Meet the 2023 Media for a Just Society Awards Finalists

July 7, 2023 | Evident Change

The 2021 Media for a Just Society Awards plaques

Each year, we recognize media from across the United States that further public understanding of Evident Change’s focus areas, including child welfare, youth justice, adult justice, and adult protection. Many of these topics are covered regularly by the media, yet their treatment is often sensationalized and not representative of system issues the public needs to understand. The media we recognize look deeper, analyze trends, and offer insight. Media for a Just Society Awards are given in the categories of book, film, journalism, media by a person who is incarcerated, podcast/radio, television/video, and youth media.

Evident Change is proud to announce the finalists for this year’s Media for a Just Society Awards. These writers, journalists, podcasters, filmmakers, and creators are raising awareness of the issues in our social systems so that the general public can join us in working for reform. We congratulate these creators and invite you to come back in September to learn this year’s winners!

The 2023 finalists are:

BOOK

Invisible Mothers
Dr. Janet Garcia-Hallett
University of California Press

A Place Called Home: A Memoir
David Ambroz
Legacy Lit

Corrections in Ink
Keri Blakinger
St. Martin’s Press

FILM

Juvenile
Joann Selvidge and Sarah Fleming
True Story Pictures

The Road Home
Devin Fei-Fan Tau
National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice

Possible Selves
Shaun Kadlec
Utah Film Center

MEDIA BY A PERSON WHO IS INCARCERATED

Man Down: COVID Strikes at San Quentin
Edmond Richardson, Uncuffed, Thanh Tran, Greg Eskridge, and Tommy “Shakur” Ross
KALW Public Media

Humor As Medicine: Aging and Compassion in Prison
Thanh Tran, Greg Eskridge, Tommy “Shakur” Ross, Edmond Richardson, and Uncuffed
KALW Public Media

San Quentin Is Still Punishing People for Being Sick
Katie Rose Quandt and Juan Moreno Haines
Type Investigations

JOURNALISM

The Worst Abuser You Could Ever Have
Victoria Law
The Nation

Overpolicing Parents (Series)
Eli Hager
ProPublica

Life Correction: The Marlin Dixon Story (Series)
James E. Causey and Angela Peterson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

PODCAST/RADIO

After Life
Julie Reynolds Martínez, Gilbert Bao, and Mara Reynolds
Voices of Monterey Bay

Diaries of a Black Girl in Foster Care
Tashia Roberson-Wing

Open and Shut
Phoebe Petrovic, Dee Hall, and Nina Earnest
Wisconsin Watch and Wisconsin Public Radio

TV/VIDEO

La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered
Ellie Walton and Cindy Centeno
America ReFramed, American Documentary Inc.

American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton
Andrew Abrahams and Herb Ferrette
Open Eye Pictures

Behind These Walls
Allison Chernow and Karin Young Shiel
Rehabilitation Through the Arts

YOUTH MEDIA

Adjusting to My Adoptive Family
George Romero
Youth Communication NYC

Half of My Parents, All of Me
Folashade Olatunde
Notes from America With Kai Wright, WNYC

How a Secretive Police Database Affects Young Black and Brown Men
Rainier Harris
Radio Rookies, WNYC