Was 2023 a year of progress or setback for Oregon’s justice system? Join us as Bobbin, Julia, Zach, and Justin reflect on the year that was, and forecast the road ahead in 2024. The Trail Blazing Justice podcast is a production of the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

What is it like to spend the holidays in prison? Join us for the first episode of “Outside Voices”—our special series of discussions with people who have experienced incarceration in Oregon. Bobbin is joined by Angela, Wayne, and two Kyles, as they share stories of how the holiday spirit can persevere in the midst of incarceration. Links: Angela’s blog post about Korean food Trail Blazing Moment: Thanksgiving Day 1972: B.B. King performs for inmates at Sing Sing PrisonThe Trail Blazing...

What are Legislative Days, and why are they important? Join us this week as Bobbin, Zach, and Justin demystify these lesser-known legislative meetings and recap some of last week’s justice-related hearings. Links   News article of the week: “Law enforcement officials press lawmakers to tighten Oregon’s drug laws”, OPB, Nov. 6, 2023, Oregon Legislative Days hearings:Joint Interim Committee on Addiction and Community Safety ResponseAgenda VideoJoint Committee on Public SafetyAgenda VideoJoint...

Bobbin, Zach, and Justin welcome Brittney Plesser, co-director of OJRC’s FA:IR Law Project, to discuss her recent report on access to abortion care for those incarcerated in Oregon jails. Join us for an eye-opening look at how the right to an abortion in Oregon depends on whether someone is housed in jail—and in which Oregon jail they happen to be in.  Links: “Access for All, In Oregon?: A Review of Abortion Access in Oregon’s County Jails,” (OJRC report) October 2023Article of the Week:...

Marijuana is legal in Oregon, right? Well, not for everyone. For this and other eye-opening insights, join Bobbin, Zach, and Justin as they welcome guest Erin McKee, co-founder of the Oregon Justice Resource Center and co-director of OJRC’s Immigrant Rights Project, to discuss Crimmigration—the intersection of criminal and immigration law in Oregon. The Trail Blazing Justice podcast is a production of the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

This week, Bobbin, Julia, Zach and Justin discuss OJRC’s recently published response to the Gender Informed Practices Assessment (GIPA) of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Julia outlines key points of the GIPA report, their implications, and OJRC’s recommendations for how the Oregon Department of Corrections must change in order to humanely house and treat the incarcerated. Links: “A Serious Response to a ‘Sobering” Reality: OJRC’s Response to the Gender Informed Practices Assessment of...

Bobbin, Zach, Justin, Julia, and Kyle discuss what dying with a terminal illness looks like in Oregon’s prison system, Oregon’s Compassionate Release process as it stands now, and  how it badly needs to be refmed Link: “Relieving the Crisis of Dying in Prison,” a report by OJRC, March 2023 The Trail Blazing Justice podcast is a production of the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

This week, Bobbin and Justin are joined by Julia Yoshimoto, director of OJRC’s Women’s Justice Project, as they dive into the recently published Gender Informed Practices Assessment (GIPA) of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Links: Gender-Informed Practices Assessment (GIPA) report about Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, by the Women's Justice InitiativeA Serious Response to a Sobering Reality: OJRC response to the GIPA report The Trail Blazing Justice podcast is a production of the...

Bobbin, Zach, and Justin discuss the history and mythology of sheriffs in America, and take a deep dive into the growing Constitutional Sheriffs movement in Oregon and across the country. They also give their take on the past week’s Legislative Days hearings at the Oregon capitol. Links: Video of Legislative Days hearing by Oregon Senate Judiciary committee (Sept 27, 2023)Video of Legislative Days hearing by Oregon House Judiciary committee (Sept 28, 2023)"I Am the Law: The Rise of Oregon's...

Bobbin, Zach, and Justin react to this week’s announcement that Ellen Rosenblum will not be seeking re-election as Oregon’s Attorney General. They share their experiences dealing with the Department of Justice under Rosenblum’s tenure, and the civil rights that her agency has—and has not—stood up for. They also discuss a news story about a sheriff in Pacific County, Washington, who lacked certification as a police officer, and the growing “I am the Law” attitude among sheriffs. Links: "I Am...

Bobbin and Zach react to the latest news about U.S. Bureau of Prisons director Colette Peters’, testimony before the US Senate Judiciary committee, and a “trophy photo” taken by police officers with a caught escapee. Links mentioned during the podcast: OJRC’s Op-Ed about Colette Peters’ Tenure with the Oregon Department of CorrectionsOJRC report: "ODOC: Agency in Crisis"The Trail Blazing Justice podcast is a production of the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

In this episode, OJRC re-launches its weekly Trail Blazing Justice podcast with an introduction to two of its new contributors, Zach Winston and Justin Low. Zach, Justin, and Bobbin Singh, OJRC's Executive Director, discuss their background in criminal justice issues and goals for upcoming episodes of the podcast. The Trail Blazing Justice podcast is a production of the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

Listen in to an interview from one of the community members that was on the frontlines during the 2020 George Floyd protests in our special Stop Tear-Gaslighting Us series. We are sitting down with community members who hit the streets in 2020 in Portland to look back and look at where we are now.  This week, Beatrix Li, our Communications & Policy Associate, takes a break from interviews to sum up the 2020 summer of protests for racial justice, shares their own experience, the police...

Listen in to an interview from one of the community members that was on the frontlines during the 2020 George Floyd protests in our special Stop Tear-Gaslighting Us series. We are sitting down with community members who hit the streets in 2020 in Portland to look back and look at where we are now. We are joined this week by Jahdi, an artist, youth mentor, and community activist who was present at the demonstrations. Jahdi recalls his experience, the police violence he endured, and the trauma...

Alice Lundell, our Communications Director talks with two civil rights attorneys to ask them about their perspective on the recent Supreme Court decisions and its' implications on Oregonians. Juan Chavez, our Civil Rights Project Director & Attorney, and Athul Acharya, Public Accountability Executive Director & attorney share their thoughts on the overturning of Roe, Miranda rights, ability to sue the federal government when federal officers violate constitutional rights, and other...

Bobbin is joined by our Investigative Research Associate, Justin Low, who was behind our recently published reports on  Crime and Safety in Oregon in 2022: Myths, Facts, and Solutions and  ODOC: Agency in Crisis. Bobbin and Justin unpack why it's important for elected officials and media outlets to be driven by data, not fear-mongering tough-on-crime rhetoric that is not based in research. They talk about the correlation between police budgets and crime rates (hint: there is none!). Justin...

Join us for our fifth interview in our special Stop Tear-Gaslighting Us series. We are sitting down with community members who hit the streets in the 2020 George Floyd protests in Portland to look back and look at where we are now. We are joined this week by Eliza Y., community member who was present at the demonstrations. Eliza recalls their experience, the violence they endured, and the trauma the community experienced. 

Bobbin is joined by our Prison Outreach Coordinator and Policy Associate, Trevor Walraven and formerly incarcerated advocates Dr. Scott Spencer-Wolff and Kyle Hedquist. Reflecting on our recent report, ODOC: Agency in Crisis, Bobbin leads the conversation on their pipe dream of the “Norway model,” which is an attempt to humanize prisons, which poses the question of that’d even possible? They talk about the failures of ODOC which are often sanitized in untruthful language, like when ODOC...

Join us for our forth interview in our special Stop Tear-Gaslighting Us series. We are sitting down with community members who hit the streets in the 2020 George Floyd protests in Portland to look back and look at where we are now. We are joined this week by Simona, community member who was present at the demonstrations. Simona recalls her experience, the violence she endured, and the trauma the community experienced. 

Join us for our third interview in our special Stop Tear-Gaslighting Us series. We are sitting down with community members who hit the streets in the 2020 George Floyd protests in Portland to look back and look at where we are now. We are joined this week by Seemab Hussaini, a local Muslim community organizer.  Seemab shares about a vivid, unforgettable memory of teargas Tuesday and recounts the amount of violence that we saw from law enforcement that has gone unaccounted for. Seemab and...

Bobbin is joined by Zach Winston, Policy Director at OJRC to open Oregon's junk drawer only to find the Oregon Department of Corrections recent presentation at the legislature. In an assortment of bad practices, your hosts talk about the now well-understood Trumpian tactic of misdirection and sanitization that agencies like ODOC too frequently employ. They talk about much harm was done to 12,000+ incarcerated Oregonians during the historic yet expected 2020 wildfire season and 2021 heatwave,...

Join us for our second interview in our special Stop Tear-Gaslighting Us series. We will be sitting down with community members who hit the streets in the 2020 George Floyd protests in Portland to look back and look at where we are now. We are joined this week by Rabbi Ariel Stone, of Interfaith Clergy Resistance. Rabbi Stone shares her experience on the ground as a clergy witness, the flood of memories of Portland police and federal agents who harmed community members, and how she thinks...

Introducing a new podcast series... Stop Tear-Gaslighting Us. We will be sitting down with community members who hit the streets in the 2020 George Floyd protests in Portland to look back and look at where we are now. We are joined by Editor-in-Chief of We Out Here Magazine and activist Mac Smiff this week. We talk about what it was like on the ground, bad memories of teargas and police violence, misconceptions about Portland protesters, media portrayal of the protests, and whether the goals...

Bobbin and Eric host… two guests today! We are joined by OJRC Policy Director Zach Winston and Carl MacPherson, Executive Director of Metropolitan Public Defender. Your hosts unpack the week in news on the Supreme Court decision on ineffective counsel in Shinn. V Ramirez and Jones, reflect on the 2nd year of George Floyd’s death anniversary, and process the devastating mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Zach talks about why a carceral response in more police officers, SRO’s, and arming teachers...