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Colleen Eren: Why Donald Trump Signed the FIRST STEP Act

Nov 8, 2023

Sociologist Colleen Eren discusses the First Step Act, a major reform aimed at reducing federal prison time and after-incarceration stigma. They explore the bipartisan nature of criminal justice reform, the reasons behind high incarceration rates in the US, and the role of celebrities in advocating for reform. The chapter also touches on sociology's importance and decline, explores classical liberalism and individual freedom, and discusses the challenges and potential setbacks in criminal justice reform.

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Introduction

00:00 • 4min

Reformed Nation, First Step Act, and Impact on Mass Incarceration

04:11 • 11min

The Reasons Behind High Incarceration Rates in the US

15:39 • 15min

Better Help Online Therapy and Unintended Consequences of 'Ban the Box'

30:18 • 2min

The Role of Celebrities in Criminal Justice Reform

32:46 • 8min

Shift in Focus and Priorities of Van Jones and Alyssa Milano

41:09 • 19min

Sociology's Importance and Narrow Focus

01:00:05 • 18min

Exploring Classical Liberalism and Individual Freedom

01:17:39 • 4min

Fear, Hesitancy, and the Decline of Academic Freedom

01:21:24 • 10min

The First Step Act and Criminal Justice Reform

01:31:49 • 7min

Exploring the Potential Role of Crime and Linking Fentanyl Overdoses to the Border Crisis

01:38:58 • 2min

Challenges in Criminal Justice Reform: Fentanyl, Immigration, and Potential Setbacks

01:41:28 • 3min

My guest today is Colleen Eren, a sociologist at William Paterson University in my favorite state in the country, New Jersey. She's also the author of the fantastic new book Reform Nation: The First Step Act and the Movement To End Mass Incarceration.

Signed into law by Donald Trump in 2018, the FIRST STEP Act is one of the few major reforms in the past 50 years aimed at reducing federal prison time and post-incarceration stigma and recidivism. The legislation was championed by the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose father had served time for tax evasion and witness tampering, and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Alyssa Milano. It also drew major support from philanthropic foundations all over the political and ideological spectrum. It's a great case study of how political change actually gets done.

Eren's book is a masterful account of how grassroots activism on a cause that very few people really cared about blossomed into a win for not just better treatment of people convicted of certain crimes but a better use of tax dollars. She blends original interviews with major players in the reform movement with great storytelling and a sociological framework that illuminates the complexities of all reform efforts.

This is a wide-ranging discussion that also covers my time back in the 1980s when I ghostwrote an advice column for Alyssa Milano, who really played a major role in helping the FIRST STEP Act become law, at the late and unlamented magazine Teen Machine. We talk about what it's like being a libertarian-leaning academic—which Eren is—in today's universities and the value of the oft-maligned discipline of sociology as a framework for understanding who we are as a society. And, of course, we talk about what, if anything, might come next in criminal justice reform. As its name implies, the FIRST STEP Act was supposed to be the start of something, not its final triumph.

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