Season 2 returns from intermission with an insightful episode examining the impact of life sentences. DA Boudin and Rachel are joined by Keith Wattley, the Founder and Executive Director of UnCommon, who represents people sentenced to life sentences in California at their parole hearings. They discuss the impact of life sentences; how the parole process works under the law as well as in practice, and how it can be improved. They also explore the ways in which prisons too often fail those who are sentenced to life by denying their humanity. Finally, they discuss how prosecutors like DA Boudin have played a role in resentencing those who have been sentenced to excessively long sentences.

 

For further reading:

• DA Boudin's Article in The Nation, "Across Prison Walls, I Felt My Parents' Love"
• UnCommon Law's website
• San Francisco Chronicle profile on Keith Wattley and UnCommon Law
• NowThis YouTube video on Keith and UnCommon Law
• YouTube video on Keith Wattley by James Irvine Foundation
• The Sentencing Project report on life sentences
• Recent piece by Keith Wattley on the values of justice
• San Francisco District Attorney's Office website on resentencing unit
• Article on San Francisco DA's Office's Resentencing Unit 
• Prison Law Office's Parole and Prison Handbook
• Penal Reform piece on the need to abolish life sentences 
• Vox op-ed on the need to cap all prison sentences