Life After Prison

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<p><span>As a kid, Jonathan was good at soccer and making friends. But by the age of eighteen, he was a drug dealer facing his first serious conviction. For his third conviction, although the charges were for nonviolent offenses, he received a twenty-one-year prison sentence. In 2019, after serving seventeen years, he was released under the First Step Act, a bipartisan prison-reform bill that has helped to reduce the sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine for some federal prisoners. In total, Jonathan has spent twenty-five years behind bars. Now, as a middle-aged former felon, he faces a world full of hazards and struggles with the unintended consequences of a long sentence. (Jonathan’s real name has been withheld, in order to protect his family’s privacy.) </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span>Also, </span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/david-remnick"><span>David Remnick</span></a><span> speaks with Kai Wright, the host of WNYC’s “</span><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-united-states-of-anxiety/id1155194811"><span>The United States of Anxiety</span></a><span>,” about long prison sentences and how the goal of incarceration has shifted from “correction” to warehousing people for as long as possible. </span><span> </span></p> <p><i><span> </span></i></p> <p><i><span>This podcast was originally released on January 17, 2020.  </span></i></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>