In this two-part episode of Unpacking Injustice, we sit down with Brent Buell, a theater producer and director who spent over a decade teaching inside Sing Sing prison through Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA).

In part one, Brent shares how theater became a powerful tool for transformation, helping incarcerated individuals build empathy and explore their identities. We discuss the impact of RTA’s work on recidivism and how this journey was brought to life in the 2023 Oscar-nominated film Sing Sing, starring Coleman Domingo.

This is part one of a two-part conversation. Be sure to come back next week for part two!

Rehabilitation Through the Arts: https://rta-arts.org

Brent Buell’s website: https://brentbuell.com

Watch Sing Sing (available on Max, Amazon Prime, YouTube)

In this episode, we share a recording from our book club discussion of What’s Prison For? Punishment and Rehabilitation in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Keller.

Keller — former executive editor of The New York Times and founding editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project — joined the first portion of the conversation to discuss redemption, the role of correctional officers in shaping prison culture, and why preparing incarcerated people for reentry is essential to public safety and human dignity.

After his remarks, the discussion opens to community members, who reflect on how the book challenged their understanding of accountability, second chances, and the purpose of incarceration. Together, participants explore what justice can look like beyond punishment.

Next Book Club Selection

We’re looking ahead to our next discussion featuring The Untold Story of Lethal Injection by Montana author Corinna Barrett Lain. We’re grateful that Corinna will join the conversation on September 22 from 12:00–1:00 p.m.

Additional details and registration will be available as the date approaches.

Montana incarcerates women at one of the highest rates in the world — and Indigenous women are disproportionately represented, making up more than 40 percent of the population at Montana’s women’s prison. In this episode of Unpacking Injustice, we are joined by Kristina Lucero, a citizen of the Tseycum Band of the Saanich Nation on Vancouver Island and Director of the American Indian Governance and Policy Institute, to begin unpacking the roots of this crisis.

Throughout the conversation, Kristina grounds policy and data in personal history, including the story of her grandmother, Mary Jack, a boarding school survivor whose experiences reflect the intergenerational trauma created by federal Indian boarding school policies. She explains how historical trauma continues to shape the lives of Indigenous women and families today.

We also examine how colonization disrupted Indigenous governance, criminalized culture, and replaced community-based healing with punishment, and how that trauma intersects with poverty and lack of access to resources — often turning survival behaviors into pathways to incarceration.

Kristina draws our attention to Montana’s women’s prison, where Indigenous women face limited access to culturally grounded healing, trauma-informed care, and meaningful rehabilitation. Kristina highlights the ripple effects incarceration has on children, families, and communities, and why healing during incarceration is essential for both individual well-being and long-term public safety when people return home.

This high-level conversation begins to break down complex issues that Unpacking Injustice will continue to explore as the Montana Innocence Project implements its new strategic plan, with a specific focus on addressing the unjust incarceration of women and survivors.This episode lays the groundwork for continued dialogue, understanding, and action toward justice.