Investigative podcast that examines how we can end death in custody.

Available Now

Created by:

Episodes

Mutulu Olugbala joins Official Ignorance

Bonus: Mutulu Olugbala Fighting for Freedom and Social Justice in Cannabis Reform

Official Ignorance is a captivating podcast hosted by Dr. Roger Mitchell, Jr. and Professor Jay Aronson. In this episode, they are joined by the legendary Mutulu Olugbala, also known as M1 of the renowned hip-hop group dead prez, who is now a board member of The Last Prisoner project, focusing on justice for incarcerated cannabis offenders. The trio engages in thought-provoking discussions about various topics, including the impact of hip-hop on political activism, the importance of reimagining the school system and the criminal justice systems, and the fight for justice and liberation. With their fearless perspectives and genuine passion for creating change, this episode offers valuable insights and sparks critical conversations.

Listen Now
Official Ignorance podcast cover

Back to the Beginning: Talking Advocacy and Accountability with Activist Larry Hamm

In the final episode of Season 1, Roger and Jay talk to Larry Hamm, founder of the Newark, NJ-based Peoples’ Organization for Progress, longtime activist, and one of Roger’s earliest mentors. We discuss Larry’s early years as a Black student at Princeton University, his efforts to organize protests in Orange, NJ in the wake of Earl Faison’s 1999 death at the hands of police, and reflect why we should remain hopeful that we can reduce the number of people who die in custody each year in the United States.

Listen Now
Official Ignorance podcast cover

Sandra’s Story – The Truth about the American Criminal Legal System

There are no protections in the criminal justice system, especially for Black people. In the case of Sandra Bland, we were reminded that they definitely do not care if you are wealthy, poor, female, queer, or disabled – in addition to your blackness. Mitchell and Aronson dive into why dismantling and reimagining our law enforcement will lead to a fairer justice system.

Listen Now
Official Ignorance podcast cover

Dr. Joye Carter: The Nation’s First Black Chief Medical Examiner takes on Death in Custody

On today’s episode we have a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Joye Carter, the nation’s first Black board-certified chief medical examiner, about her long career as a forensic pathologist. We ask her about her efforts to expose deaths in custody that would otherwise have been covered up. We discuss the importance of mentorship, diversity in death investigations, and eliminating racism from the medical field.

Listen Now
Official Ignorance podcast cover

We Count What We Care About: Uncovering Hidden Deaths in Our Nation’s Prisons and Jails

On today’s episode, we talk to Josh Vaughn and Brittany Hailer, journalists working to expose the deadly toll of Pennsylvania’s jails. Josh tells us about his efforts to track disparities in the deaths that jails in the state report and the number that actually occur. Brittany tells us how she has shown that the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh has one of the highest known death rates in the country. They also talk about their recent grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting to build a database of jail deaths in the state in the face of official ignorance from government at all levels.

Listen Now
Official Ignorance podcast cover

The Miseducation of Capitol Hill: The Death in Custody Reporting Act

In today’s episode, we discuss a recent Senate hearing led by Sen. Jon Ossoff from Georgia that investigates the abject failure of the federal government to do what the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 requires it to do—determine how many people are dying in prisons and jails each year, record where they are dying, and explain why they are dying. The Senate investigation found that the Department of Justice missed at least 990 deaths, and most likely many more, in 2021. Ossoff calls the needless deaths we describe in our book and in this podcast, and the failure to account for them, a constitutional and humanitarian crisis. We conclude by offering concrete solutions to the unconscionable lack of data on deaths in custody currently available in the United States.

Listen Now

Meet the Hosts

Roger A. Mitchell, Jr., MD

Roger A. Mitchell Jr., MD, is a professor and chair of pathology at the Howard University College of Medicine. He is a forensic pathologist who previously served as the Chief Medical Examiner and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice of Washington, DC. He is the author of The Price of Freedom: A Son’s Journey.

Jay D. Aronson, PhD

Jay D. Aronson, PhD, is the founder and director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is a professor of science, technology, and society in the Department of History. He is the author of Who Owns the Dead? The Science and Politics of Death at Ground Zero and Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Making of DNA Profiling.

The Why

For decades, we’ve known that our criminal justice system hasn’t been fair or just for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. On top of interactions with law enforcement never having been in our favor, the U.S. Government has significantly undercounted the number of people who die in law enforcement custody each year. Deaths resulting from interactions with the U.S. criminal legal system are a public health emergency, but the scope of this issue is intentionally ignored by the very systems that are supposed to be tracking these fatalities.

“Official Ignorance: The Death in Custody Podcast” – hosted by Dr. Roger Mitchell and Prof. Jay Aronson – shares the stories of individuals who died in custody and chronicles the efforts of activists and journalists to uncover the true scope of deaths in custody. Through their accounts and interactions with special guests, Mitchell and Aronson outline a practical, achievable system for accurately recording and investigating these deaths.

“Official Ignorance” is a project of the Hip Hop Caucus. Learn more about Hip Hop Caucus and its Good Trouble Dept. campaign work at HipHopCaucus.org.

This is a matter of life and death.

Find us on

Instagram Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Episodes

About the Podcast

Purchase the Book

Hip Hop Caucus

evidence in your inbox

Be among the first to receive the latest episodes, event invitations, and special announcements about Hip Hop Caucus’s work on death in custody and Dr. Mitchell and Prof. Aronson’s work on the issue.