With(in)

23: Through the Fire - A Parting Conversation with Dean Williams

Our visionary leader Mr. Dean Williams announced his departure from Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections on November 9, 2022, after four years of impassioned service to thousands of incarcerated people, CDOC staff and our larger Colorado community. The following day, after his announcement, he joined the With(in) team in-person, and virtually, at the new Beacon at Skyline: A Correctional Community for a final, closing interview with our team. In Episode 23 of WIth(in), "Through the Fire", we reflect with Mr. Williams on his four years of leadership and service to CDOC, and on his profound impact on us, and on so many others. Mr. Williams, "thank you" will never do it justice. Your commitment to the good, hard work over the past four years, and the years before that that led you to us, has opened new realities and altered so many lives for the better -- all because you answered your calling. From our very first episode of With(in) -- "The Shift" in Summer 2019 -- to this episode -- "Through the Fire" in Winter 2022 (3 1/2 years later) -- know that you have shifted the ground. You have shifted lives. You have shifted the paradigm. You have shifted what is possible. We are forever grateful and forever honored to have served with you, and to continue our work onward. You can find Episode 23 of With(in) "Through the Fire - A Parting Conversation with Dean Williams" on thisiswithin.com, Apple podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud.

22: The Broken Gavel

In Eps 22 of With(in), Co-hosts Denise Presson and Andrew Draper ponder the question of sentencing laws, how do we give justice to the victims and also hold space for the humanity of the perpetrators of those crimes with the same hands? Their discussion lands on the fact that cookie-cutter laws only take into account the crime, and not the reason behind the crime, or even the will of those who have been harmed. With(in) Producer Terry W. Mosley Jr. gets to spend some time with John Sherman, a formerly incarcerated man who spent 34 years in prison for murder, and who tells us that he will spend the rest of his life building a legacy for the man who lost his life at his hands. Finally, Dr. Ashley Hamilton, Executive Producer for With(in) and Executive Director of the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative speaks with Kristin Nelson, Director of The Powell project, and a Harvard Law School graduate. Kristin speaks with conviction about current sentencing laws, some of the history of sentencing laws in our country and specifically about life without parole.