On this episode of Beyond the Box, Doug and Johnny talk with Chesa Boudin, the former crusading District Attorney of San Francisco who briefly became the contested face of criminal legal reform. 

“Historically prosecutors have been all too happy to do the dirty work for the real estate industry, for the political elites, for the economic elites, and that means that we have a system of justice where people don’t trust law enforcement, they don’t trust the courts or the integrity of criminal convictions because people know that if you’re Black, or if you’re poor, if you’re an immigrant, if you don’t speak English, you’re going to be treated differently by the system. We are in a moment where there is tremendous resistance and pressure from very powerful interests against criminal justice reform, we know that. Funding is being cut, people are being prosecuted, organizations are being broken up, people are being recalled or removed from office, etc. This is a reality. It is also used by those same right wing interests to craft a narrative that is very very dishonest and misleading, which says something to the effect of criminal justice reform is dead. That is fundamentally dishonest, and I want to take a minute to explain why…

Tune in!

On this episode of Beyond the Box, Doug and Johnny talk with Molly Greene, the Strategy and Legal director of The Appeal. If you’re not familiar with The Appeal, they are essential reading in our increasingly post-fact world. 

The Appeal is “a nonprofit news organization that envisions a world in which systems of support and care, not punishment, create public safety. The Appeal’s journalism exposes the harms of a criminal legal system entrenched in centuries of systemic racism. We equip people with the information necessary to make change, and we elevate solutions that emerge from the communities most affected by policing, jails, and prisons in the U.S.

Tune in!

How do you go from being an incarcerated teenager from the Bronx, to a nationally recognized thought leader on criminal justice reform? Doug Lasdon talks with Johnny Perez, his new cohost for Beyond the Box Season 2, about growing up in the Bronx, being incarcerated, becoming a leader in the social justice community, working at and joining the board of UJC, and being the Director of NRCAT’s U.S. Prisons Program – oh, and being a great photographer as well!

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization of religious organizations committed to ending torture that is sponsored or enabled by the United States. Since its formation in 2006, more than 325 religious organizations have joined and over 75,000 individual people of faith have participated in our activities. Members include representatives from the Baha’i, Buddhist, Catholic, evangelical Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox Christian, mainline Protestant, Quaker, Sikh and Unitarian Universalist communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and congregations.

Tune in!

The City Comptroller is a position of tremendous power, tasked with managing the city’s fiscal health and rooting out corruption, fraud, and abuse across the entire city government – yet few people can even spell Comptroller, let alone know how important it is.

Brad Lander, our current Comptroller, worked for affordable housing and community development nonprofits for many years before getting elected to the City Council in 2009. As a Councilmember, he had a twelve-year-long career advocating for many of the same policies that UJC has pursued outside the government. Lander was elected Comptroller in 2021, and late last year, he announced his intention to challenge Mayor Adams in the 2025 NYC Mayoral race.

As a nonprofit, we cannot and do not endorse any candidates. We share this interview solely to educate listeners as to the positions and experiences of a potential mayoral candidate. 

Tune in!

Who are prisons really serving? A small group of companies are turning huge profits off of every aspect of life on the inside, from food to phone calls to transportation – and we’re not just talking about for-profit prisons. Doug Lasdon talks with Bianca Tylek, founder of Worth Rises (formerly: the Corrections Accountability Project at UJC).

Worth Rises is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry, ending the exploitation of those it touches, exposing the commercialization of the criminal legal system, and protecting & returning the economic resources extracted from affected communities. Find out more at: worthrises.org

Tune in!

Is a hero the radical fighting the system, or the person who dedicates their life to transforming it from the inside, or the person who throws their body on the line to rescue their fellow humans?

U.S Senator Cory Booker is a hero by every one of those definitions, and he joins Doug Lasdon on Beyond the Box to discuss getting his start at UJC, finding his career path from there, and rescuing people from burning cars (no, really!)

Who has their eye on the cameras, the cookies, the tracking apps, and the million other devices that are watching you, right now, and selling your data? Doug Lasdon talks with Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (and graduate of the UJC Social Justice Accelerator).

S.T.O.P. fights to end discriminatory surveillance, challenging both individual misconduct and broader systemic failures. They craft policies that balance new technologies and age-old rights, and educate impacted communities on how they can protect their rights. Find out more at: stopspying.org

Tune in!

Who’s really in New York City prisons, and why, and what happens to them once they’re there – and once they come back out? Doug Lasdon talks with Sarita Daftary and Darren Mack, anti-mass-incarceration advocates, the leaders of the #CloseRikers campaign, and the founding directors of the UJC Freedom Agenda project.

The Freedom Agenda is a member-led project, dedicated to organizing people and communities directly impacted by incarceration to achieve decarceration and system transformation. Find out more at: fa.urbanjustice.org

Tune in!

Who keeps New York City running with coffee, kebabs, nuts, hats, pretzels, doughnuts, churros, Korean tacos and more – and who protects their rights when big businesses, the cops, and powerful politicians try to shut them down? Doug Lasdon talks with Mohamed Attia, former street vendor and Director of the UJC Street Vendor Project.

The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based project with more than 2,000 vendor members working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change, and advocating for the rights of street vendors in New York City. Find out more at: svp.urbanjustice.org

Tune in!

What’s it like working in the sex industry, and who fights for the rights of those who work in the shadows of the legal economy? Doug Lasdon talks with RJ Thompson-Rodriguez, human rights advocate, lawyer, former sex worker, and current director of the UJC Sex Workers Project.

The Sex Workers Project is a national organization that defends the human rights of sex workers by destigmatizing and decriminalizing people in the sex trades through free legal services, education, research, and policy advocacy. They aim to create a sexually liberated world where all workers have the autonomy and power to fully enjoy their human rights. Find out more at: swp.urbanjustice.org

Tune in!