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StudioTulsa

A conversation about failure-to-protect laws with journalist Samantha Michaels

Published April 6, 2023 at 12:28 PM CDT

Aired on Thursday, April 6th.

As our guest notes in an award-winning article that she wrote for Mother Jones Magazine: "Failure-to-protect laws are incarcerating women all over the country -- for other people's violence."

On this edition of ST, we speak with Samantha Michaels, a senior reporter at Mother Jones. A feature story that she published in that magazine last summer -- titled "Failure to Protect: She Never Hurt Her Kids. So Why Is a Mother Serving More Time Than the Man Who Abused Her Daughter?" -- won a National Magazine Award back in February. (Her article won the prize for its powerful video component, which was produced by Mark Helenowski.) The story profiles a woman named Kerry King, who in 2015 -- right here in Tulsa -- was arrested after she failed to stop her abusive boyfriend from beating herself and her young children. King is now serving a 30-year prison sentence -- 12 years longer than the sentence that was given her abuser.

Tags

StudioTulsa Incarceration Issues Child Abuse Domestic Violence Investigative Journalism Journalism Mother Jones Magazine Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform Criminal Justice Criminal Justice Reform Motherhood Family Life Drug Abuse Women's and Gender Studies Women's Rights Women's Issues

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