Quantum Revolution with Karen Curry Parker Innocent and Imprisoned, Does the Criminal Justice System Really Work with Professor Justin Brooks
Todays’ Quantum Revolution podcast is a little different than some of our previous episodes. We usually focus on the relationship between science and spirituality.
This season we have expanded our carefully curated group of guests to include other kinds of Quantum Revolutionaries. From innovative social activists like Frank Schaeffer, to experts leading the charge on criminal justice reform, like today’s guest, Justin Brooks.
In this episode we’re going to look at the judicial system and explore the question, what happens when you’re imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit - and is the penal system actually fulfilling its purpose of rehabilitation and equitable punishment?
When confronting outdated and discriminatory systems, it requires creativity to find the solutions that work within the confines of a dysfunctional system and eventually discovering the solutions to transforming the system into something more equitable and sustainable. Today’s guest, Justin Brooks, is the embodiment of this kind of disruptive and compassionate creativity.
We can’t transform the criminal justice system if we’re not taking a realistic look at what is actually happening. If the goal of the criminal justice system is to rehabilitate people, we’re failing.
What would a just judiciary system look like? How could we better rehabilitate people who commit crimes so that they can be reintroduced back into society as healed individuals? How do we tackle racism in the current system? These are the questions we must be asking as a society.
We might not have the answer to these questions yet, but it’s time we start imagining new possibilities. And then taking the incremental steps as they appear in front of us.
One step you can take today is to visit californiainnocenceproject.org and make a donation. Your contribution is used to help innocent people get off death row.
Justin Brooks is the Director and Co-Founder of the California Innocence Project. He has practiced as a criminal defense attorney in Washington D.C., Michigan, and Illinois. Over the course of his career he has served as counsel on several high-profile criminal cases, including the Brian Banks case which was the subject of an award winning movie, Brian Banks, in 2018.
Since 1999, Professor Brooks has also worked extensively in Latin America. He is the Founder and Director of California Western’s Latin American Institute for Law and Justice, an organization devoted to training law students and lawyers in Latin America and improving justice systems. He is also the Founder and Director of Red Inocente, an organization devoted to starting and supporting innocence organizations throughout Latin America.
He has been recognized several times by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California. In 2010 and 2012, California Lawyer Magazine recognized him with the “Lawyer of the Year” award.
Justin has dedicated most of his professional - and personal - life to overturning wrongful convictions. His passion has spurred him to create Innocence Projects all over the world and to train young lawyers to work to help free innocent people and transform the judicial system.
Thank you for joining me for Quantum Revolution. Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite platform or visits us at quantumrevolutionpodcast.com so you don’t miss any of the amazing shows we have in store for you. Make sure to join us next week when we’ll be talking to Flora Bowley about combining creative expression and intuitive wisdom.
Produced by Number Three Productions, numberthreeproductions.com