Everyday Injustice

Davis Vanguard Podcast will be covering criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and more.

Everyday Injustice is a news podcast hosted by Davis Vanguard, with 356 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Davis Vanguard hosts Everyday Injustice, a news show with 356 episodes published.

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  Everyday Injustice

  Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 343: CopStop SD Takes on Police Accountability

  Sep 28, 202623 min

  In Episode 343 of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Laila Aziz of Pillars of the Community about CopStop SD, a new tool designed to document police misconduct complaints, track how authorities handle them and help San Diego residents navigate a police accountability system that Aziz argues has repeatedly failed the communities it is supposed to protect. Pillars of the Community, a Southeast San Diego nonprofit focused on decriminalization and police accountability, developed CopStop SD after years of maintaining complaints through spreadsheets and receiving requests from public defenders searching for information about officers involved in their cases. Aziz explains that the organization wanted a system that could follow complaints from beginning to end while giving community members a practical tool for advocacy and organizing. The conversation also examines stark racial disparities identified through the group's public records research. Aziz says Black San Diegans were nine times more likely to face standalone resisting-arrest charges, meaning no other criminal charge accompanied the allegation. She says many of those cases were ultimately dismissed or never pursued in court, raising questions about why the arrests occurred in the first place and what consequences they had for those arrested. Aziz also describes how CopStop SD allows residents to report encounters and then connects them with police accountability organizers who help navigate the complaint process. The database enables Pillars to monitor what happens to complaints, including whether allegations receive independent review or are classified by the San Diego Police Department as "miscellaneous," a practice that Aziz says has prevented potentially serious misconduct complaints from receiving meaningful oversight.

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  Everyday Injustice

  Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 342: Reentry, Grace and the Power of Storytelling

  Sep 21, 202626 min

  In Episode 342 of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald concludes the podcast’s series on Represent Justice’s ambassador program with Cecilia Zavala, executive director of Nation Outside and creator of the short film What Grace Leaves Behind. Zavala discusses her journey from incarceration and the barriers of reentry to becoming a criminal justice reform advocate and filmmaker. Zavala describes What Grace Leaves Behind as a poetic narrative following two women returning home from incarceration — one surrounded by family support and another, Grace, forced to navigate reentry alone. For Zavala, grace represents the opposite of judgment and illustrates how acceptance and community support can transform the lives of people attempting to rebuild after incarceration. Drawing on her own experience, Zavala discusses the stigma and structural barriers that follow a felony conviction, including difficulty securing employment and housing. She recounts losing a nonprofit job nine months after being hired because of her felony record and argues that formerly incarcerated people too often face what she calls “perpetual punishment” long after completing their sentences. The conversation also explores Zavala’s current work leading Nation Outside, a Michigan nonprofit employing formerly incarcerated and system-impacted people while providing peer-led reentry services and advocating for policy reform. Zavala reflects on how Represent Justice gave her the opportunity to tell her story through filmmaking, work through painful experiences with her daughters and demonstrate how lived experience can become a powerful tool for advocacy, healing and change.

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  Everyday Injustice

  Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 340: Films on Prison Labor, Reentry and Birth Behind Bars

  Sep 7, 202646 min

  Three filmmakers whose lives have been shaped by the criminal legal system join Everyday Injustice for a conversation about using storytelling to expose systemic injustice and advance meaningful change. In Episode 340, host David Greenwald speaks with Represent Justice ambassadors Marcus Kelly, Courtenie Jackson and Starling Thomas about their films, their personal experiences and the policies they hope to transform. Their projects examine the constitutional exception permitting involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime, the lifelong consequences of a criminal record and the treatment of pregnant women in custody. Kelly, a Michigan organizer who served nine years following what he describes as a wrongful conviction, discusses his documentary, No Exception to the Promise, and his work to remove slavery and involuntary servitude from state and federal constitutions. He recounts organizing a prison hunger strike, experiencing solitary confinement and discovering the 13th Amendment’s punishment exception while incarcerated. Kelly argues that the exception continues to shape prison labor, economic exploitation and the treatment of incarcerated people, and he explains why he believes constitutional abolition is necessary to build a system rooted in care rather than punishment. Jackson, an Oklahoma workforce development and reentry advocate, discusses Shackled in Freedom, a documentary examining how criminal records restrict access to employment, housing, civic participation and economic opportunity. Drawing on her experience as a mother who struggled to find work after becoming justice-involved, she describes how employment barriers can deepen economic desperation and undermine successful reentry. Thomas, a Houston-based filmmaker whose federal convictions were overturned on appeal, discusses Born Captive, a narrative film about a pregnant woman incarcerated after a probation violation involving unpaid fees. Inspired in part by her mother’s incarceration while pregnant, Thomas connects the history of Black women giving birth in bondage to contemporary prison births and argues for community-based alternatives that protect mothers and children. The conversation also explores wrongful convictions, the pressure to accept plea agreements, the importance of preserving appeal rights and the role of directly impacted people in shaping public policy. Each filmmaker reflects on the support provided by Represent Justice and the opportunity to bring their work beyond traditional criminal justice audiences to employers, lawmakers and the broader public. Kelly says No Exception to the Promise is scheduled for release Sept. 14, while Jackson says Shackled in Freedom will be available beginning Sept. 15. Thomas explains that Born Captive remains in post-production and the film festival circuit, with viewing information available through Represent Justice and the film’s website.

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  Everyday Injustice

  Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 339: Transforming Justice Through the Power of Storytelling

  Aug 31, 202636 min

  In Episode 339 of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Daniel Forkkio, director of Represent Justice, about the organization’s work empowering formerly incarcerated people to tell their own stories and use film as a vehicle for changing public perceptions of incarceration and the criminal legal system. Forkkio traces the organization’s origins to the national impact campaign surrounding Just Mercy, where he saw how people with lived experience could transform audiences’ understanding of prisons, punishment and mass incarceration. Forkkio discusses Represent Justice’s Ambassador Program, which works with community partners around the country to identify formerly incarcerated people interested in developing their storytelling and leadership skills. The program receives roughly 75 applications annually and selects about 10 participants, producing 40 short films with 49 ambassadors over five years. He emphasizes that the process requires time, care and meaningful support because participants must retain ownership over how their experiences are portrayed. The conversation also examines a central theme running through the ambassadors’ films: what Forkkio describes as “criminalized trauma and denied redemption.” The films explore mental health crises, abuse, reentry, employment and housing barriers, while challenging a culture that frequently responds to trauma and social problems through policing, incarceration and punishment rather than healing and community support. Forkkio argues that excluding people after incarceration not only denies their humanity but prevents them from contributing to their communities. Forkkio and Greenwald ultimately explore why firsthand storytelling can be so effective at humanizing people whom society has often reduced to the label of “criminal.” Represent Justice is now shifting its focus toward mobilizing its growing network of ambassadors and films to engage audiences, influence institutions and build public demand for alternatives to punishment. For Forkkio, authenticity is crucial: formerly incarcerated people speaking for themselves can challenge assumptions about crime, redemption and justice in ways conventional political arguments often cannot.

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  Everyday Injustice

  Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 338: Formerly Incarcerated Filmmakers Explore Healing Beyond Punishment

  Aug 26, 202636 min

  On Episode 338 of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with filmmakers Julius Irving and Leigh Scott as part of the Represent Justice series “Pathways Beyond Criminalized Crises,” a collection of films created by formerly incarcerated people that examines what can happen when healing, care and restoration replace punishment. Irving directed “The Silent (R)evolution: Freedom From the Inside Out,” while Scott directed “Uncarcerated,” with both filmmakers drawing on their own experiences with incarceration and community advocacy. Scott describes how a mental health crisis following the deaths of his wife and daughter ultimately brought him into the criminal legal system. After his release from prison in 2015, he began working in homeless services and justice-related spaces, where he saw connections between incarceration, poverty, mental health, substance use and the lack of adequate community support. His film examines those connections while exploring alternative first-responder programs and ways communities can respond to crises without relying primarily on police and incarceration. Irving recounts his own experience returning to jail after being stopped while driving to work and discovering his license had been suspended, resulting in a probation violation. Despite community members, employers and a county commissioner advocating on his behalf, Irving was sentenced to 90 days in county jail — a period he argues can be enough for someone living near the poverty line to lose a job, vehicle, housing and financial stability. Rather than focus his film exclusively on the harms of incarceration, Irving said he wanted to examine the power of community and demonstrate how people can provide one another with forms of healing and restorative justice that punitive institutions often fail to provide. The conversation also explores how filmmaking gave Irving and Scott a platform to transform lived experience into advocacy. Irving describes filmmaking as an opportunity to communicate his story to a larger audience, while Scott calls the project a “full circle moment” that allowed him to combine a lifelong interest in filmmaking with his work in homelessness and criminal justice reform. Both discuss the support they received through Represent Justice and the importance of giving formerly incarcerated people the resources and opportunity to tell their own stories rather than having those experiences interpreted exclusively by outsiders.

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