Pre-crime preventative detention and efforts to abolish it were the focus of this 45-minute interview with Galen Baughman 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 Galen describe his experience with these Kafkaesque systems — and Just Future Project’s #ReleaseOnReleaseDate campaign to abolish them.
Virginia’s repeated attempts to target Galen for indefinite detention was the focus of a 2019 opinion piece in the Washington Post. Since his release in August 2020, Galen has worked to expand the conversation around criminal justice reform in the US to include the medicalization of crime and the use of dehumanizing labels to condemn people to a modern pariah class.
Virginia is the first state in the 31 year history of these legislative schemes in the US to consider dismantling their state regime — thanks to the integrity of Senator Joe Morrissey (D–Richmond) who has called these laws “appalling,” deeply unfair, and anathema to due process.
The Chief Co-Patron of this legislation (SB 1244) is Delegate Patrick Hope (D–Arlington), who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and who wrote an op-Ed about Galen’s case in 2019.
https://ajustfuture.org/GalenInterviewJan2021.mp3
Host:  Roach Brown 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! |
Co-host:  Nkechi Taifa 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. |
Full Crossroads Radio Show below.
Special thanks to Roach and Nkechi for inviting Just Future Project back to update their audience on the fight 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
