Host: Marcy Mistrett, CEO, Campaign For Youth Justice

Guests: Nicole Porter is the Director of Advocacy at the Sentencing Project
Wayne Ford, former representative of Iowa’s 65th District.

In our latest podcast we had the pleasure of interviewing two incredible advocates to learn more about racial impact statement legislation, what it is, it’s impact, and how it could be expanded to better understand the harm associated with proposed legislation.

Nicole Porter is the Director of Advocacy at the Sentencing Project based in Washington, DC. The Sentencing Project is a national organization founded in 1986 that works toward a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by advocating for sentencing reform, addressing racial and ethnic disparities, and promoting alternatives to incarceration. Before joining The Sentencing Project in 2009, Nicole Porter was the Director of the Texas ACLU’s Prison and Jail Accountability Project.

We are also joined by Wayne Ford, a former representative of Iowa’s 65th District. He is a DC native who moved to Iowa for college. In 1985, he founded a non-profit called Urban Dreams, to serve residents in inner city Des Moines. He was first elected into office in 1996 and served through 2011. He was the tenth African American to serve in Iowa’s House and holds the record for the longest serving African American in Iowa’s legislative history.

To learn more about racial impact statements, visit the Sentencing Project's website.