Radicals & Revolutionaries Lab

This week’s revolutionary is Jen Peirce, a Ph.D. candidate, and criminal justice reform activist. Having grown up in conservative Calgary, just where the prairies turn into the mountains, Jen grew up going to marches and protests, was raised around feminists, and watched her mom work within various social justice groups. Now, as a Ph.D. candidate, her research focuses on criminal justice issues, human rights issues, and prison reform throughout Latin America. Throughout our conversation, Jen and I discuss various aspects of the criminal justice system, what parts need to be reformed, and how to get there. She points to other nations’ criminal justice systems designed as rehabilitation-oriented institutional reform processes, and how those systems seek to have its prisons comply with international human rights standards. Some Questions I Ask: Tell me about your work in the Dominican Republic? (1:04)Tell me how your life started. (8:15)Do you view your work as a calling? (40:16)What do you want t