From Words to Weapons Episode 14 is the final episode in the series. It features a wrap-up conversation between Emily Previti and Stephanie Marudas. They discuss the series and reporting developments since the start of the series. Our deepest thanks to everyone who’s been listening! And if you have a moment, we’d greatly appreciate you sharing Obscured with others who might be interested and/or by leaving a review on a podcast platform to help the show grow. Thank You!…Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 13 features a panel discussion about supporting survivors of violence. The conversation focuses on how policy takes shape to support survivors of violence, how the definition of crime versus violence can affect whether someone qualifies for support, and the impact of the Victims of Crime Act or what’s known as VOCA. The discussion also touches on various challenges including funding cuts and how violence often goes underreported as well as policy solutions. The panel discussion was hosted by the Women of Fels at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government and presented in partnership with the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia, Morgan State University’s Department of Nursing and Obscured. The moderator for the discussion is Natasha Danielá de Lima McGlynn, executive director of the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia. The panelists are Adara Combs, who is the Victim Advocate in Philadelphia and a former prosecutor in the district attorney’s office; Jahlee Hatchett, who is chair of the Citizens Police Oversight Commission or CPOC in Philadelphia, where he was previously a prosecutor and currently an attorney specializing in employment, civil rights and municipal liability cases; and Maija Anderson, who is Chair of the Department of Nursing at…Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 12 features a panel discussion about compensation and care for people who’ve been wrongfully convicted. Our series covered this topic in the third episode about Chester Hollman III and the politics of wrongful conviction. If you haven’t heard it, we recommend listening to that episode as well. Obscured partnered with the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice and Witness to Innocence to hold the panel with support from the Independence Public Media Foundation. The panelists are Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton; Chester Hollman III, an exoneree who spent nearly three decades in prison for a murder he didn’t commit; and Herman Lindsey, who was wrongfully convicted and exonerated and now is executive director of Witness to Innocence. Marissa Bluestine, who’s an assistant director at the Quattrone Center, moderated the conversation and the center’s executive director John Holloway introduced the panel. Links of interest:https://penncareylaw.cventevents.com/event/0e6dbc47-9ecc-4b09-9331-9e5da0e790b5/summary…Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 11 features Part 2 of a panel discussion about harm reduction in the context of interactions with law enforcement and solutions that could better promote community well-being and help mitigate mistrust. Obscured partnered with the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium and the Pennsylvania Action Coalition to hold the discussion with support from the Independence Public Media Foundation. On this episode, Part 2, we’re going to hear a conversation moderated by Obscured’s Stephanie Marudas and Namaijah Faison of the Pennsylvania Action Coalition and National Nurse-Led Care Consortium. As we heard on the previous episode, the three panelists are: Talitha Smith, Chad Bruckner and Laurie Corbin. Talitha Smith is a nurse navigator with RIvER, which stands for Rethinking Incarceration and Empowering Recovery. It’s a clinic within the Allegheny Health Network’s Center for Inclusion Health — the same clinic we heard about in episode 8 of our series with Talitha’s colleague Divya Venkat. In addition to her work at the RIvER clinic, Talitha is an adjunct professor at Carlow University and works as a local travel nurse. Chad Bruckner is a retired police detective and spent his career in policing in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He now heads a…Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 10 features Part 1 of a panel discussion about harm reduction in the context of interactions with law enforcement and solutions that could better promote community well-being and help mitigate mistrust. Obscured partnered with the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium and the Pennsylvania Action Coalition to hold the discussion with support from the Independence Public Media Foundation. On this episode, Part 1, we’re going to hear presentations from each of the panelists. And then on Part 2, we’ll hear a moderated discussion among the panelists. The first presentation we’ll hear is from Talitha Smith. Talitha is a nurse navigator with RIvER, which stands for Rethinking Incarceration and Empowering Recovery. It’s a clinic within the Allegheny Health Network’s Center for Inclusion Health — the same clinic we heard about in episode 8 of our series with Talitha’s colleague Divya Venkat. In addition to her work at the RIvER clinic, Talitha is an adjunct professor at Carlow University and works as a local travel nurse. The second presentation is from Chad Bruckner. Chad is a retired police detective and spent his career in policing in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He now heads a private investigation firm and is a…Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 9 focuses on the parole system and mass incarceration in the United States. Emily Previti and Stephanie Marudas talk with Chicago-based journalist Ben Austen. He’s written a new book, Correction: Parole, Prison and the Possibility of Change. Ben also is the author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing and the co-host of a podcast called Some of My Best Friends Are. Links of Interest:https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250758811/correctionhttps://www.pushkin.fm/hosts/ben-austen…Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 8 delves into health care for returning citizens with Dr. Divya Venkat about how law enforcement trauma shows up in her patients and implementing a harm reduction care model. Divya is a physician and works for the Allegheny Health Network’s Center for Inclusion Health. Divya has treated both incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and shares her perspective with us. She’s the co-founder and co-director of RIvER, a health care delivery program in Pittsburgh for people after being incarcerated. As part of our conversation, Divya talks about how she and her colleagues navigate patient mistrust in institutions across the board, including the medical field. Links of Interest:  https://nihcm.org/assets/articles/NIHCM-CIH-RIvER-Venkat.pdf https://www.ahn.org/services/medicine/center-for-inclusion-health…Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 7 focuses on Maija Anderson’s story and her push to develop a treatment protocol for people after a law enforcement encounter. Maija has been working on developing a protocol for more than 20 years, with mixed success and support. Through Maija’s story and talking to other researchers and reformers for this episode, Emily Previti reports and shows the obstacles – and potential path forward – to establishing support for law enforcement trauma survivors comparable to what’s long been provided for survivors of other forms of trauma. Links of interest:    Have Nurses Turned a Blind Eye? (Anderson, Maija and Bailey, Mary; American Journal of Nursing)   Latent Class Profiles of Police Violence Exposure in 4 US Cities and Their Associations with Anticipation of Police Violence and Mental Health Outcomes (Leslie Salas-Hernández, et. Al; Journal of Urban Health)  Developing a Model of Forensic Care To Victims of Police Violence (Anderson, Maija and Callari-Robinson, Jacqueline; NNVAWI Conference)  Police in the ED Medical Provider Toolkit (Working Group on Policing and Patient Rights, Georgetown University Health-Justice Alliance) …Read More

From Words to Weapons Episode 6 focuses on how county jails treat people with mental health conditions. Emily Previti and Stephanie Marudas talk with Pennsylvania-based journalist Brett Sholtis, who investigated this issue in Pennsylvania, about what that looks like and obstacles he’s faced during his reporting. Brett investigated interactions between corrections officers and inmates with mental health conditions; specifically, how tasers, restraints and other types of force are utilized within county jails. The conversation also delves into how the lack of transparency can prevent accountability and public understanding of these issues. Links of interest: https://www.witf.org/news/mental-health-behind-bars/…Read More

On Episode 5 of the From Words to Weapons series, Hector Rivera shares his experiences of surviving police brutality and seeking accountability. His experiences point to the lack of an effective, uniform structure for police accountability in the United States. Instead, solutions – and outcomes – vary from city to city. And experts on law enforcement oversight say it almost has to be that way. In context of Hector’s story, Emily Previti breaks down what police oversight currently looks like in Philadelphia where she lives. Just a heads-up: on this episode, we’re really getting into the weeds about this topic that’s so often obscured. Links of interest: https://www.phila.gov/2023-09-13-cpocs-release-of-the-pbi-report-part-2/  https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/daniels-et-al-v-city-new-york https://www.aclupa.org/en/cases/bailey-et-al-v-city-philadelphia-et-al…Read More