Hey guys, welcome to our podcast. Our guest today is Nicole D. Porter, who manages The Sentencing Project’s state and local advocacy efforts on sentencing reform, voting rights, and confronting racial disparities in the criminal legal system.
Named a “New Civil Rights Leader” by Essence Magazine for her work challenging mass incarceration, Porter joined the Sentencing Project in 2009 and her advocacy and findings have supported criminal legal reforms in such states as Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, California, Texas, and the District of Columbia.
Porter’s areas of expertise include research and grassroots support around challenging racial disparities, felony disenfranchisement, in addition to prison closures and prison reuse. She’s authored articles on the collateral impacts of justice involvement on communities of color and how current social movements are challenging mass incarceration.
The former director of the Texas ACLU’s Prison & Jail Accountability Project, Porter graduated from Johns Hopkins University and holds a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She also studied African politics at the University of Ghana, West Africa.