[00:00:00] Intro: Everyone has a voice. A story to tell. Some are marginalized and muted. What if there was a way to amplify those stories to have conversations with real people in real communities, a way to help them step into the power of their lived experience.
Welcome to Amplified Voices, a podcast lifting the experiences of people and families impacted by the criminal legal system. Together we can create positive change for everyone.
[00:00:30] Jason: Welcome to Amplified Voices. I'm Jason, your host, and I'm here with Amber, my co-host. Good morning, Amber.
[00:00:41] Amber: Good morning, Jason.
[00:00:43] Jason: So, Amber, you mentioned we had done one intro for our upcoming podcast. And you said, Hey, maybe we should just do a little bit more to share some information . Do you want to talk about why you felt we needed to do a second intro.
[00:00:58] Amber: Well, I really want to dig a little deeper into kind of where we're going with the podcast. Some of the people that we're gonna be talking about and we didn't really go too much into our backgrounds and kind of why we come to this and we will do interviews really kind of digging deeper into why we come to this work but I just wanted to kind of lay it out there. You know, both of us, we do have lived experience with the criminal legal system and have been significantly affected by it. So this is one of the reasons why we've come to this work, and we're so passionate about it. So I really wanted to explore both of those themes in Ah, you know, just another small little intro. Ah, before we kind of kick things off.
[00:01:43] Jason: All right, All right. So the first item is talking more about types of issues we're going to be tackling,
[00:01:50] Amber: right? So we did talk a little bit about we're gonna have some tough conversations, and I wanted to go into you know what we really mean by that. So tough. You know, it's a subjective word. What might be tough for one might not be tough for someone else, but being that we are going to be featuring a lot of different people who come at things from different aspects. So whether they've either been a victim of a crime or they have perpetrated a crime or both of them, which is mostly what has happened to most people is they've experienced some sort of trauma, and then that's how they're entanglement with the criminal justice system. Really, what led them to commit whatever act they did? We really want to talk about and make clear we're not here to condone bad actions, and we're not here to explain them away. We're here to talk about real people. Real lives, the complexity of humanity and kind of the messiness. And why are criminal legal systems responses to that maybe kind of exacerbate trauma and violence and really don't lead us to safer communities?
[00:03:03] Jason: I think some of the people that we talked to you know, we've had an opportunity now to record five different individuals coming on and talking, and so we have the benefit of knowing what they're going to say, and we're recording this intro and some of the times we listen to them, and I think we're really listening to them. You know, many people listen to those stories that they share with us and immediately go to judging and shutting down. And I think it's really important. People number one. They have to know that if it's too traumatic for them to listen to some of these stories, it's OK not to listen to turn it off, but if they're able to, I would say people really should listen for the whole episode and listen to really understand what was going on for those individuals that we’re talking to, because in one case when we're talking to somebody who did something, that was pretty awful and we don't respond while we're interviewing. But then later it comes out some of the awful things that were done to that person and you listen to it. And when you realize it's the same person that that person was really harmed before they ever caused harm. And so how we react really sets the stage for whether someone may go on and recommit additional harms. If we treat them like they're monsters, people behave like monsters. If we treat people like they're human, they react in a different way.
[00:04:32] Amber: and I think that you're really hitting the nail on the head, so to speak. You know, when we talk about how we treat people, when we talk about how we talk about people, we don't want to refer to people as things that we don't want them to be. So you know, we do explore sexual trauma, sexual offenses We like to use person first language. We explore violence and even ah, the taking of a life in some of these episodes and again, not here to condone violence, Not here to explain it away, but here to really explore violence and harm as what it is, something that is a moment in time that is influenced by a lot of different factors and not a state of being - humanity is not okay - this person is bad - this person is good and there's no in between because there is good and bad in all of us. And we have a tendency to forgive things in ourselves that we don't extend that same forgiveness and lack of judgement to other people. So the purpose of the podcast is to have people tell those stories, build understanding, build shared humanity. And that's what makes it is such a. In my opinion, I might be a little biased. Such a great offering for people.
[00:05:57] Jason: And I hope that you know, any of the critics really do take an opportunity to listen. And don't just say that we are here to promote bad behavior because we're not like you're saying we're not promoting harm. We're not making excuses. But what we are trying to do is to create an environment that is safer for people to create an environment where the world is a better place.
[00:06:20] Amber: Well, and I just want to make it clear as well we’re not apologetic, we’re not apologetic about it. We will never apologize for showing people human dignity and for treating people as humans, no matter what they have in their past. Because at the end of the day, when we think about how we all want to move forward as a society again, we really want to make sure that both people and communities are made whole again. And we can't do that by utilizing judgment and violence to respond to violence.
[00:06:56] Jason: And then for the intro. You know, you mentioned that you want to talk about our own experiences and how we came to it. I think that that may come out in some of the episodes, and certainly when we interview each other. But I’d like to save that a little bit, if that's okay with you.
[00:07:10] Amber: Yeah. I mean, we can save it. I just wanted to make it clear that we're not just, you know, folks who are chatting about criminal justice reform because we haven't lived it. So I just wanted to make it clear that we both have been affected by the criminal legal system in some way. And, you know, I'd like to throw out into the world that I have also been affected on the other side of the coin as someone who has experienced a sexual assault and someone who also is currently working with a family member who was the victim of financial exploitation. And again it goes back to that thing that people are complex. It's important to me that people understand that you know where I come from. I actually get very offended when victimhood is weaponized to promote the carceral state. And I'm not the only person out there that feels that way. So I want to make sure that we shine a light on that as well.
[00:08:10] Jason: Very good. Thank you. And so with that, I think we'll close out this little intro, and I'm really excited that we're getting close to having these episodes launched. I know we've edited at least one right?
[00:08:27] Amber: Well, we're up to three now, so
[00:08:30] Jason: well we have five recorded. And so that's really exciting. These will start coming out, and you know, if people are listening and anybody has a really compelling story, you can reach out to us. And you can subscribe on YouTube to Amplified Voices. Is that correct?
[00:08:47] Amber: That's correct. And then the podcast will live at Amplifiedvoices.show, and people can always reach out to me. I can be reached at AmberSpeaksup@gmail.com.
[00:09:01] Jason: All right, very good. And you can reach out to me a Jason@endtheregistry.com. So that's, um, that's a wrap until next time.
[00:09:12] Amber: we'll see you next time
[00:09:18] Exit: you've been listening to Amplified Voices. A podcast lifting the experiences of people and families impacted by the criminal legal system. For more information, episodes and podcast notes, visit AmplifiedVoices.show.
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