Convicted and condemned with Keesha Middlemass
Air Dates: December 30, 2019-January 5, 2020
Rebroadcast Dates: June 27-July 3, 2022
With less than 5 percent of the planet鈥檚 population, the United States houses 22 percent of the world鈥檚 prisoners. The challenges of navigating that system don鈥檛 end when the convicted felon completes his or her sentence. Keesha Middlemass shines a light on the substantial barriers felons face when they try to reenter society.
Middlemass is a political science professor at Howard University. She teaches courses in public policy and American Politics and conducts research on race, institutions, public policy, and marginalized populations, focussing specifically on studying prisoner reentry, the politics of punishment, and racial justice. Her book, 鈥淐onvicted & Condemned: The Politics and Policies of Prisoner Reentry鈥 examines the public policies that create significant challenges for men and women reentering society after being convicted of a felony. Middlemass is a member of the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network (RDCJN), a former Andrew Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow on Race, Crime, and Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City, and a former American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow.
On this episode of 鈥淪tory in the Public Square,鈥 Middlemass describes the maze of legislative regulations that revoke, restrict, or retract public benefits for prisoners re-entering society. She notes that the United States leads the world in incarceration rates with 1.1 million citizens in the prison system, saying, 鈥淸America] has a long history of using incarceration as a form of addressing anyone who violates social norms,鈥 including addiction and mental illness.
鈥Story in the Public Square鈥 broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. An audio version of the program airs 8:30 a.m. & 6:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 4:30 a.m. & 11:30 p.m. ET on SiriusXM鈥檚 popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. 鈥淪tory in the Public Square鈥 is a partnership between the Pell Center and The Providence Journal. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.