I reported and produced this episode in 2019 as part of the 70 Million podcast’s Peabody Award-nominated second season. It built on years of reporting I did while covering the aftermath of the uprising in Ferguson as a staffer at St. Louis Public Radio.

This episode won the Third Coast International Audio Festival Director’s Choice Award in 2020.

Five years after Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer galvanized criminal justice reform activists in St. Louis, they’re gaining serious momentum to shut down the city’s notorious Workhouse jail.

This award-winning and Peabody-nominated podcast documents how locals are addressing the role of jails in their backyards. Reporters travel around the country and hear from people directly impacted by their encounter with jails and to chronicle the progress ground-up efforts have made in diversion, bail reform, recidivism, adoption of technology and other crucial aspects of the move toward decarceration at local levels.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Radio Public. Annotated transcript available here.

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With little oversight, a private company collects fees from people awaiting trial in St. Louis