Each summer, people from all around the country gather for the Soros Justice Fellowship Conference — three days of meetings, conversations, and workshops by scholars, journalists, attorneys, and advocates working on projects that explore the criminal justice system in America.
This year six fellows, some new and some former, shared personal stories about their work and their lives. It was hosted by Adam Culbreath, Program Officer of the Soros Justice Fellows Program. Here are their stories…
- RaeDeen Karasuda, a native Hawaiian, has been a community educator, victim advocate,and direct-service provider for many years. Alarmed at the disproportionately high rates of native Hawaiian clients who were targeted, arrested, and court-mandated to attend her programs, Karasuda decided to return to school to pursue work in public policy.
- Noran Sanford is a licensed clinical social worker and founder of growingforchange.org, where his work to explore innovative ways of “flipping” closed prisons in rural areas has already garnered significant interest among a range of stakeholders and media. He has dedicated the last 15 years of his professional life to serving the needs of youth and family in southern North Carolina, primarily those involved in the juvenile justice system.
- Jacinta Gonzalez is a recipient of the New Voices Fellowship, Gonzalez holds a degree from Wesleyan University, and has studied at the School of International Training in Durban, South Africa, and the Universidade Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela.
Soros Justice Fellowship Conference attendees
Soros Justice Fellowship Live Law
Our host and Soros Justice Fellows Program Officer, Adam Culbreath.
RaeDeen Karasuda
Noran Sanford
Jacinta Gonzalez
All six of our Live Law Phoenix - Borders storytellers
All six of our Live Law Phoenix - Borders storytellers
The storytellers with Life of the Law host and executive producer, Nancy Mullane
Each photo below is a link to another wonderful story from LIVE LAW Phoenix – Borders.
Steven Czifra began his undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley as a 38-year-old student-parent with an incarceration history—having been imprisoned in the California state prison system for 16 years (half of which were spent in solitary confinement). While at Berkeley, he co-founded the Underground Scholars Initiative, an organization that provides formerly incarcerated students with the resources, information, and support they need to succeed in school and beyond.
nuri nusrat is Oakland based and most recently served at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), providing training and technical assistance on creating pre-charge restorative juvenile diversion models that reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile legal system.
Tarsha Jackson works to advance juvenile justice reform and is Co-Founder of Texas Families of Incarcerated Youth and is Acting Director of the Texas Organizing Project.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Live Law Phoenix – Borders was held at summer gathering of the Soros Justice Fellows. We’d like to thank Adam Culbreath, Program Officer of the Soros Justice Fellowship, for hosting and Christina Voight, Program Coordinator, for her co-production of the event. Jonathan Hirsch designed the sound. Our post-production editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Howard Gelman was our engineer.
Music in this episode was from Martin Landh.
This episode of Life of the Law was funded in part by grants from the Open Society Foundation, the Law and Society Association, the Ford Foundation, the Proteus Fund and the National Science Foundation, and was sponsored by FreshBooks and the Great Courses Plus.
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