010 were for simple possession.
Kenia: Texas alone reported more than 21,000 arrests in 2017, accounting for 12% of all arrests nationwide. Up until 2021, New York and New Jersey consistently contributed the second- and third-highest amounts to the national total. However, after both states legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, there was a corresponding decline in the reported number of arrests. In just 2020, they both reported over 19,000 arrests, while they both only reported 783 arrests in 2021.
Michael: Thank you for tuning in with us, i'm your host, michael and also accompanied by Jessica and Kenia. Our topic will be about criminal justice and the history behind it.
Jessica: Many people question when the prison system was established in the U.S. The government established it in 1891. The first Federal prison was Leavenworth in Kansas.
One of the first people to be convicted and imprisoned was Samuel R. Caldwell. He was arrested on October 2, 1937 and sentenced to 4 years of hard labor after not paying his marijuana tax.
Michael: In the United States, marijuana arrests now make up more than half of all drug arrests, according to the ACLU's initial analysis. 88% of the 8.2 million marijuana-related arrests that occurred between 2001 and 2010 were for simple possession.
Kenia: Texas alone reported more than 21,000 arrests in 2017, accounting for 12% of all arrests nationwide. Up until 2021, New York and New Jersey consistently contributed the second- and third-highest amounts to the national total. However, after both states legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, there was a corresponding decline in the reported number of arrests. In just 2020, they both reported over 19,000 arrests, while they both only reported 783 arrests in 2021.
Episode 2: Important events and figures
Jessica: Welcome back to episode 2 of our podcast. This is Jessica and here with me, I have Kenia and Michael. Today, we’re going to be talking about real life events and experiences that people have gone through because of criminal injustice.
Michael: Like Jessica said, we’ll be focusing on real life situations. Many events have occurred throughout the years about how certain people have been falsely accused of crimes they never committed. There is one experience in particular that not only 1 person, but 5 people in total were wrongfully convicted of committing crimes they did not commit due to their skin color.
Kenia: This case is called the Central Park five, which later changed to the Exonerated five. This took place in Manhattan, New York, on April 19th, 1989. Five black and latino boys were convicted of assaulting and raping a woman who was jogging in Central Park. These men were Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise. They were only 14 to 16 years old at the time. These five boys were all present in Central Park at the night of the woman’s assault.
Jessica: These 5 boys were taken to the Central Park precinct. They were questioned for several hours and were forced to give a false confession since detectives and police officers were giving them the supposed “hope” of being able to go back home. As a result, authorities got what they wanted and these 5 boys served sentences of 6-12 years in prison. The DNA evidence confirmed they were all innocent but due to the racial injustice they experienced, they had to go through this horrible situation. 13 years later, they were proven innocent when the real convictor confessed to the crime.
Michael: These boys were guilty from the beginning until proven innocent years later. Usually it's the other way around and a person is innocent until proven guilty. The public was so caught up in the prejudice of the case and just assumed since there was a high crime rate in black and hispanic boys they had to be the ones that had to have done it. They wanted justice for the jogger but they never thought of the people from the other side of this case.
Jessica: Welcome back to episode 2 of our podcast. This is Jessica and here with me, I have Kenia and Michael. Today, we’re going to be talking about real life events and experiences that people have gone through because of criminal injustice.
Michael: Like Jessica said, we’ll be focusing on real life situations. Many events have occurred throughout the years about how certain people have been falsely accused of crimes they never committed. There is one experience in particular that not only 1 person, but 5 people in total were wrongfully convicted of committing crimes they did not commit due to their skin color.
Kenia: This case is called the Central Park five, which later changed to the Exonerated five. This took place in Manhattan, New York, on April 19th, 1989. Five black and latino boys were convicted of assaulting and raping a woman who was jogging in Central Park. These men were Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise. They were only 14 to 16 years old at the time. These five boys were all present in Central Park at the night of the woman’s assault.
Jessica: These 5 boys were taken to the Central Park precinct. They were questioned for several hours and were forced to give a false confession since detectives and police officers were giving them the supposed “hope” of being able to go back home. As a result, authorities got what they wanted and these 5 boys served sentences of 6-12 years in prison. The DNA evidence confirmed they were all innocent but due to the racial injustice they experienced, they had to go through this horrible situation. 13 years later, they were proven innocent when the real convictor confessed to the crime.
Michael: These boys were guilty from the beginning until proven innocent years later. Usually it's the other way around and a person is innocent until proven guilty. The public was so caught up in the prejudice of the case and just assumed since there was a high crime rate in black and hispanic boys they had to be the ones that had to have done it. They wanted justice for the jogger but they never thought of the people from the other side of this case.
Episode 3: Modern Problems
Kenia: Welcome back to our last and final episode. My name is Kenia and I am here with Jessica and Michael. in this episode, we are going to talk about modern problems.
Michael: one of many major modern problems in prison that still happen in and out of prison to this day is racism, although out of prison problems are as important we are going to focus more on what happens in prison with racism, in the article Los Angeles crime it talks about how California would separate all races because “cells would be extremely dangerous” it also talks about how people from the same race usually stick together.
Jessica: Another major problem people have is dental hygiene Studies have revealed that prisoners had significantly more decayed and missing teeth and fewer restorations than the general population (1–3)And In the United States nearly half (49%) of the prisoners reported to having a dental problem once admitted. Most people know that not brushing your teeth daily can lead to cavities, bad breath, and tooth decay. But some studies found that dental hygiene can also have unexpected health consequences, such as increased risks for Alzheimer's disease( memory loss)and heart disease.
Kenia: and with that this episode ends although There are a lot of major things that we didn't talk about like things that we all struggle with in our daily life depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. But with this, we end this episode.
Kenia: Welcome back to our last and final episode. My name is Kenia and I am here with Jessica and Michael. in this episode, we are going to talk about modern problems.
Michael: one of many major modern problems in prison that still happen in and out of prison to this day is racism, although out of prison problems are as important we are going to focus more on what happens in prison with racism, in the article Los Angeles crime it talks about how California would separate all races because “cells would be extremely dangerous” it also talks about how people from the same race usually stick together.
Jessica: Another major problem people have is dental hygiene Studies have revealed that prisoners had significantly more decayed and missing teeth and fewer restorations than the general population (1–3)And In the United States nearly half (49%) of the prisoners reported to having a dental problem once admitted. Most people know that not brushing your teeth daily can lead to cavities, bad breath, and tooth decay. But some studies found that dental hygiene can also have unexpected health consequences, such as increased risks for Alzheimer's disease( memory loss)and heart disease.
Kenia: and with that this episode ends although There are a lot of major things that we didn't talk about like things that we all struggle with in our daily life depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. But with this, we end this episode.