In her role as White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett has had the ear of the president for the past eight years. Thanks to that connection, the discussions she’s had with everyday Americans have had a profound influence on the president’s approach to policy, particularly when it comes to criminal justice reform. Stories from current and former prisoners have informed decisions around helping prisoners get an education behind bars and leading them toward work when they’re released. So when Jarrett sat down for a conversation with author and prison reform advocate Piper Kerman, the conversation flowed with ease.
Kerman, who is best known as the author of the memoir, Orange is the New Black, which inspired the hit Netflix show of the same name, is no stranger to the power of storytelling. She teaches a nonfiction writing course in Ohio state prisons, encouraging incarcerated men and women to discover the power of their own experiences. Their lives are incredibly important, incredibly fascinating, and their stories reveal so much about the places they grew up and the families that they come from and the problems that they faced, sometimes from a very very young age, Kerman says.
Both recognize there is more work to be done to reduce the prison population and help those impacted by the criminal justice system seek the resources that could lead them down a different path. Yet both agree that if we all did a little more listening, perhaps we could make some change. The best way to get I think everyone to wake up is to tell the story in a way that not just triggers their intellectual curiosity, but that their hearts follow too, says Jarrett. That the human toll becomes as important as anything else.