Description
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently commuted the death sentences of all 548 people on death row to life without the possibility of parole. This move is a departure from some of the harsher approaches to criminal justice the state had pioneered, such as the three-strikes law that gained prominence after the murder of a 12-year-old girl named Polly Klaas. Filmmaker Lynn Novick talks with Brian Watt about the history of the criminal justice system in her new documentary series, with Ken Burns and Sam Pollard, “Crime and Punishment in America,” which will air on PBS stations Nov. 16. She asks what the goal is of the criminal justice system and uncovers how people – including Klaas’s sisters – balance the complexities of crime and justice.
Read more:
https://www.pbs.org/show/crime-and-punishment-in-america/
https://www.kqed.org/news/12108596/newsom-moves-to-empty-californias-death-row-by-commuting-548-sentences
https://www.kqed.org/news/11847612/who-was-august-vollmer-and-is-he-responsible-for-the-modern-police-force
✏️ VIDEO CHAPTERS ✏️
00:00 Introduction
2:20 What is the goal of the criminal justice system? Where did prisons and penitentiaries come from?
4:30 Who was the folk hero John Henry and how does he reflect the American prison system in the Jim Crow South?
8:10 What’s the role of the Bay Area in the origins of the American criminal justice system? Who was August Vollmer?
9:19 When did the prison population rise in California?
10:10 Why is Alcatraz important?
12:05 How have incarcerated people, including those at San Quentin, reacted to highlights of the film?
13:03 What is the legacy of California’s three strikes law?
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