Here's How to Respond to Crime, Not React to it

Oct 4, 2024

For years, the state of has struggled with overcrowded jails and prisons. From the three-strikes law to life sentences without parole, California is 鈥渙ne of the epicenters of mass incarceration in the United States,鈥� according to the . After years of activism by abolitionist organizers, California voters in 2014 passed , which reduced some penalties on some offenses.聽

This year, law enforcement and big retailers are joining forces to back a new ballot measure this November called , which would undo Proposition 47.聽聽

Dortell Williams, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at Mule Creek State Prison recently wrote a story in L.A. Progressive about Proposition 36 called 鈥溾€� He spoke with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about it.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.