Mass Incarceration

Halim Flowers shares his transformational journey while incarcerated for 22 years, helping audiences overcome their obstacles and find their purpose.  

In 1997, Halim Flowers was arrested at the age of 16 and given two life sentences. His experiences were filmed in the Emmy award-winning documentary Thug Life In DC. During his incarceration, Halim discovered a love for literature and the arts, and began writing, painting, and freestyle-rapping. In 2005, he started his own publishing company, through which he published 11 books.

<p>Being misidentified as the perpetrator of a heinous crime is what nightmares are made of. It is a nightmare that became all too real for Ronald Cotton. </p>

<p>Richie Reseda is a music, film and content producer, who was freed from prison in 2018.</p><p>He co-created and co-hosts the Spotify Original podcast “Abolition X.” While in prison he started Question Culture, the independent media collective that houses his projects, and cofounded Success Stories, the feminist program for incarcerated men chronicled in the CNN documentary, "The Feminist on Cell Block Y."</p>

<p>The Black and Latina daughter of a working-class family, Victoria Pratt learned to treat everyone with dignity, no matter their background. When she became Newark Municipal Court’s chief judge, she knew well the inequities that poor, mentally ill, Black, and brown people faced in the criminal justice system.</p><p>Judge Victoria has gained national and international acclaim for her commitment to reform the criminal justice system.

<p>A leader in criminal justice reform, Susan Burton shares her courageous odyssey in overcoming tragedy, addiction, and incarceration to help others like her find a new way of life.</p>

<p>For two decades, Susan has been a leading figure in the criminal justice reform movement. Her award-winning civil and human rights work has been instrumental in raising the visibility of the struggles and barriers faced by formerly incarcerated people, and in changing the narrative of mass incarcerated women.</p>

<p>Named one of the 150 most powerful African Americans by <i>Ebony</i> magazine, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, an American Book Award recipient and two-time NAACP Image Award winner, “is reshaping what it means to be a public intellectual by becoming the most visible black academic of his time.” </p><p>Dr.

<p>Sister Helen Prejean has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on the death penalty and helping to shape the Catholic Church’s newly vigorous opposition to state executions. She travels around the world giving talks about her ministry. She considers herself a southern storyteller.</p><p>Sister Helen is a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph. She spent her first years with the Sisters teaching religion to junior high school students. Realizing that being on the side of poor people is an essential part of the Gospel she moved into the St.

<p>Jennifer Thompson is the Founder and President of Healing Justice, which aims to address the collateral human damage of wrongful convictions to all involved. Jennifer founded Healing Justice based on her experience with a failed criminal justice process that sent an innocent person to prison and left the true perpetrator free to commit additional crimes. </p><p>Jennifer’s ordeal with the criminal justice system began in 1984, when she survived a brutal attack as a college student in North Carolina.

<p>Michelle Alexander’s acclaimed best-seller,<i> The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness</i> released a special 10th anniversary edition in January 2020.