YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → P&P Live! Jarrett Adams | REDEEMING JUSTICE with Shaka Senghor

P&P Live! Jarrett Adams | REDEEMING JUSTICE with Shaka Senghor — Transcript

by Politics and Prose · 10,383 words · 1,617 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:04um
0:20cool
0:23all right
0:25hello and welcome to pmp live i'm alan
0:28watke in a part of the events team with
0:30politics and prose
0:32thank you all for joining us today i'm
0:34so excited to welcome jared adams for
0:37his new book redeeming justice
0:40at any point during the event you can
0:42click on the link in the chat
0:45that will take you straight to the
0:47politics and pros website to purchase
0:50redeeming justice
0:51you'll also be able to ask jared a
0:53question by clicking on the q a link at
0:56the bottom of your screen
0:58we'll get to the audience questions at
1:00the end of the event we apologize if
1:02we're not able to get to yours
1:04we'll try to get to as many as possible
1:06though
1:07also
1:09closed captioning is available so you
1:11can click on the cc link at the bottom
1:13of your screen right next to the q a box
1:17and this event is in partnership with
1:20the american constitution society
1:23[Music]
1:24they are the leading diverse progressive
1:27legal organization and we are so happy
1:29to have them on board with this and help
1:32you know promote this event they're just
1:34they're fantastic and i'll put some
1:35information
1:36a link in the chat for that as
1:38well um
1:40[Music]
1:42finally we want to thank you all for
1:43being here um
1:45it's it's you guys it
1:47allows us to bring these conversations
1:49together so thank you for being here now
1:51i'd like to welcome to pmp live jared
1:53adams celebrating the release of his new
1:55book redeeming justice
1:58from defendant to defender my fight for
2:01equity on both sides of a broken system
2:04he was only 17 when an all-white jury
2:07sentenced him to prison for a crime he
2:09didn't commit
2:11now pioneering lawyer he recalls the
2:13journey that led to his exoneration and
2:16inspired him to devote his life to
2:18fighting the many injustices
2:20in our legal system
2:22in this illuminating story of hope and
2:25full circle redemption adam draws on his
2:28life and the cases of his clients to
2:30show the racist texts used to convict
2:34young men of color uh unique challenges
2:37facing the exonerees once released and
2:40how the lack of equal representation in
2:42our courts is a failure not only
2:44of empathy but of our collective ability
2:47to uncover the truth redeeming justice
2:53redeeming justice is an unforgettable
2:56first-hand account of the limits
2:58and possibilities of our country's
3:00system of law
3:02jared adams earned his juris doctorate
3:05from loyola university of chicago uh
3:08school of law in may 2015 and started a
3:11public interest law fellowship with anne
3:14claire williams
3:15judge for the seventh circuit u.s court
3:17of appeals the same court that reversed
3:20his conviction
3:21i'm jared also clerked in the u.s
3:23district court for the southern district
3:25of new york
3:27the late honorable deborah betts
3:29after working on the innocence project
3:31in new york he launched the law office
3:33of jared adams pllc in 2017
3:37and now practices in both federal and
3:39state courts throughout the country
3:42adams will be joined in conversation
3:44with shaka
3:46head of the uh head of diversity
3:49equality and inclusion at trip actions
3:53he is also the president of shaka's
3:55singular inc and founder of redeemed
3:58soul his memoir why writing my wrong or
4:02his story about that righting my wrongs
4:05life death and redemption in the
4:06american prison debuted on the new york
4:09times and washington post best seller
4:12lists
4:12and shaka's widely anticipated sophomore
4:15book the letters to the sons of society
4:18were will be released this january and
4:20so without further ado i want to open
4:22this up to jared adams and shaka singh
4:25thank you so much
4:27thank you thank you so much for having
4:29us i'm super excited uh to be here today
4:32with my dad jared
4:34uh truly one of my heroes and somebody
4:37whose work i admire
4:39um jared you know this book man is is
4:42phenomenal it's a powerful
4:44beautiful read uh but it's also painful
4:47you know for me as a as a dad
4:49you know as a black man in america as
4:51someone who's been inside the judicial
4:54system
4:55you know to read this you know harrowing
4:58account
4:59of a child's life that was disrupted and
5:02i and i and i'm very
5:04intentional about emphasizing the
5:06reality that you were a child yeah and
5:08so i really want to take people on this
5:10incredible journey that you've been on
5:12from being falsely
5:14accused and convicted of a crime you
5:16didn't
5:16commit at the tender age of 17
5:20to serving 10 years of a 28-year
5:23sentence
5:24and then coming out on the other side of
5:26that
5:27as a lawyer who advocates for the
5:29freedom of others
5:32take us back to
5:34that 17-year-old kid and what that
5:37experience was like for you and for your
5:40family
5:41and and as i say that i really you know
5:43i'm looking at the book cover and i want
5:45to show this to the audience yeah if you
5:47can see the innocence of that face
5:50you know this is a 17 year old kid so i
5:52want i want the audience to keep that in
5:53mind
5:54as as we begin to go on this journey
5:56together but just take us back a little
5:58bit what was your family construct what
6:00was happening in your life uh at 17 most
6:03kids are going off to college and proms
6:05and things of that nature take us back
6:08to 17 year old jared
6:10well look i want to thank you uh
6:12politics and pros uh random house acs
6:16and everyone who's joining right now
6:18because it's important for us to to have
6:21these conversations and i go to what you
6:23just said you know a couple minutes ago
6:25these aren't tough and difficult
6:26conversations these are necessary
6:28conversations that we have to have
6:31and for me
6:32as a 17 year old kid
6:34my life was similar to what you can find
6:37all
6:38over the inner cities in different
6:40cities throughout this country i was
6:42raised predominantly by my mom and by my
6:45aunts and by my grandparents and
6:48i you know stayed out the way for the
6:50most part this was when
6:52no one was not at the house type of
6:55raising in the 80s before the crack
6:57epidemic came through and put the whole
7:00community in a chokehold so i have mom
7:03and aunt and grandma
7:05and we pretty much just stayed out the
7:07way we weren't involved in a lot of the
7:09street life and stuff like that because
7:11we had a bird's eye front couch view
7:13from our porch of the destruction and
7:16what it was causing and watching our
7:18friends
7:19uh we went to school with you know their
7:21father's not around and then
7:24they're being raised by their
7:25grandmothers and their grandmothers are
7:27telling them all your daddy down south
7:28for a little while spending some time
7:30with some family but he really you know
7:32locked up or something like that and so
7:35we we the friends that i had and hung
7:37around we all were trying to find our
7:39way out of the who pretty much that's
7:42that's like everybody's desire
7:44so for me
7:45you know i i didn't have the the sports
7:47talent and stuff like that but i read
7:50very well because my grandmother would
7:54make me read you know she would keep me
7:56out of trouble uh being in the kitchen
7:58with her because we her house was on a
8:00busy street and so in order to keep me
8:03out of trouble she would have me in the
8:04kitchen with a reading paprika and and
8:07anything she can do
8:12of grandmothers everywhere
8:13man shout out to and so that was the
8:15uniqueness and that is the uniqueness of
8:18how difficult it is to raise a black boy
8:20in in the united states so
8:23going
8:24going to getting out of high school 17
8:26years old
8:28high school high school were you were
8:30you in so i went to a couple different
8:32high schools but i ended up ultimately
8:34graduating from hillcrest high school
8:36which is like right outside of chicago
8:38it's like about 10 minutes outside of
8:41the city of chicago i started off in in
8:44the city schools but they were just
8:45getting too rough and my mother was like
8:47look i you know i had a brother who was
8:49five years ahead of me and she had to
8:52wrestle him through all the city schools
8:54and she like look i don't have energy
8:55anymore and then
8:57shaka more guns started to come around
9:01right like the use of more guns
9:04were coming as the as the 90s started to
9:07break into 92 93 and stuff like that
9:11when i'm entering high school
9:12so i i graduate from out the hillcrest
9:16high school
9:17and
9:18really it was it almost seemed like two
9:20things right either you go to the
9:22service
9:24or you go to junior college because
9:27there there weren't these these these
9:29attainable
9:31four-year
9:32grad going to school at a four-year
9:34anniversary in the budget to do so the
9:36money just wasn't around like that so i
9:39wasn't going an army i just wasn't doing
9:41it wasn't going in the army at all uh no
9:44matter how bad they offered and it
9:46looked good to get that little gi money
9:48and hope and wish that a war didn't kick
9:50off right right but i decided that i was
9:53going to go to junior college so that
9:54summer after graduating high school me
9:57and my friends we worked the entire
9:59summer and we would go to different
10:01parties and stuff like that at different
10:03you know different spots different
10:05college campuses and just just trying to
10:07stay out the way of the gun violence and
10:09in the uptick in violence in the cities
10:12across america as the summer um hits
10:15so basically y'all were being kids y'all
10:16were going with what kids all across the
10:18country suburbs inner city
10:21do all the time during the summer they
10:23go off they party they have fun it's
10:25part of the magic of becoming teenagers
10:28and you know i i i want to continue to
10:31underscore that point as we had this
10:32conversation because we don't just we
10:34don't talk enough about
10:36how many of our kids brush up against
10:39these systems or find themselves
10:41entangled in these systems and so you
10:43know so you and your friends y'all are
10:44kids y'all going off the party doing
10:46what typical teenagers uh do so what
10:49happened from there what take me take me
10:51into it so this is when the summer is is
10:53over now so the summer is ending and we
10:56got we have about like one two more
10:58weeks
10:59so we are are are invited my one of my
11:03guys he you know had buddies who were
11:05already off in school so they would make
11:07it to school earlier and do like parties
11:09before like everyone got on the campus
11:12and and it was real time for school to
11:14start so we each tell our parents look
11:16we're gonna go we're gonna spend the
11:18night over each other's house classic
11:19alibi i'm sure everyone is used yeah
11:22um so we would get in the car go off to
11:25a party party to about two three drive
11:29home hit the truck stop eat the nasty
11:31waffles and pancakes and then make it
11:33back in each other's houses at about
11:35seven eight a.m and no problems at all
11:38we did this over the entire summer and
11:40we did this on this college campus in
11:42whitewater wisconsin where we had a
11:46consensual interaction with the young
11:47lady who would falsely accuse us of of a
11:51rape
11:52that
11:53was clear from the very beginning
11:56that it was fabricated
11:58and
12:00you know that
12:01as i look back on on on on what happened
12:06and
12:06how everything was put in motion because
12:08now that i'm an attorney i know how
12:10things were put in motion
12:12you know it was it was very shameful
12:14because the one piece of evidence that
12:16exonerated us
12:18was known for for the police and in the
12:20police possession
12:22literally the same time that the false
12:25accusation was made
12:27and we never received it
12:30so so what so let me let me
12:32i want to delve deeper into this you
12:34know because
12:36i don't want people to miss this this
12:39big point right
12:41you're 17 years old
12:43you're charged with
12:44one of the most egregious crimes that
12:46anybody can be charged with
12:50and you're now faced with the enormity
12:53of navigating a criminal justice system
12:57that has already demonized
12:59black males specifically
13:01uh whether it's through media whether
13:02it's how we're splashed across the news
13:05whether it's how
13:06you know
13:07you know we're portrayed in movies and
13:09other things
13:11and you're a kid
13:13and you're faced with this serious
13:14charge and you're faced with this system
13:17what happened
13:19you know i i kept thinking that
13:22everything was gonna work out
13:25because we were telling the truth um
13:28that's what i thought i had because
13:31when i'm when i'm growing up
13:33my experience
13:34and my friends and family we were all
13:36high school graduates not you know
13:38records or anything like that so
13:40we're looking at dick wolf's
13:43law and order as what the law system
13:46must really be like and so when i'm
13:49accused and when i'm charged
13:51i'll never forget
13:54saying to my mom
13:56why are you looking so terrified you
13:58know we ain't do this
14:00but her response was
14:02emmett's heel didn't do anything either
14:06and now i couldn't i didn't know
14:09i didn't know a lot then you know and
14:12and i didn't understand
14:14why the call me when you get there or be
14:18in at this time and where you're going
14:20where you're at see i thought that was
14:22over parenting
14:24little did i know she was trying to save
14:26me for what ultimately we would endure
14:29as as i was a 17 year old kid sitting
14:32there under a baseless accusation that
14:35only had legs simply because the person
14:39accusing three black kids was a
14:41caucasian student
14:44that's what was the driving force behind
14:46this entire accusation
14:49you know when i was reading the book
14:52i found myself getting very emotional
14:55you know i have a friend
14:56his name is calvin evans who i you know
14:58i'm sure you will get the chance to meet
15:00yeah he served 24 years for a crime he
15:02didn't commit
15:04and he and i you know we would talk a
15:06lot about what his experience was and
15:08and one of the reasons i bring him up
15:11because he inspires me as a human being
15:13to go through
15:14you know such egregious abuse of justice
15:17of the justice system
15:19to live with the dehumanizing conditions
15:21for two decades
15:24but to come out on the other side of
15:25that and advocate and fight for other
15:26people is really inspiring and so when i
15:28was reading the book
15:30you know what really came up for me was
15:32the many kids i mentor across the
15:34country yeah and all of their faces just
15:36came flooding to me as i read about you
15:39being arrested and i read about your
15:42mother's reaction
15:44and the thing that really just tore my
15:47soul apart
15:48was when you first went into the county
15:50jail
15:51and your innocence you know just not not
15:53just your innocence or the crime but
15:55your innocence
15:56as a kid who thinks
15:58that somehow this nightmare is going to
16:02you know you're going to wake up one day
16:03and it doesn't exist and that everything
16:05is going to be all right because that's
16:06actually what's supposed to happen
16:08everything is supposed to be all right
16:09for kids
16:10and so that was just heartbreaking for
16:12me to read that and to know you as you
16:15are today but i really want you to take
16:17the audience into the experience of a 17
16:21year old kid
16:22being charged with a serious crime and
16:24now
16:25you're in the belly of the beast you're
16:27going through all the indignifying
16:29things that happened
16:30yeah what was that like and what did
16:32that do to your soul and and what did it
16:34do to your family
16:36it was it was devastating you know the
16:38entire time you know what i didn't take
16:40into account um until i started you know
16:43to to to really just pay attention to
16:45the health of my mother and my aunts was
16:48this
16:49they were they i was physically in the
16:52prison
16:53but they were there minus the bars
16:56right so so my mom
16:59and my aunts i'm talking about heavy in
17:02the baptist church deep into it you
17:05big hat wearing peppermint passing front
17:09row this my seat where my fan at this
17:12this was our lives growing up right we
17:14went to lilydale baptist church in
17:16roseland um in chicago south side of
17:19chicago on michigan big church where the
17:22church was the real family church family
17:24right
17:25um and and so
17:27i'm talking about my mother and my also
17:29creator
17:30i couldn't sing a lick shocker but they
17:33got me in the sun being quiet right now
17:35they got me
17:36they got me yeah because
17:39the the practice for the choir
17:42would require spending up my time so i
17:45wouldn't be out on the streets like that
17:47was a lot of what the creativity of it
17:50was that and so
17:52now
17:53i'm i'm i'm going through this process
17:55i'm in this this county jail
17:58and it was so utterly shocking to me
18:02i understood what it was what it meant
18:05to be accused of a crime i understood
18:08what it meant to be convicted understood
18:11what it meant to go to prison after a
18:13conviction no one ever told me
18:16that when you are still supposed to have
18:19the presumption of innocence you will be
18:21treated like a filthy convicted animal
18:24while trying to prove your innocence
18:28i'm in a in a bullpen
18:3017 years old
18:33the bullpen is only made to house 25 to
18:3620 people
18:38it's 50 people plus in this bullpen with
18:42one bathroom no curtain and we're all
18:45sitting in these bullpens being shifted
18:47throughout these bullpens to get in
18:50front of the court for the first time um
18:53you know when you're arrested and i just
18:55i just i remember everyone looking at me
18:59and saying
19:01you know shouldn't you be across the
19:02street
19:03and what they meant by that was
19:05shouldn't i be over in the juvenile
19:08section
19:09and not in the adult section with them
19:13you know i i didn't know too much or
19:15nothing i i happened to know uh it was a
19:18couple people from my neighborhood who
19:20knew you know like my brother was five
19:22years older and they just knew my father
19:24more than anything because my father was
19:26was amongst the neighborhood and people
19:27knew who he was so i was able again in a
19:30situation like that to just gravitate
19:32towards some older folks in there but
19:34looking at it and watching the shocking
19:36is ridiculous you you have a gang of men
19:40lined up outside a bullpen before you
19:43even go in a bullpen everyone's strip
19:46searching everyone's bending over this
19:48was back before cook county jail was
19:50sued for their process of doing cavity
19:53searches and stuff like that so as a 17
19:55year old kid
19:57i'm sitting there and i'm subjected to
19:58it all
20:00to it all and i and i really i really
20:02want the audience to think about that
20:03you know think about
20:05your children think about the children
20:07in your community the 17 year olds the
20:1015 year olds the 16 year olds and
20:12imagine them going through this horrific
20:15experience
20:16you know in chapter 10 of your book
20:18redeeming justice and i definitely
20:20encourage everybody to check the chat
20:22grab those links go order the book
20:24um you know this this this chapter
20:26really spoke to me personally you know i
20:28i've served a total of 19 years seven of
20:31those years was in solitary confinement
20:34and what you write in here just really
20:37you know brought me back to that space
20:39but it also made me think about khalif
20:41browder you know this young man who was
20:43falsely accused of a crime
20:46and who spent nearly two years
20:48in in reich on rikers island and when he
20:51got out the gravity of what he
20:52experienced was so
20:54crushing that he eventually took his own
20:56life
20:58and you know this happens far too often
21:00in our country where kids are put into
21:02these horrible conditions and i want to
21:05read something that you wrote
21:08you said i live in a cell the size of a
21:10parking space
21:12the room feels too tight to roll over
21:15i have a cardboard thin mattress on a
21:17concrete block
21:18a toilet a sink a shower and a tv that
21:22gets five channels all news
21:25i have a rectangle in the wall the size
21:27of a hardcover book
21:29they call a window
21:30i live in here 24 hours a day
21:33i never leave except for one hour each
21:35week when i can walk around the yard
21:38accompanied by a guard
21:40they may call this segregation
21:42but i think of this as quarantine
21:44i feel as if i have contracted some
21:46horrifying virus
21:48i wonder if that's how my relatives felt
21:50back in mississippi
21:52quarantined
21:53as if being black were a deadly disease
21:57when i read that you know my heart just
21:59cracked open and poured out to you
22:01because i know that feeling i know the
22:03suffocating reality of segregation and
22:06what it does to a human being
22:08and i imagined you as a kid in that
22:09place
22:11and you know i've found myself getting
22:13upset even though i know that you're
22:14free now
22:15yeah and what upset me was the reality
22:17is that most people can't even begin to
22:20imagine the horror
22:22that you underwent at the hands of a
22:24system that
22:25on its surface is supposed to protect
22:27kids and supposed to protect innocent
22:29people
22:30and it failed you
22:32and it failed you horribly
22:34and so i want to talk about that
22:36experience of going into this brutal
22:38system
22:39and how you had to navigate that and
22:41what your family had to undergo
22:44as you fought for
22:46your innocence to be proven
22:48yeah and that that was uh it took me it
22:51took two years to write this book um
22:54because
22:55the difficult chapters i just had to
22:58take breaks
22:59and
23:00uh i drew inspiration from me and you
23:03spoke a lot of people don't know this me
23:04and shaka spoke years back when i was
23:07trying to figure out how to do the book
23:10and the last thing he told me getting
23:11off the phone was he said well you just
23:13got to start writing
23:15you know
23:16and as i started to do it
23:19i understood what you meant
23:21because until you started start to write
23:23and pour out the pain then you can go
23:25back and edit and fix it
23:27but i needed to just start writing
23:30and and i'll tell you this
23:32a people for people i encourage people
23:34to go get the book because it explains
23:37to you
23:38how it grabs young black men right and
23:42the tentacles never let go and so here's
23:45an example right of that
23:47so now when the police i was coming home
23:51getting ready to like go the next week
23:53and go purchase books for south suburban
23:55college where i was going to college so
23:56where i was getting ready to enroll and
23:58start that college that fall so i get a
24:00card in my door from an officer and it
24:02says robbery homicide and have my name
24:04on it so i called the police station
24:07saying look i know y'all got the wrong
24:09guy you know why do i have this card in
24:11my door he says well look you're right
24:13you've never been arrested we don't have
24:14a picture of you we just need you to
24:16come on down here and and clear your
24:18name so
24:20i go i i go down there and i should have
24:22never went down there without without a
24:24parent but they made it seem like they
24:26were gonna help me and young
24:28african-american kids raised with folks
24:31from the south the one thing they said
24:32you respect adults you respect
24:34authorities respect your elders so i
24:36went down there thinking that i was
24:37helping myself i remember them calling
24:40me
24:40boy said boy you really need to help
24:42yourself in this situation boy you
24:44really need to tell us what happened boy
24:46this boy that boy this
24:48when we were charged
24:50they referred to us as the three black
24:52men from chicago so much shock i thought
24:54that was our name
24:56wow right
24:57i thought it was our name and so yeah
25:00y'all go ahead i don't want to cut you
25:01off
25:02no i i mean it's deep when you say that
25:04you went down there
25:06thinking that they were going to protect
25:08you because that's what they're
25:09ultimately responsible for is protecting
25:11kids and innocent people
25:13and vulnerable people and they didn't do
25:15that
25:16and and to switch from
25:19treating you as a child to basically
25:21lure you into deeper into the system
25:24and then to adultify you which happens
25:27all the time with young boys and young
25:29girls specifically black and brown boys
25:31and girls yes you know it's just really
25:34shocking
25:35for a lot of people to hear this but
25:37it's not shocking for us and
25:39you know one of the things i want to
25:40read this real quick and i want you to
25:41get back to your point where you're
25:43talking about
25:44uh reynolds wintersmith you say so many
25:46young black men like reynolds
25:47wintersmith have been ripped away from
25:49their families in the neighborhoods and
25:51thrown away for no good reason or no
25:53reason at all they are now gone lost
25:56riding in prisons i was fortunate i
25:58fought my way to a second chance
26:01sadly that rarely happens we don't know
26:03whom we're thrown away of the 2.3
26:05million people who are incarcerated
26:07750 000 are black men
26:10the numbers are so dispersed
26:12disproportionate they scream
26:14that has to change you were one of those
26:16750 000
26:18as a kid
26:20and so
26:21what did that do to you when you when
26:23you went from this you know boy help
26:25yourself and we're trying to help you to
26:28you know man you these three men you are
26:30now villainized what so tell us a little
26:33bit more about what happened with that
26:34process and then i want to take take
26:36people on this journey into prison and
26:38what happened there
26:40my youth was forever lost
26:42you know i don't i don't know what it's
26:43like
26:44to to to
26:46take that 18 year old id
26:48and go change it in for the new 21 year
26:51old where you can go drink and go to the
26:52bar and all of that my friends you know
26:55from from high school who did go off and
26:57go to college they were mailing me
26:59letters and pictures you know they were
27:00getting their first cards first credit
27:02cards maxing out their first credit
27:04cards you know all the stuff that you do
27:06as a as a kid going through it i was
27:10forced
27:10to to grow up my mother and my they
27:13couldn't afford for to get an attorney
27:16you know so i couldn't i had to learn
27:18the law to be able to articulate the
27:21injustice that happened to us
27:23and so
27:24that process was just so it was so it
27:27was an island man i'm on the island and
27:30i can't even see the next island all i
27:33see is water
27:34and it took me to to really sit down and
27:38and and pray and to find something that
27:41that i could look
27:43look towards and so what i did was this
27:46i told myself that each day
27:49i was getting out the neck so i needed
27:51to prepare as such
27:53and so even if it was a psychological
27:55thing that may have not been true until
27:57a decade later it was something that
28:00that got me up each and every day out
28:01that sale and i'll never forget i never
28:04forget
28:05when i got there to the actual maximum
28:08slash super maximum prison
28:11i remember that
28:13it you know everybody in the joint get a
28:15nickname you know every now and then you
28:17get the nickname right they were calling
28:19me youngin like young young shy town and
28:22and so
28:23and so
28:24what i realized was that
28:27the prison when i got there it was
28:29predominantly people in like their 30s
28:32up to 40 who had been doing 10 15 years
28:35and and had been doing a lot of time and
28:38and i was one of your youngest faces
28:40after i was about three to four years in
28:43it it flipped and now it was
28:45predominantly people who looked like me
28:48and the older crowd was was on the back
28:50end and what i recognized afterwards was
28:53this
28:54i was in the height of the prison boom
28:57that's when it started to uptick and you
28:59know what they did shocker
29:02the strategy of that uptick and what
29:04happened with it they fed it with young
29:08black men and increasingly black women
29:12that's what happened it was more tough
29:13on crime it was more you know or uh just
29:17like you said when we were talking
29:18earlier where the situation with your
29:21son man i started to do work and become
29:23a tutor for people and was working in
29:24the library to help folks and and i
29:27would go over their cases and i would
29:29say to them man what are you pleading
29:31guilty for this stuff and now you back
29:32on it and people will say listen
29:35brother
29:36i was just pleading guilty to get out
29:38the county jail
29:39i was tired of sitting in there
29:42i couldn't afford you know to go to
29:44trial improve my innocence even though i
29:45knew i was going to be able to do it but
29:47i just wanted to get out of the county
29:48jail and get back to my kids i couldn't
29:51bond out that's why when you said khalif
29:53browder i couldn't even watch that show
29:55i got here oh and had to put it down
29:57shocked yeah no i mean i imagine that
30:00that revisiting these traumas is very
30:03painful and you know it's one of the
30:04reasons i'm thankful that you wrote the
30:05book because you know people get a
30:07chance to read your story and really
30:09understand
30:10what happens and you know when i think
30:12about you know the story you just told
30:14you in there and people are like youngin
30:16you know and they're giving you these
30:17nicknames
30:19uh because they're recognizing that
30:20you're you know you're a child still
30:23and so what i what i want to do is is go
30:25back a little bit before we jump into
30:27the prison part
30:28but the moment of sentencing in the
30:30courtroom we talked a little bit earlier
30:32about that and how the judge
30:34um gave you this opportunity to speak on
30:37your own behalf
30:39and you know your mother's in the
30:41courtroom your aunts and your family and
30:43community
30:44and you know you're 17 you're getting
30:46ready to be sentenced to prison
30:48take us into that moment and what that
30:50experience was like for you
30:52just just gut-wrenching i mean because
30:54i'm watching my mom and my mom felt like
30:56it was her fault because she couldn't
30:58afford to get me an attorney so i'm
31:00watching her beat herself up i'm looking
31:02at my aunts you know you know beat
31:04themselves up about the situation and it
31:07and it really hurt so after the
31:09conviction you know you prepare for the
31:11sentencing so i wanted them i wanted
31:13those women to understand and know you
31:16know that they raised me right and i
31:18wanted to apologize to them for making
31:20the mistake of sneaking out of the house
31:23there's a reason why i told why i didn't
31:25tell them why i was going because they
31:26wouldn't let me go to no party in no
31:28wisconsin right because they knew what i
31:30didn't know they knew that wisconsin
31:33locked up more african-american men per
31:35capita than any you know state in the
31:37country they knew that they knew what
31:39was going on but but i didn't because i
31:41was too naive and thinking that this
31:43world would give me the fair shot like
31:45they taught us in in elementary school
31:47that they all that's just the history
31:48that it's not like that anymore
31:51um and so
31:52i'm i stood up
31:54and i i just said look i want to
31:56apologize
31:57you know i i you know apologize for my
32:00actions of sneaking and coming up into
32:02this party with my friends but i can't
32:04apologize for a rape that never took
32:06place the judge told me that that this
32:09act of defiance was lack of remorse
32:12gave me an additional eight years in
32:14prison that's why i ended up going to
32:17this super max slash maximum prison
32:20where i was one of the youngest when i
32:22got there
32:23but i think that
32:24what what they what they meant to do to
32:28bury me
32:29and then throw c mint on top of me with
32:32that additional eight years
32:34they didn't realize that this was this
32:37was a seed that would not allow a
32:39structure to keep it from growing
32:42and i was able to do it and i'm not i
32:44don't want anyone to believe that that
32:47i'm some superhero because the superhero
32:50were the black women who consistently
32:51and constantly never allowed me to give
32:53up that was peaches honey and sugar my
32:56mother and my two aunts
32:58yeah yeah well i love those names by the
33:01way so tell hotel aunties uh we send
33:04love
33:05but but you know i wanna i really wanna
33:07take you you know further into that you
33:09know i'm thinking about
33:11the responsibility of a judge and the
33:13responsibility of prosecutors
33:16and their job is to administer justice
33:20and what this sound like to me was a
33:22legal lynching it sounded like you know
33:25there was this idea about you that they
33:27had already determined
33:29absent all of the information you know
33:31that was withheld you know um
33:34and so there's a vindictive nature to
33:36our court system as it relates to black
33:38males
33:40and it's very punitive and very
33:41dehumanizing and degrading
33:44and it's that that system that pushes so
33:46many of us into
33:48prison itself indeed now in my
33:51experience of prison prison is a very
33:53scary place
33:54and i imagine it should be doubly scary
33:56for
33:57a kid who wasn't in the streets
34:00um who was on the way to college who was
34:03fresh out of high school
34:05and now you're in this environment
34:06surrounded by adults who have been
34:09through this hard and brutal system
34:11already
34:12yeah on top of that
34:14you're accused of
34:16in the prison hierarchy what is
34:18considered the most egregious crime
34:21possible
34:23and there's judgment that come with that
34:25and oftentimes there's attacks that come
34:27with that
34:28and being a vulnerable kid with all of
34:30this on your shoulders you go into the
34:32system
34:34and you meet
34:36mentors you meet advisors you meet og's
34:39that
34:40take you under their wing and offer
34:42tutelage
34:43what was that experience like um you
34:45know from the beginning to as you begin
34:47to journey through the system yeah i'll
34:50tell you i look
34:52grab the book for more details but i
34:54gotta tell this story about what i'm
34:56what i mean with the old heads and the
34:58impact and stuff like that
35:00so
35:01there's three of us accused and they end
35:03up severing one of us because my one
35:06co-defendant had a paid attorney his
35:08family actually lived in wisconsin this
35:10was the guy who who you know told us
35:12about the party and we was going up
35:13there his family called his family from
35:16was his family from wisconsin called the
35:17family in chicago and said listen to me
35:21no matter what y'all do y'all better get
35:24this boy a lawyer okay because this is
35:26what it's like up here so what they
35:28ended up doing was like putting up
35:30houses and i think his grandmother put
35:31up a house or something like that and
35:33they retained this attorney who was an
35:35amazing attorney who was known
35:37throughout the state uh he was
35:39representing other like famous athletes
35:41falsely accused and stuff like that so
35:43he was representing those folks so his
35:45lawyer kept filing motion after motion
35:47after motion because what was written by
35:50the police
35:52was not testified to by our accuser
35:54because it was made up by the police
35:56right and i also want to pause right
35:58there before i go on because i think
36:00that this has a lot to do with why it's
36:02so hard to get everybody to start moving
36:05towards reform instead of just talking
36:07about it
36:09people like to say facts are the case
36:13when police officers write police
36:15reports
36:16and they become testified to
36:19they become what's known as facts of the
36:21case
36:22that does not mean it's the truth
36:24um and so i i say that and i say that so
36:28passionately because
36:29we are allowing
36:32police reports and accusations to become
36:35the truths
36:37that keep young black african-american
36:39men from ever having their
36:41constitutional right at that presumption
36:43of innocence going in
36:46it is that historical depiction and
36:48narrative of black men as being savages
36:51pillagers of villages and attacking this
36:54and doing all of that so that's why and
36:56that's how easily it is for a police
36:59report from an accusation to become
37:01facts and now all of a sudden don't
37:03nobody want to help you because they
37:05think they know from what was alleged in
37:07the police report and what was said in
37:09court and that that that was the most
37:11devastating thing that that i had to
37:13understand because i kept being so
37:16bothered by it like i'm i'm bothered by
37:19the accusation i'm sitting up in here
37:21with my mother and my two aunts who
37:23raised me and i'm being depicted as
37:26somebody who gang raped someone and i'm
37:28desperately fighting to shut up in the
37:31courtroom because i'm so
37:33so outraged by this and so
37:37i make it in this prison
37:40and i remember getting sailed up in one
37:42of the most violent prisons at the time
37:44i was sailed up was it was two violent
37:46prisons in wisconsin you know really
37:48three it was wallpawn green bay and then
37:52there was there was portage where
37:54jeffrey dahmer ended up being killed in
37:56wisconsin during the time that i was
37:58locked up and so
38:01i'm in this dangerous prison in wall
38:02pond and
38:04there was an attack someone was attacked
38:06and they lost an eye he got hit with a
38:07mop winger or something like that they
38:09locked the entire prison down
38:12this was my first lockdown
38:14and i'm 18 now turning 19 right i don't
38:17know what a lockdown is i'm thinking
38:19they bout to lock down look at something
38:21let us back out we'll be out at least to
38:23be able to move around no we was locked
38:25down in this sale
38:26with a cell mate not moving
38:29for like the next five days right they
38:32didn't even give us a shower because
38:34they assumed it was gonna be a big riot
38:36or they didn't know if it was an
38:37isolated incident so during this time
38:39they still allow you to have phone calls
38:42i remember having a phone call with my
38:44mom and my mom would patch in like my
38:47aunts on like five ways she would have
38:48everybody on on the phone we would be
38:50talking
38:51i'm still surprised they never hung up
38:53them calls but
38:55i'm talking to her on the phone and i'm
38:57explaining to her because they kept
38:58asking me like how on earth
39:01do you guys get convicted your
39:03co-defendant is following all of these
39:04motions and and you get 28 years you
39:08know and i'm on the phone and i'm trying
39:10to explain it to him and my cell mate an
39:12older white guy
39:14he was i was selling sailed up with him
39:16for only a couple months but he was one
39:17of the most influential people along
39:19this journey he was a guy who used to
39:21always be in the law library he had two
39:23life sentences so he wasn't going
39:25anywhere
39:26he would do his time by helping other
39:28people and so he he said look man i i
39:31can't help but i overheard the
39:33conversation but i'm a bit confused and
39:35i said well what are you confused at
39:37he's like because you say you're
39:38innocent but every day
39:40when when the door is open
39:42you go play chess you go play basketball
39:45i mean you act like you on a college
39:47campus you don't act like you're
39:48innocent
39:49so i said well look i got a public
39:51defender who's doing my appeal
39:54and they're handling it and he looked at
39:55me with a straight face shocker and he
39:57said
39:58you had a public defender who handled
40:00your trial
40:01how'd that work out
40:03and you got i'm still a man my mind
40:05ain't nowhere near being an adult
40:08i thought everything was gonna be okay
40:10that was my thing as a kid i was numbing
40:13myself
40:14to the pain of being in there by
40:16ignoring me
40:18and so
40:19i get off the i get off of this we get
40:21off a
40:23and he gave me that kate strickland
40:25versus washington because i let him read
40:27some of the the the transcripts and the
40:28paperwork he like man look
40:31you sitting up here playing playing
40:33basketball and joking around
40:35and [ __ ] you you don't you it's only a
40:38matter of time for you around here with
40:39a tattoo teardrop under your eye and a
40:41shape tattoo on your neck like what are
40:44you doing man like this is some crazy
40:46stuff you're co-defending right now you
40:48need to be writing letters on on this
40:51statement it was a statement from sean
40:52demaine that i had already knew was
40:54integral and i knew he had to have said
40:56more because he was the guy that we were
40:58hanging out with the white neutral male
41:01college student and little did i know
41:04it was him who had wrote a statement
41:06vindicating us
41:08to the police the very next day
41:11and they had it the entire time and they
41:14never turned it over to us at all and we
41:17had to find it after our conviction and
41:19that was one of i will never forget like
41:22that
41:23that important part
41:25of being in there because if i hadn't
41:28got that wake-up call if it wasn't that
41:31attack that put it on lockdown man i
41:33would have been out there trying to be
41:34the michael jordan of the damn prison
41:36man um and that's the common reality
41:38that people kind of throw their hands up
41:41when they're expecting the system to do
41:43its job
41:45uh we're gonna have questions coming in
41:46from the audience at some point if you
41:48have questions hit that q a
41:50um i just want to push the conversation
41:52forward a little bit
41:53you know jared obviously we can talk all
41:56day man you know i don't you can't
41:58condense your life into an hour-long
42:00conversation
42:01um and so it's great that you have the
42:03book and i'm really excited for people
42:04to go out and grab the book make sure
42:06y'all click on them links in the chat
42:08get this book i promise you it's going
42:11to take you on a journey
42:12uh that really
42:14you know reveals all the things about
42:16the system and just a couple of things
42:18that said about the book this is from
42:20scott tarot
42:21in a moving and beautifully crafted
42:24memoir without hyperbole always wanted
42:26to say the word hyperbole uh or a ranch
42:28jared adams compellingly demonstrates
42:30the institutionalized racism of the
42:32american criminal justice system
42:34uh john grissom who a lot of you may
42:36know
42:37adam's story is often hard to believe
42:39the injustice that locked him away is
42:41maddening the cruelty of his
42:43incarceration should be actionable his
42:45quest for the truth is inspiring his
42:48determination not only to survive but
42:49succeed
42:51is nothing less than heroic earlier you
42:53talked about not being a superhero i
42:56disagree i think your mother your aunts
42:58are superheroes but as i do think the
43:00same about you
43:02because despite the things you faced in
43:04the system
43:05you taught yourself and trained yourself
43:08and was fortunate to attend college
43:10uh to become a lawyer who now advocates
43:12for the freedom of other people
43:14uh you started a non-profit organization
43:17you work with the innocent project
43:19you're helping to get people
43:21their freedom back and to hold the
43:24system accountable
43:25how did you become a lawyer after being
43:28a kid falsely accused
43:30and why is it so important for you to do
43:32this work
43:33when most people would say look i want
43:35to be behind that nightmare i want it to
43:37be over
43:38um and so after you answer that we'll
43:40pop to the audience get some questions
43:42and then we'll just dive back in
43:45yeah i i look i i told you before south
43:48side of chicago and and we use the term
43:51called get your lick back i wanted my
43:54lick back for my mother okay i wanted my
43:56lick back for my aunties because when i
43:59went in there i'm talking about fish
44:01fries cookouts get togethers a lot of
44:04important decisions were made in the
44:05backyard over barbecue grills with the
44:07family when i got out that decade didn't
44:10just take for me now you're talking
44:12about dialysis treatments now you
44:14talking about me visiting people in in
44:16nursing homes because they battling deep
44:18in dementia and and i'll never forget
44:22the real the real like impact of the
44:24loss hit me so hard at one of the
44:26smallest points i'm sitting in my
44:28mother's living room you ever been at yo
44:31it's your mom's like your family house
44:34and you see a photo album you just grab
44:36it right because you just what i look at
44:38the photo album i see pictures of the
44:41entire family me
44:43you know kid
44:45everybody together you know all the way
44:47up eighth grade you know prom picture
44:51my graduation picture was the last
44:53picture in that album
44:55but the pages continued with my family
44:58without me throughout those pages i
45:01didn't see my picture again
45:03until after i was released and my mother
45:05threw an event and she put my picture
45:07back in there but i flipped through
45:11almost a decade of pictures
45:13and didn't see my face man
45:15and that right there
45:17that that that right there i remember
45:19having to get up and go take a walk
45:22and i end up walking it was cold as hell
45:24i mean it was like it was like february
45:27cold when like 2007 when i got out
45:30um and i walked and walked and i looked
45:33up
45:34and there was south suburban community
45:36college
45:37and i had i had that's where i was
45:39supposed to be going
45:40before this started so i walked in there
45:44and i enrolled and more importantly
45:47my family encouraged me to get the
45:50desperate mental health care that i
45:51needed because i needed to find a way to
45:54channel my anger and frustration into
45:57the fuel that drove me to build life
46:00after justice to start to litigate these
46:02cases to go clerk in the same circuit
46:04that overturned my conviction and
46:06redeemed the justice that was promised
46:08to us in a justice system that has never
46:11been built and designed to protect us
46:14that's so powerful man i'm sending so
46:16much love to your family and you know i
46:18feel like i know them from reading the
46:20book you know because they mirror so
46:21many of the families that i talk to they
46:24mirror my family you know when you
46:25talked about that photo album you know i
46:27just made it took me back to sitting in
46:29the living room on the couch covered in
46:31plastic and yeah
46:33those photo albums and you know i had
46:35that same experience when i came home i
46:37go to my aunts and uncles and i look
46:38through those albums and i'm not there
46:40you know um and you know i was guilty of
46:43the client crime that i committed um and
46:47so
46:48my experience is different but
46:50nonetheless it was a brutal reality and
46:51so you know my heart still
46:53goes out to you uh we love this we gotta
46:56we got a question in the question box
46:59um what in your opinion this is from
47:02admo admati i'm hoping i pronounce your
47:05name right if not it's all you know from
47:07a good space right uh what in your
47:09opinion would be the most effective
47:11action legislation
47:12for removing the unfairly convicted
47:14black and brown people from prisons and
47:16not have more people dragged into this
47:18dark and desolate pit in the future
47:21we got to do something about prosecutors
47:22power that's that's simply input it may
47:25not be you know uh uh something that
47:28we're able to figure out all in one
47:29swoop but we got to figure it out
47:31because that that is the most powerful
47:33piece on the chester board and they
47:34shouldn't have all of that power but and
47:36i'll give you a perfect example
47:39the prosecutor in my case when we found
47:41a found evidence from that statement
47:43that was withheld by the police
47:45the prosecutor dismissed the charges
47:47against my co-defendant and let me and
47:49my other co-defendant go through seven
47:51years of appeals and let the court
47:53decide it that prosecutor had the power
47:55to use his discretion to file a motion
47:58on his own and reverse our conviction
48:00and he didn't do it and this is this is
48:03not just
48:04this is not the isolated case
48:06i want people looking at this to go look
48:08up cook county case giovanni long i
48:12represent a young man who i know was
48:14beaten to a confession by the police and
48:17right now his co-defendant his
48:20conviction was reversed we were able to
48:22get the co-defendant an actual innocent
48:24certificate which means that the state's
48:26attorney is acknowledging the
48:27co-defendant is actually innocent so
48:30tell me right now shakka why i'm 20
48:32something thousand dollars of my own
48:34money
48:35representing this man for two years when
48:38this prosecutor's office has the
48:39opportunity to reverse the conviction
48:42based on the same evidence of innocence
48:44which they know
48:45happened in a co-defendant's case
48:47it's because
48:48because
48:50if you leave it up to one person to
48:52decide the fates and have that power
48:55that's when things go wrong we have to
48:57find a separate entity and i'm not
48:59talking about uh uh the grand jury
49:02because you can grand jury indict a ham
49:04sandwich if you wanted to right right
49:07we're talking about a separate body that
49:09is evaluating these cases and situations
49:12and moving with the speed that shows
49:15that we value the lives of those who are
49:18being disproportionately affected
49:20that's what we need i i want to say this
49:22too before but look
49:25i was i was out i said this you know
49:27during another little podcast me and my
49:29wife were out and we were we were
49:32traveling and somebody was using their
49:34phone
49:35and they were dropping it and you know
49:36that you know to let me try to catch it
49:38thing so me and everybody in this this
49:41little area was watching them and we
49:43were hoping that they caught their phone
49:46before it hit the ground because you
49:48know why
49:49black white no matter who was there
49:51didn't know each other we knew it was a
49:53value of that phone and we knew the
49:56experience it was like to crack your
49:58phone or break your phone and so
50:00everybody was praying that he kept it
50:02from hitting the ground
50:04shocking
50:05until we get people to care about the
50:07actual humans
50:09who are hitting the damn ground in the
50:11criminal justice system
50:13we ain't gonna be able to fix this thing
50:16we need everybody
50:18that's that's real you know i wanna i
50:19wanna make sure people check out the
50:21link
50:23lifeafterjustice.org where where is it
50:25where's the org based at so the
50:27organization is based in chicago and
50:29what we're doing right right now is this
50:32we're building right now so we're not
50:34just asking for for money we're also
50:36asking for for people we need big law if
50:39we if we're really gonna have a round
50:40conversation about what it's gonna take
50:42to do reform we need big law to give
50:45some big pro bono hours to to be give
50:47some big pro bono bucks we need support
50:50i
50:51worked at the innocence project and
50:53built this model after having the
50:55experience there because
50:58people who are directly impacted need to
51:00be directly at the helm of the decisions
51:03being made yeah i couldn't agree more so
51:06we got a couple more questions coming in
51:08one uh at least originally dropped in
51:10the chat so i'm gonna start with hers
51:12first
51:13uh she said the police acted badly we
51:14were wondering how you feel about your
51:16accuser how do you feel about her
51:18actions initially and along the way and
51:20that's that's a powerful thing because a
51:21lot of times we hear about
51:23you know the people who are convicted
51:25falsely convicted
51:26and you know do accusers get held
51:29accountable first of all and how do you
51:32how do you feel about it
51:33so i i want people to go look at the
51:35book and and see how i arrived at this
51:38point that i'm about to say but for me
51:41we were all kids shopping
51:44this this
51:46accuser didn't go um i'm i'm rick
51:49running out of a building she went to a
51:51friend that went to a friend and all the
51:53accusation the false accusation started
51:55because her roommate was was was shaming
51:58her and calling her names for hanging
52:00out with black guys you understand so so
52:03this rumor
52:04led to
52:06uh a friend telling another friend and
52:08then a campus sexual assault expert who
52:11overzealously wanted to fit the title
52:12that she gave herself so
52:15when i look at the situation i look at
52:17it and i say
52:18that this was something that snowballed
52:21it's something that she never expected
52:23we were kids why weren't the adults
52:26being adults
52:28and i go deeper
52:30into it in the book and tell you how i
52:32arrived now we're talking about me and
52:34my feeling right now as an adult and
52:36having to deal with the conversation but
52:37of course back then i was mad at
52:39everybody associated with this yeah
52:42justifiably as you should uh so thank
52:45you for that and and make sure y'all
52:46read the book i've read it so i know how
52:48he feels uh redeeming justice grab that
52:51book the links are in the chat
52:53uh mary mcdaniels uh question is is
52:56there any way to exonerate and release
52:57prisoners
52:58in those states that have a time limit
53:00on submitting new or hidden evidence
53:03it is
53:05not let me just say this there is is
53:08never a clear avenue and post conviction
53:10work and and the reason i say that is
53:12because the post-conviction
53:16world
53:17believes in finality more than they do
53:20justice
53:22so
53:23once you get convicted the burden isn't
53:26reasonable doubt anymore and sometimes
53:29people think that lack of evidence on
53:31post conviction means evidence of
53:33innocence it is not
53:34it's a different burden that you have to
53:36meet so you have to understand in terms
53:38of of my conviction and all convictions
53:41that are reversed there is evidence of
53:43innocence
53:44that was not in front of the fact
53:46finders when a person was found guilty
53:49so to answer that question more more
53:51specifically what needs to happen is
53:54this
53:54first of all if you're looking to
53:56reverse any conviction you have to look
53:57at the laws in that state they change
53:59every day and you have to look at the
54:00case law secondly if there is no case
54:03law and no changes that's where you need
54:05to start start with the advocation and
54:07that jurisdiction of how to make
54:09post-conviction avenues of actual
54:11innocence easier to litigate there are
54:14people right now
54:15including my client giovanni long in
54:18cook county illinois who are sitting in
54:20prison while the prosecutor's office is
54:23arguing procedural arguments not the
54:25substantive issue about his guilt but
54:28saying that oh well he missed the
54:30deadline or he missed it he missed that
54:33and it makes no sense at all shocker
54:35yeah yeah no it's really sickening um i
54:38know we're we got about three minutes
54:40left so
54:41a couple of things really really quickly
54:44uh somebody asked how do they further
54:45connect with you you can follow jared uh
54:48uh adams at law is that what it is at
54:51large across all social media platforms
54:54uh click on some of the links can hear
54:55life after justice
54:57um you know quickly this last question
55:00came from i think it was danita
55:01disappear
55:02but she talked about mental health you
55:04know while you were going through the
55:05process and after
55:07uh you talked a little bit earlier about
55:09you know after after you got out your
55:11family supported you and getting you
55:13into mental health treatment um and
55:17you know what what did you what did it
55:18take while you were inside uh to get
55:21through there
55:22man it took them like like i can't tell
55:25you just just how how important it was
55:28at different times in there when i was
55:29ready to break or break someone that i
55:32would get a letter from them
55:33you know encouraging me about the story
55:35of job and you know uh uh the book of
55:39psalms and you know my auntie my one
55:41aunt josephine sugar that her real name
55:43is josephine but she
55:45she would send me the tribune and i
55:48would tell her like i see why are you
55:50spending so much money on this paper i'm
55:52getting it two days late anyway she said
55:54no baby i'm doing it for a reason i need
55:56you to see
55:57what's happening to our neighborhood and
55:59your friends out here they being locked
56:01up in federal and federal prison being
56:04accused of being nino brown but i know
56:06that they can't even afford to take care
56:08of their babies they having out here in
56:09this community so you need to see this
56:11you need to see that while while you're
56:14in there and you're fighting it's still
56:16a fight going on out here
56:18yeah yeah
56:20well man thank you so much the book is
56:22redeeming justice the links are in there
56:26obviously we got to do this again man
56:27there's just never enough time is so
56:29much but
56:30you know the things we didn't get to in
56:31this conversation are definitely in the
56:33book i promise you it is a powerful
56:36inspiring
56:38read despite where it starts at it ends
56:40with so much hope uh for the future
56:43and jared i'm proud of you as i
56:45mentioned earlier you're definitely one
56:46of my personal heroes i want to continue
56:49to support
56:50lifeafterjustice.org
56:52um not only does it need financial
56:55resources need uh human power to really
56:59change some of these systems so go check
57:01that out grab the book redeem injustice
57:03follow jared across all platforms and
57:06shout out to politics and pros for
57:09hosting us
57:10we look forward to being in more
57:12conversations soon
57:14thank you all man thank you shotgun
57:16now thank you so much for having me bro
57:18super excited to be here
57:21jared shaka thank you both so much
57:23honestly this is i've been looking
57:26forward to this
57:27your conversation for a while now so i'm
57:29happy
57:30that we were able to have you on here to
57:32to really
57:33dig into this um yeah yeah you know like
57:36like like shaka said um the link to
57:39jared's book is in the chat
57:41the link to find out more about life
57:43after justice is in there and you can
57:45even there's a direct link to donate as
57:47well so all of those are there click on
57:49those find out more
57:52i'm also excited shaka's book is coming
57:54out in january hopefully we can um
57:58get him lined up for that um
58:01yeah i know i was gonna say maybe we can
58:03get jared to come back and just like
58:05keep going
58:06yeah no you definitely uh jerry we're
58:07gonna make sure sure uh penguin get you
58:10a advanced copy of the book i would love
58:11to be in conversation with you uh about
58:14this new book man so super excited and
58:16truly appreciate politics and pros for
58:19for inviting me to
58:20you know share my story and my book and
58:22my work so really look forward to that
58:24absolutely but for right now check out
58:27jared's that links in that chat so bam
58:30there you go
58:31i love the colors you see it match the
58:33books on my shelf back there
58:36hot cover right now it's a hot color
58:37right now
58:39it's really really powerful all right
58:40well thank you all
58:42right y'all stay safe man yeah all right
58:44brother

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of P&P Live! Jarrett Adams | REDEEMING JUSTICE with Shaka Senghor by Politics and Prose, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 10,383 words across 1,617 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.