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A record that’s expunged is supposed to be gone, so why can it still cost someone their job years later? In this episode, Amber and Jason chat with Brook Davis, a Memphis educator, veteran, and mom whose life changed in an instant after a years of domestic abuse and an acute crisis led to a conviction. Brook speaks with rare clarity about what it feels like when the system tells your story for you, especially when law enforcement power and public narratives are stacked on one side.

We also dig into veterans court and diversion programs, including what they demand and what they can make possible. Brook completed an intense 18-month path that ended in expungement, then translated her experience into teaching incarcerated youth inside a juvenile detention center. For more than a decade, she served as the kind of credible messenger young people in the justice system need, proving that rehabilitation and reentry can be real.

Then a change in facility ownership triggered a new background check, and Brook was suddenly told her background was “unfavorable” without any details, transparency, or clear appeal. We talk about expungement loopholes, “matters of fact” hiring decisions, clean slate laws, and why second-chance policy fails when agencies can access hidden data and keep it secret.

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A single accusation can redraw your entire life, especially when the system is under pressure to “clear the books.” In this conversation, Amber and Jason are joined by Ryan from Connecticut, who walks us through a path that starts with a New Haven childhood filled with sports, community programs, and a deep love of reading, then collides with policing tactics, media narratives, and courtroom dynamics that can make innocence feel irrelevant.

Ryan shares what it’s like to be treated as a prime suspect without understanding you’re even being watched, to be arrested publicly at gunpoint, and to see your name and face broadcast before trial. From there, we dig into the machinery behind wrongful conviction stories: a case built on the testimony of a single informant, the way jury selection can tilt outcomes across racial and economic divides, and how “felony murder” charges can multiply exposure even when the facts do not add up.

We also put real numbers on the trial penalty. Ryan explains why he refused an 18-year plea deal, then received a 100-year sentence after trial, later won an appeal, and still faced the brutal reality that an overturned conviction does not automatically mean freedom. Finally, we talk reentry and healing: halfway house support, rebuilding work skills, and the lasting psychological impact of incarceration, from fear around law enforcement to learning how to trust again.

Want to support Ryan's efforts to push back on the system? Visit: https://www.givesendgo.com/help-fund-ryans-fight-for-accountability

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The first time Shauna Jones shares her story publicly, she starts in a place most people never imagine: being born into custody and growing up inside a life shaped by state systems. We talk about Arizona’s history, what power looks like behind prison walls, and how public narratives can erase consent and blame survivors when harm happens in custody. This conversation stays grounded in lived experience while asking bigger questions about the criminal legal system, institutional violence, and what society calls “justice.”

We follow Shauna through childhood instability, intergenerational incarceration, and the grief that comes from losing the few stable anchors a kid can cling to. She describes building a family of her own, surviving a near-death assault, and the unraveling that led to her 2014 arrest. From there, we get an unfiltered look at jail and prison: classification-based segregation, denied programming, retaliation for advocating, and the exhausting choices families make just to stay connected through visits, calls, and paid messaging.

After release in 2023, Shauna explains why reentry is not a finish line. We dig into the containment model, probation and surveillance, mandated treatment, polygraphs, and the sex offense registry, including the hidden punishment that lands on children and loved ones through stigma, digital exposure, and loss of privacy. Shauna also shares the work she’s doing now through the Collaborative Justice Institute to translate lived experience into policy language, and she draws a direct line between mass incarceration, foster care, and adoption timelines that can separate families through policy as much as force.

If this conversation expands how you think about incarceration, reentry, and reform, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review so more people can find these voices. What part of Shauna’s story stayed with you most?

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