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Becoming sustainably human at work isn't a small undertaking. It often means letting go of systems and behaviors that don't serve us individually or collectively.
So what do we do? As individuals, as groups of folks, as leaders? How do we carve out space for our humanity while making sure we're not the only ones? How do we thrive in the workplace while not imagining we must be superhuman? How do we cultivate spaces that are generative and healing, creative and extraordinary?
I don't have the answers to those questions. And, to be fair, I don't believe one human can EVER have all the answers to those questions. I'm working through those questions every day.
This podcast curates for you a set of folks with an opinion worth listening to and sharing. So join me as I ask people I admire to share their wisdom with you in accessible doses.
Join me on my quest to become sustainably human at work.
Welcome to What's Leadership?
I'm Liz Wiltsie.
The more I learn about leadership,
the more I'm convinced there's
not a one size fits all solution.
So I am on my own learning journey
and I invite you to join me.
EbonyJanice reminds me that being
open about my journey is important.
Each episode features someone I admire
with actionable insight to share.
So please join me as I
ask what's leadership?
All right.
I want to welcome Taina Vargas-Edmond
she founded Initiate Justice with
the intention of activating the
political power of people directly
impacted by mass incarceration.
She serves as executive director of
Initiate Justice with a staff of seven,
50 or more regular volunteers, and
then 135 inside organizers working
within California state prisons.
And that whole crew has been responsible
for five pieces of legislation
getting passed in California.
And is now working on the
important ballot measure, Prop 17.
So Tiana, thank you so
much for being with me.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for having me Liz.
So let's talk about Prop
17 and Initiate Justice.
What is it?
Why should people care?
Yeah, absolutely.
So, as you mentioned in your intro of what
we do at Initiate Justice is we're trying
to bring people home from prison and make
our community safer by activating the
political power of currently incarcerated
people, formerly incarcerated people
and people with incarcerated loved ones.
So, you know, we do that in
various ways, mostly through our
inside/outside organizing strategy.
Where we engage people who are inside
and their loved ones on the outside to
help us push forward this legislation.
And when we first started one of our
original inside organizers, who's
named Rahsaan Thomas, had called me
one day and said, you know, if Initiate
Justice is really passionate about
impacted people having a political
voice, the first thing that we need is
to be able to have our right to vote.
So back in 2017, we had tried to collect
signatures to qualify a measure for
the ballot that would have restored
voting rights for people in prison
and, who are formerly incarcerated,
who have completed their prison term.
But we weren't successful
getting the signatures.
Like we were brand new.
For anyone who has done this, they
know that it's very expensive.
But the following year we were contacted
by assembly member Kevin McCarty.
He represents the Sacramento area and he
had said, look, let's try and qualify this
for the ballot through the legislature.
It'll require a constitutional
amendment and therefore will
require a two thirds vote.
It's gonna be a heavy lift.
So let's limit it to the folks who
have completed their prison term.
Let's try and get this
on the ballot of 2020.
So Initiate Justice, and other members
of the Free The Vote Coalition, which
include like the Anti-Recidivism
Coalition, ACLU, League of Women Voters,
Californians United for a Responsible
Budget, among others, worked for the
better part of two years to get those
two thirds votes that we needed.
And effective June 24th of this
year, we qualified for the ballot.
We made it out of the legislature.
So that is now Prop 17, which will
be on the ballot on November 3rd.
And if passed, Prop 17 will restore
voting rights to all Californians who
have completed their prison term, which
is over 50,000 people in the state.
And so everyone in
California can vote on it.
Right.
Everyone should be looking
for it on their ballot.
Yeah.
It will be on the
California statewide ballot.
So please vote.
Yes.
On Prop 17.
So what have you learned over the
last two years working on this, that
you think people should know about.
I feel like I've learned many things,
especially, you know, being in a new ED.
You know, being a woman leader,
being a woman of color, there's a
lot of like hard lessons that you
end up with learning in this world.
But I think, you know, one of the
primary things that I have taken away
is like the importance of building
power and investing in leadership.
So it's been critical to Initiate
justice's success and the success of
all of our legislation that we are
training up directly impacted people
to be advocates, to be policy experts.
I don't want it to just be me or
our staff who is, at the top and
leading and directing the strategy.
We tap in with our almost 30,000
members who are currently incarcerated.
We tap in with our organizers
and volunteers on the outside.
And we've created a program called the
Institute of Impacted Leaders, which is a
12-week organizing and advocacy training
program for formerly incarcerated people
and people with incarcerated loved ones.
And have graduated
about 70 people to date.
And currently are about to
graduate about 40 more people.
We're doing two cohorts right now.
And that has like really been
critical is to invest in the
skills, invest in the leadership.
Because impacted people, like
we're already the experts
of our own experiences.
So that's not what we need to be taught.
But what we need really is just
access and to develop the expertise
for what it means to like really
be influential in the policy world.
So you talk about your 30,000
members that are incarcerated.
What does it look like to be
an IJ member on the inside?
Yeah.
So members on the inside receive
our quarterly newsletter that have
policy updates and have action items
that they can take so that they can
influence legislation from the inside.
So every newsletter has updates on the
different bills that we're working on,
that we're co-sponsoring, other bills that
were supporting that might impact people
inside, whether or not we're a co-sponsor.
We give them updates on legal cases
that could potentially impact their
lives and also just update them on the
work that IJ is doing on the outside.
And then every newsletter
also has an action item.
So that might look like writing
a letter of support for a bill.
And to date we've collected about
8,000 or 9,000 legislative letters
of support from inside prisons,
to help us pass our various bills.
We might also ask people to recruit
new folks or, you know, to hold
trainings in their buildings, but
essentially to just continue to
build power from the inside out.
So as people listening to this who
are in California, or even outside of
California, what are some of the most
helpful things folks can do in terms
of passing Prop 17, this November?
Yeah, so definitely visit
the Yes on 17 website.
So that's yeson17.vote . And you can
donate to our campaign, you can sign
up to become a volunteer, you can also
sign up to be a campaign ambassador.
Which means that you will help us move the
campaign forward in a volunteer capacity.
We're all like adapting and learning,
how to run a political campaign
in the midst of a global pandemic.
So, you know, we definitely need as many
supporters, as volunteers and donors
as possible to help us be successful.
So, yeah.
Please visit, yeson17.vote.
And as you said, you know, the game
changes a little bit in the pandemic.
So I know there's a lot of people, at
least in my world who don't live in LA,
who don't live in California even, but
are like, Hey, I'm here to support this...
Right.
Money spends from outside
of California also, right?
Exactly.
Anybody can donate.
Anybody can donate.
Yeah.
So the question I ask everyone
is what are you grappling with
just as a leader in your life?
Yeah.
I mean, there's a lot of things
that I'm grappling with, but I
think I'll keep it, specific to what
I'm grappling with with Prop 17.
So, you know, as I had mentioned, we
initially wanted to pass a ballot measure
that would have restored voting rights
to everybody impacted by incarceration.
So in California, right now, the law
is, you can't vote if you're in state
prison, you can't vote if you're in
federal prison, and you can't vote
while you're on state parole, like
after you've completed your prison term.
But you can vote if you're in County jail.
You can vote if you're
on County probation.
You can vote even if you're
on federal probation.
So it's just confusing.
And ultimately I believe in a
democracy that no one should have
their right to vote taken away.
So it's what we initially wanted to do,
but given like the political climate
that we're in, it was hard to just
accept that we probably wouldn't be
able to move that forward at this time.
So what I'm grappling with is how
do we move forward, restoring voting
rights for people who've completed
their prison term, while at the same
time, not limiting opportunities for
people who are still incarcerated.
So, you know, how do we talk about
Prop 17 in ways where we're clear?
Like, okay, this initiative
would just impact people who
are released from prison.
But at the same time, we still
believe that people in prison
should have the right to vote.
So that's something that has
been, you know, kind of like a
challenging fence to straddle.
And I think, you know,
we often do this a lot.
We saw it happen with
Amendment Four in Florida.
For folks who are not familiar, restorated
voting rights for about a million and a
half formerly incarcerated Floridians,
but excluded people who had served time
for murder or certain sex offenses.
So, you know, how do we, take these steps
forward, that are ultimately moving us
towards progress, that are ultimately
moving us towards abolition, and still
like holding the complexity of the
people who are left behind, for now.
And then what are we doing to
make sure that we're, you know,
coming back and welcoming them
into the progress in the future?
Yeah, I'm really glad you touched on that
cause I know your campaign with Initiate
Justice is Democracy Needs Everybody.
Right?
And if you go to tell you knows
Instagram, you can see her in a beautiful
Democracy Needs Everybody t-shirt.
But, one of the things that I see
you say a lot and see IJ say a lot
is we can't be picking and choosing
between who's worthy and who's not.
Right.
And that position is not in the
like mainstream of restoring rights.
Can you talk a little bit about what
that means when you say like actually
yeah, we need everybody for real?
Yeah.
So I'll back up a little bit and talk
about, you know, where we got that
phrase, Democracy Needs Everyone.
When we put together our report last year,
we surveyed over a thousand people in
prison and on parole and asked them, you
know, like if you could vote, would you?
What would you vote for?
There are a lot of myths about
people impacted by incarceration.
You know, a lot of incorrect
beliefs that they don't care
about the political process.
So we conducted the survey and wrote this
report to amplify the truth, which is that
impacted people care, not only just as
much, but actually more than the average
person, about having a political voice.
So in one of our survey responses, we
heard from a man named Juan Haines.
Who's currently incarcerated
at San Quentin State Prison.
And when I asked him, you know, why he
wanted his voting rights restored, he
said, because democracy needs everyone.
So that became the title of our report.
He wrote the intro for the
report.I t's become our slogan.
We've made tee shirts with it.
Because fundamentally like
that is what we believe.
And I think, especially if we're
talking about public safety, right?
Who better to ask for the solution
for public safety than people who
the public safety system has failed.
We also asked in that survey, like, look,
what, social services did you need in
place to avoid you doing what you did?
To end up in prison, you know,
what community support do you need?
What is it that's missing?
What is it that, you know,
your family and community would
require to, you know, to be safe?
Because I think that we forget people
in prison, and formerly incarcerated
people are also members of the community.
So yeah, when we say democracy needs
everyone, we mean people who have
made mistakes, people who are victims
of a racist capitalist system.
And it literally means everyone.
Yes.
Yeah, I really appreciate you bringing
that in to say also, I remember when you
launched that report and the fact that
you went to gather the data that you were
like, let's not guess what people think.
And I think that's maybe, one of the
lessons that I try to take from, from
IJ is to say, ask the people what they
want and listen to them when they tell
you, rather than trying to guess, right.
Right.
And even more, you know, like, so,
you know, I'm impacted my loved
one was in prison for seven years.
So this, you know, has very much
like become a part of my life.
Literally everybody in my immediate
family has been incarcerated at some
point over the course of my life.
But even like you know, my
experience or my family's experience
is not everybody's experience.
So it's always been really important to
us to reach out to as many impacted people
as possible to collect a diversity and
like a wealth of stories and experiences
so that we can, you know, create the
most effective proposals moving forward.
Taina thank you so much for
giving me your time today.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Liz.
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