#121 It Takes More Than a March, it Takes Policy Change - Chas Moore, Austin Justice Coalition

felony inc podcast

Focusing on the Austin, Texas community, the Austin Justice Coalition supports, teaches and advocates for black, brown and poor people by influencing local government and creating policy. Originally from Houston, Chas Moore, who heads the Coalition, moved to Austin because of sports. His brush with the law happened in high school, where he was caught up in a bad crowd and an incident gave him a record. But with that record and the subsequent stigma of being an ex-felon, Chas became a strong advocate for changing a system that punishes ex-felons with essentially a life sentence for many crimes that are not that serious. Chas had to sit in jail every weekend throughout high school and left him totally unprepared for college and the racial stigma of being black. He participated in marches and demonstrations, but came to the realization that long term improvements could only come with policy and law change, and so began the genesis of AJC. Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Meg Thibodeaux We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland. Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main Website was designed by Cameron Grimes Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org 10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com