Episode 14: Voting Rights and Criminal Justice Reform with Daryl Atkinson

23rd November 2016

On this week’s podcast Adam talks to Daryl Atkinson, who appeared on not one but two episodes of Adam Ruins Everything the TV show – Adam Ruins Voting and Adam Ruins Prison! Daryl is a Staff Attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, but he’s currently on leave with them to work with the Department of Justice to work with the Obama administration on criminal justice reform.

Episode notes

On this week’s podcast Adam talks to Daryl Atkinson, who appeared on not one but two episodes of Adam Ruins Everything the TV show – Adam Ruins Voting and Adam Ruins Prison! Daryl is a Staff Attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, but he’s currently on leave with them to work with the Department of Justice to work with the Obama administration on criminal justice reform. 

Daryl has a fascinating personal story. He was convicted of a non-violent drug offense, spent forty months in prison, and went on to get his bachelor and law degrees. Now he is eligible to practice law in two states, and travels all around the country on behalf of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Ironically, he still can’t even vote in his home state of Alabama because of voter disenfranchisement laws. On the podcast, Daryl and Adam discuss felony disenfranchisement and other rights that are stripped away from the formerly incarcerated, the ban the box policy, and how privilege and specifically white privilege play into the war on drugs.

Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.com.
Produced by Shara Morris for MaximumFun.org.

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First, on the Adam Ruins Everything TV show, Adam Conover broke down widespread misconceptions about everything we take for granted. Now, join Adam as he sits down with the experts and stars from the show to go into even more detail.

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