offenders

There are 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States, and another four million on parole or probation. When you factor in families of inmates, prison employees, and infrastructure, we’re talking about billions of dollars annually and tens of millions of lives affected daily.

My guest on this week’s show is a violent crime offender and former inmate. When I first heard what he had done, my initial thought was, “Lock him up and don't let him out.” Probably, many of you will feel that way. But that’s not possible and it’s not a solution. Crime, and even violent crimes, are part of society. The only hope is that our correctional facilities are actually helping people reform.

On this week’s show:

• Why many people have no access to mental health services
• How drugs are smuggled into prison
• Why most have no access to college education
• Why the correctional system is not doing much in the way of correcting

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Jesse Crosson was recently released from prison and is the founder of Pri-Zen.com. He’s in the process of (re)building his life and is doing advocacy work while pursuing advanced degrees to help people inside the system. 

Nutritional Tip of the Week

• Spicy food

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$520,000 jewel theft - NY Jets RB Le'Veon Bell ripped off for over half a million worth of jewelry by two girlfriends while the newly signed Jet was at the gym.

The NYPD officer - already cleared of criminal charges by a Staten Island jury, and with no federal civil rights charges in the immediate offing - facing a departmental trial in the unintentional death of a Shaolin unlicensed cigarette dealer, has decided not to answer questions for reasons we explain.

47 convicted sex offenders got over $63,000 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs and treatment, all improperly provided by the state's medicaid program.

much, much more, with Thomas Paladino

$520,000 jewel theft - NY Jets RB Le'Veon Bell ripped off for over half a million worth of jewelry by two girlfriends while the newly signed Jet was at the gym.

The NYPD officer - already cleared of criminal charges by a Staten Island jury, and with no federal civil rights charges in the immediate offing - facing a departmental trial in the unintentional death of a Shaolin unlicensed cigarette dealer, has decided not to answer questions for reasons we explain.

47 convicted sex offenders got over $63,000 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs and treatment, all improperly provided by the state's medicaid program.

much, much more, with Thomas Paladino

If you believe people deserve a chance at redemption, then you’ll want to hear what one counselor is doing to help ex-offenders find their way back into society. For starters, they don’t go home right after jail. Instead, they move into a home for recovering addicts, then dive head first into a rigorous program. Bev Tauke shares: "And what they realize is that I’m not this big clump of damaged goods; I’m not this loser. I’m someone that went through something that was very traumatic. I didn’t have the tools needed as an adult to fix it as I should have, but now I have that opportunity."

Brett and Nazim cover sex offenders and Separation of Powers in the form of Gundy v. U.S., a case that asks whether Congressional delegation regarding sex offender registration to the attorney general violates the Constitution. The law starts at (06:15), but there's a fair amount of tangents, including some solid Jeopardy talk.

An innovative Juvenile Justice Hub proposed by two Philly cops is a finalist for a Bloomberg Philanthropies grant. It’s time, they say, for smarter policing

The premiere first episode of the HQTA Podcast!  

Hard Questions: Tougher Answers is an enlightening comedy podcast dedicated to answering the world's strangest out of the box questions!

In this debut episode we discuss whether it would be easier to spend the next year as an obese shut-in or a registered sex offender.  Next we dive into the question whether one would rather live a life devoid of pleasure, or instead lead a happy life which ends in a horrific way.  Finally we finish up by debating the pros and cons of what happens when the simple act of burping or farting takes a sharp turn into a messy direction.  

Intro

"Vicious" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Mark is in talking with Roger, someone who has experienced the challenges first-hand of being a "returning citizen". Roger has been working hard to get a job and an apartment and he's speaking to some of the challenges he faces as an ex-con entering back into society.

There is a lot to unpack with the case of Packingham v. North Carolina, a First Amendment case that asks whether or not the government can criminalize a sex offender's use of social media and other popular websites.  This week, Brett and Nazim discuss how this plays into general Free Speech Law, Due Process considerations, and ex post facto precedent.  This week stays pretty on topic, so the law generally starts at (02:45).