Prevention, Not Prisons

Jul 25, 2024

While politicians like to say they鈥檙e 鈥�,鈥� especially during election years, they tend to not focus on corporate crimes, , and those committed by the wealthy and powerful. The United States criminal justice system disproportionately low-income people, people of color, and those from marginalized communities in general.聽

What does someone personally trapped by this system say about it? Dortell Williams is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole at California鈥檚 Mule Creek State Prison. He has been incarcerated by the state of California for more than three decades, and during that time has earned multiple academic degrees and written books. As a regular contributor to 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali, he explained the roots of crime and what it takes to achieve public safety.

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.