Criminal Justice Reform
California Governor Set to Sign Bill Restricting Use of Lyrics in Criminal Cases
Amid a growing movement on both the state and federal level, California is one step closer to restricting the use of rap lyrics as evidence by prosecutors in criminal cases. Introduced by California State Assemblyperson Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, AB 2799 would require judges to query prosecutors on whether introducing lyrics would add racial bias into these cases and will reportedly be signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in the coming days. “When rap and hip-hop artists adhere to this time-honored tradition of make-believe, their lyrics are too often — and unfairly — taken literally, stripped of the poetic license afforded other genres,” Recording Industry Association of America chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier wrote the California State Senate in a letter of support for AB 2799. A simila...
Jace Allen Expands From His Criminal Justice Reform Past on Taking Sides
Jace Allen has simple goals. “I think for us to survive and thrive as a country, we need to not look inward, but outward,” he explains to SPIN. The singer-songwriter, whose new album, Taking Sides, was released on July 21, makes music with a purpose. But this isn’t purpose in the sense of making songs about important causes — which he does — but purpose in the sense of using the money he makes from recording his music to help raise funds and awareness for causes that actively make lives better. While Allen’s passion has been criminal justice reform, he found a unique opportunity to add another cause to support on Taking Sides: the victims of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Taking Sides begins with “Hail Federate,” which initially wasn’t set to be featured on the album at all. Allen was putti...
Danielle Ponder Fights for Change on the Stage and in the Courtroom
Danielle Ponder grew up in a musical family. Her father, a pastor, has music pouring out of him, singing in church and at home on their piano. She had a family band, formed when she was 16 with her cousins in a house they all lived in together in the suburbs. But 16 was a pivotal year in Ponder’s world in more ways than one. “At the same age that I got my guitar, that was the same age my brother went away to prison for 20 years,” she tells SPIN. “He was there because of policy. One of the policies was mandatory minimums — and if these are policies, then there’s something we can do about it. We can change policy.” Years spent visiting her brother in the Attica Correctional Facility showed Ponder the clear flaws in the criminal justice system that put him there. That’s when she became intere...
Maggie Freleng’s New Podcast Aims to Exonerate
Maggie Freleng was pushing and practicing social justice before she even knew the concept’s nomenclature. As a child growing up in Long Island, New York, Maggie championed the underdog and spurned the scourge, making sure to step between every bully and their intended target. Years later, when Maggie left Long Island for college in Massachusetts, she found herself writing about luxuries only the fortunate could afford — travel, fine dining, and good wine. But she knew that was neither her passion nor her purpose. Thankfully, Maggie quickly shifted gears, first landing herself an opportunity at Women’s eNews, then NPR’s Latino USA — an experience that would lead to her in-depth coverage of incarcerated individuals and the shocking realization that multitudes of innocent people were sitting ...
