Dr Baz Dreisinger - Restorative Truth - Author of Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World

Crime rates around the world have declined, but the global prison population is rising. The US is worlds greatest jailor with 5% of the world population and 25% of its prison population. This is clearly not logical, and Dr. Baz Dreisinger's life is dedicated to solving this inhumane problem. Heralded by the New York Times and named a notable book of 2016 by the Washington Post, Dr. Dreisinger's book, Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World, offers a radical rethinking of one of America's most devastating exports and national experiments: the modern prison system. Dr. Dreisinger works at the intersection of race, crime, culture and justice. She earned her Ph.D. in English from Columbia University, specializing in American and African-American studies. She is the Founding Academic Director of the John Jay College Prison-to-College Pipeline program, which offers college courses and reentry planning to those in prison, and broadly works to increase access to higher education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. She is Executive Director of the Incarceration Nations Network (INN), a global network and think tank that supports, instigates and popularizes innovative prison reform efforts around the world. Dr. Dreisinger won a 2018 Global Fulbright Scholar for her international work promoting education-not-incarceration and restorative justice internationally. As a journalist and critic, Dr. Dreisinger produces on-air segments for NPR and covers Caribbean culture, race-related issues, travel, music and pop culture for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and ForbesLife. Her first book "Near Black: White-to-Black Passing in American Culture" (2008), a cultural history of whites who pass as black, was featured in the New York Times Book Review and on NPR and CNN. We are honored to welcome Dr. Dreisinger as the next guest in our Wide Awakes activation.

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