Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, White Supremacy, and an Abolitionist Future

Emile Suotonye DeWeaver, an Oakland activist, journalist and author of "Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine," whose 67-years-to-life sentence was commuted after 21 years, was introduced by Rebecca Ginsburg, director of the Education Justice Project. He recounted teaching himself to write in prison by hand-copying books, developing what he calls the "imagination problem" and "radical orientation," and winning commutation. Audience Q&A covered white supremacy in prisons, collectivity, and why movements lack a center. Fall 2025 Friday Forum x Conversation Cafe series, co-hosted by Diversity & Social Justice Education and the University YMCA.