Just Mercy emphasizes the importance of active resistance to unfair institutions. Bryan Stevenson describes the racism, corruption, mass incarceration, the role of police, and cruelty that pervade American court systems and lead to the systematic abuse of marginalized communities. We discuss how this book manifests in the criminal legal system in real life in Oklahoma. We talk on cases such as Rebecca Hogue, Brittany Poolaw, Trichell Jones, and more. Additionally, for this monthly series, we teach how books like this can make us all better, more informed, advocates.

Today we're unpacking felony reclassification and it's true benefits with Adam Maxey, the Deputy State Director at Americans for Prosperity and Colleen McCarty, an attorney and legislative contractor. Today we're talking about SB 1646 which is a bill that would reclassify sentences below the most serious offenses in order to both standardize and limit sentence length. This is critical as Oklahoma is 3rd in incarceration but 16th in prison admissions with that difference being sentence length. Studies have shown that the certainty of punishment decreases recidivism not severity of punishment so longer sentences don't increase public safety but a standardized punishment would. We're also talking competing bills and long term effects of this legislation. Tune in!