Pre-crime preventative detention was the focus of a second hour-long conversation on the Crossroads Radio show hosted by Roach Brown and Nkechi Taifa on WPFW 89.3FM, known as “Washington’s station for jazz and justice”
to listen to Garnett Robins- Baughman and Bernida Thompson talk about how their families have been directly impacted by these Kafkaesque systems and their work with Just Future Project.
Garnett and Bernida were joined by Phil Fornaci, a prominent civil rights attorney based in Washington DC, to describe the abusive and unconstitutional application of these laws — especially highlighting the case of Galen Baughman in Virginia, which was the focus of a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post.
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Host: At age 20, Roach Brown was convicted of murder and received a life sentence. While in solitary confinement Roach wrote a poem in the dust under his bunk called “Christmas in Prison”. The poem evolved into a play called “Christmas in Time” and The Inner Voices drama group was formed. After 500 performances outside the gates of Lorton Reformatory, on Christmas Day 1975, Roach Brown received a Presidential Commutation from President Gerald Ford. That’s why every day is Christmas to Roach Brown. Merry Christmas! |
Roach Brown|
Co-host: Nkechi Taifa is founder and principal of The Taifa Group, LLC. She convenes and directs the Justice Roundtable, an advocacy coalition advancing progressive justice system reform, and serves as Senior Fellow for the Center for Justice at Columbia University. She was recently appointed to the board of the Corrections Information Council. Taifa served as Advocacy Director for Criminal Justice at the Open Society Foundations and Open Society Policy Center for 16 years. Nkechi lives in Washington DC. |
Nkechi Taifa|
Guest: Garnett is advocacy director at Just Future Project, where she stands up for the dignity and equality of some of the most marginalized members of society. Her son, Galen Baughman, is a Soros Justice Fellow currently imprisoned at the Arlington county detention facility fighting Virginia’s second attempt to civilly commit him. By day, she is a professional real estate agent licensed in Virginia and the District of Columbia. She is a native of Arlington VA where she lives minutes from our nations capital. |
Garnett Robins-Baughman|
Guest: Dr. Thompson is a founding member of Just Future Project. Her son Mwando Amerson is currently civilly committed to the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation in Burkeville VA. She is the principal of Roots Activity Learning Center which she founded in 1977. In 1999, She also founded the Roots Public Charter School. Dr. Thompson earned an Education Doctorate (Ed.D.) in early and mid-childhood education from Nova University. |
Bernita Thompson|
Guest: Philip Fornaci is an accomplished civil rights attorney. He is a former director of the D.C. Prisoners Project, where he directed the Project’s ongoing litigation on behalf of D.C. prisoners and formerly incarcerated people on issues related to their conditions of confinement and related matters. He is a national expert on prisoners rights and has regularly testified before the United States Congress. Phil lives in Washington, D.C. |
Philip Fornaci
Special thanks to Roach and Nkechi for inviting Just Future Project back to update their audience on the fight to free Galen and Mwando and for helping us bring light to shadow prisons! Follow Just Future Project on twitter and Instagram. Like, share and comment to join the awareness offensive. Together we can #abolishprecrime
Click here to listen to our first radio appearance on WPFW from Feb 2019.
i am fighting this fight for my husband”Dustin Jacobs” . He and I are both broken over this whole commitment thing. He has been committed for 2 years now. we got married Aug of 2013 and he was arrested February 14 2014.