Announcing the 2021 Media for a Just Society Award Finalists
September 8, 2021 | by Evident Change

Evident Change is proud to announce the finalists for the 2021 Media for a Just Society Awards. Each year, we recognize media from across the United States that further public understanding of Evident Change’s focus areas, including child welfare, juvenile 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 should care about. The media we recognize look deeper, consider trends, and offer insight. The Media for a Just Society Awards are given in the categories of book, film, media by a person who is incarcerated, print/online journalism, radio, television/video, and youth media.
BOOK
The Shadow System: Mass Incarceration and the American Family
Sylvia A. Harvey
Bold Type Books
Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court
Matthew Clair
Stanford University
FILM
Growing Up Milwaukee
Tyshun Wardlaw
HBO/Wardlaw Productions
The Prison Within
Katherin Hervey
Gravitas Ventures/Raw Love Productions
Since I Been Down
Gilda Sheppard
JOURNALISM
“Only a Mile and a Big World Separated Us”
D. Watkins
Huffington Post
“When Innocent Until Proven Guilty Costs $400 a Month—and Your Freedom”
Aaron Cantu and Steenz
Vice
“Will the Coronavirus Make Us Rethink Mass Incarceration?”
Sarah Stillman
The New Yorker
MEDIA BY A PERSON WHO IS INCARCERATED
“Here’s What Happens When You Grow up in Prison”
Dusstin Longtin
Prison Writers
“Minding the Gap”
Elizabeth Hawes
Pen America
“Little Gardens”
Nick Browning
Pen America
RADIO/PODCASTS
“Escaping the Odds Podcast (Episodes 5 and 6)”
Aaron Smith
Escaping the Odds
“Kids Imprisoned (Episodes 1 and 2)”
Anthony J. Wallace, Katherine Sypher, Patrick Linehan
Carnegie-Knight News21
“Reform and Its Discontents”
Matt Watkins
Center for Court Innovation
TV/VIDEO
The Innocence Files
Roger Ross Williams, Liz Garbus, Alex Gibney
Netflix
No Way Out: COVID-19 Behind Bars
Keri Blakinger and Tanya Eiserer
The Marshall Project
The Zo
Michael K. Williams and Molly Crabapple
The Marshall Project
YOUTH MEDIA
“Interventions Helpful and Not”
K.G.
Youth Communication
“Unadopted”
Noel Anaya
YR Media
“How a Few Words From My Attorney Made a Difference”
Cristal Ramirez
National Association of Counsel for Children