The Breach

Throughout Season Four of The Breach, we've explored the racial and political agendas behind the push to treat substance use by pregnant people as a crime rather than a health issue. We broke the news of law 240-D in Fort Peck, Montana, the harshest law of this kind found to date. We met Reneé, a woman jailed under 240-D. We've examined the ongoing challenges facing tribal governments as they grapple with high rates of substance use. And we've delved into the myths and contradictions of the drug court model in which Reneé and others can find themselves trapped.

In our final episode of the season, we take you to the Blackfeet reservation in northwest Montana for a glimpse at a compassionate alternative to criminalization.

Part 2 of 3–all 3 parts available now.

When Montana county prosecutor Jay Harris announced he was going to seek protective orders for fetuses against pregnant people who use drugs or alcohol, it made international news. So why doesn’t anybody know that more than a dozen Native women have been criminally charged for the same behavior just a few hours away?

Join host Lindsay Beyerstein for a completely new investigative season of The Breach exploring one central question: What happens when drug use during pregnancy becomes a felony? Hear from experts, locals, officials, and a woman from the jail in which she was held under a law that few people even knew existed—until now.

Last week, we learned that a FISA court gave the government permission to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. Such warrants are only granted when there is probable cause that the target is operating as an agent of a foreign power. In Page’s case, it’s not hard to guess which foreign power. In 2013, Page admitted to the FBI that he gave documents to a Russian spy ring.

On the latest episode of The Breach, Liza Goitein joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to reveal how our separate, secretive national security court system, known as FISA Court, works – and whether its benefits outweigh its risks. Liza is the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is a former counsel to Senator Russ Feingold and a former lawyer for the Civil Division of the Justice Department.

Recommended Reading:

• Julia Ioffe’s “ The Mystery of Trump’s Man in Moscow,” TNR, 2016.
• Emma Ashford’s " The Real Factions of Trumpland and U.S. Foreign
  Policy,” War on the Rocks.

It’s taken nine months, but The Breach is back with an entirely new format. We found one story that was so compelling that we had to follow it wherever it led. This story is about pregnancy and drug use. It’s about Native people and tribal sovereignty. It’s about the search for justice. It’s a story nobody has told outside of a small community, but one that everybody needs to hear.

Medical anthropologist Dr. Adia Benton joins Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss why the government and private donors are treating Puerto Ricans like second-class citizens in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

Recommended reading:

Here's How Breitbart and Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream, by Joseph Bernstein for Buzzfeed, October 2017