…two inspiring guests from Partners for Justice

In this episode, Hunter is joined by two inspiring guests from Partners for Justice, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support services to people facing criminal charges while helping public defenders protect people from incarceration and other criminal penalties.

Emily Galvin Almanza is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of Partners for Justice, as well as an advocate in the Harris County Public Defender Office. Starting this organization, which is the only one of its kind in existence, she brings insights into its mission and goals. She’ll share how holistic representation affects recidivism rates and why it is so effective.

Then, you’ll hear from Client Advocate Danielle Hopkins about how she supports her clients by telling their stories and putting the narrative back into their hands. By forcing judges and prosecutors to see her clients as whole people, carceral outcomes have declined.

Finally, you’ll learn about cash bail in Harris County and why it is so problematic. In fact, it’s causing some innocent people to sit in prison for over a year!

Emily and Danielle dream of a world where people in the indigent system always have top-notch representation. Overall, their work helps people become unstuck from the legal system, turning lives around and saving valuable resources.

[Editoral Note: At the end of the episode, Danielle mentioned SB 26. She was actually refering to SB 8. Furterhmore, the amount of time people spend in Pre-Trial is now commonly ranging from 160-250 days]