About This Item

  • Call NumberOSOS_OH_0051-accs
  • Summary(0:19) Working as a criminal defense lawyer in New York, Massachusetts, and on a federal level -- (0:55) Witnessing firsthand how the criminal justice system was being used to quell dissent in the 1960s -- (1:21) Desire to serve her community through becoming a lawyer, with the purpose of defending revolutionaries -- (1:45) The ways in which the justice system guarantees second class citizenship for poor people and people of color -- (2:30) The attack on George Williams in Attica Prison in 2011 -- (4:04) The wrongful conviction and exoneration Antonio Yarbough in 2014 -- (5:18) Racism and the criminal justice system -- (6:47) The need for the people to take power and force collective change -- (7:44) The real definition of a “protracted struggle” in activism -- (8:27) The philosophy of “educate, agitate, and organize” as spoken by Stokely Carmichael -- (9:00) A meaningful encounter at Riverside Church -- (11:18) The work of the Alliance of Families for Justice and the knowledge that families serve prison sentences as much as the prisoners do -- (12:30) Statistical relationship between the well-being of families and recidivism -- (14:40) Working as the head of the Correctional Association of New York -- (15:58) Abuses monitored by the organization -- (18:15) Power of the prison guards’ union -- (19:50) Proposals for changes in the prison system -- (21:58) Changing the punishment culture.
  • Date2016-11-18
  • Physical Description1 sound file (23 min.) : digital, MP3
  • CreatorElijah, Soffiyah
  • Cite AsBrooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  • Digital Public Library of AmericaThis item is represented in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
  • Formatsound recording-nonmusical
  • GenreinterviewsMP3
  • NoteAudio interview conducted on November 18, 2016, by Carmen Lopez at Central Library. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
  • SubjectCriminal defense lawyers ; Prisons--New York (State) ; Massachusetts ; Criminal law ; Black Panther Party ; Oppression ; Poverty ; Prosecution ; Community activists ; Revolutionaries ; Judicial error ; Rikers Island (N.Y.) ; Attica Prison ; Prison riots ; Carmichael, Stokely, 1941-1998 ; Community development ; Racism ; Counseling ; Mentoring ; Voting ; Mental health ; Lynching ; Courts ; Recidivism ; Punishment
  • PlaceNew York (N.Y.)
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • TitleOral history interview conducted with Soffiyah Elijah on 2016 November 18.