Join us on Friday, January 15th at 9 am EST, Scot X. Esdaile, President, Connecticut State Conference of NAACP Branches, NAACP National Board Member Chairman, State of Connecticut Boxing Commission, will be our guest on the Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant – Live on WNHH 103.5 FM New Haven, rebroadcast at 5 pm. Live-streamed on Facebook Live. On podcast platforms 24/7 everywhere. The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast is sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.
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Scot X. Esdaile
Scot X. Esdaile was born and raised in New Haven, CT. At an early age he developed a passion for public affairs and politics. He worked on several national campaigns as a young activist for prominent change agents such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Doug Wilder, former Governor of Virginia, and former Mayor John Daniels. In 1992, Mr. Esdaile founded Elm City Nation, an at-risk youth organization geared towards community development and the goal of eradicating gang violence. The organization grew to exceed 1000 youth members and was recognized nationally and featured on MTV, Montel Williams, BET, and the Sally Jesse Raphael Show.
Mr. Esdaile has proudly served as Commissioner of the New Haven Coliseum, President of the Freddy Fixer Parade, and the Chairman of the Black Expo. Currently serving as the President of the CT State Conference of NAACP Branches and National Board member of the NAACP, he chairs the National Criminal Justice Committee. In August of 2016 Mr. Esdaile was appointed the 1st African American Chairman of the Connecticut Boxing Commission. He is committed to empowering youth to become future leaders and believes that early intervention and prevention programs are the key to stabilizing our younger generations to come.
Mr. Esdaile has demonstrated unwavering commitment to social justice through his work with the NAACP. He served as the President of the Greater New Haven NAACP Branch for 7 years, and in 2004, was elected President of the Connecticut State Conference of NAACP Branches; at that time he was the youngest State President in the country. He has expanded its programming on a statewide and regional level that brings merit to the objectives of the organization. Some noted recent accomplishments include the “Great Debate”, an event exceeding 8,000 students in attendance from the tri-state area, and a national tour highlighting the art of debate on relevant social issues between an HBCU and an Ivy League Debate Team to middle and high school students; implementing the 100 Most Influential Blacks in Connecticut Reception paying tribute to contributions of African Americans in statewide leadership positions; and the CT NAACP Harmony Classic football game featuring a local College or University and an HBCU featuring the HBCU Marching Band. In 2017 with community partners and statewide residents he launched the “Nothing About Us Without Us “ Campaign supporting criminal justice reform and has hosted statewide events, a policy reform summit and a March in Hartford CT in June of 2017. He very recently has begun to work with large corporations and small businesses in the National NAACP Initiative, ONE MILLION Jobs campaign, an initiative geared toward removing the barriers to employment. CT is taking the lead in this pilot program under his leadership.
Mr. Esdaile has also been an integral lightening rod for legislation in the areas of health care, criminal justice and political action. He very recently filed suit against the State of CT for prison gerrymandering, noted as the first statewide challenge of this system in the Nation, a system that counts disenfranchised prisoners where they are confined instead of at their home address thereby inflating the voices of rural, white residents and diluting votes in Communities of Color. In 2015 he fought alongside the ACLU and others supporting two criminal justice laws that passed including the Taser law. He was instrumental in getting a bill passed in 2008, to establish a 29 member Minority Health Advisory Council to eliminate disparities in health status among the state’s multicultural, multilingual and multiethnic communities, abolishing the Death Penalty and Education Reform. In addition, he has championed against racial bias in state government, the inadequate funding of education in urban areas, the appointment of people of color and women to State & Federal Judgeships and racial reform in the criminal justice system. He is the Host of a radio talk show on HOT 93.7 “Time 4 Some Action” Sunday mornings at 6:30am.
He is a graduate of Hamden High School. He attended Virginia State University from 1983-1987, Public Administration. Mr. Esdaile resides in Hamden, Connecticut with his wife Adrien, and three children. He has received numerous awards and tributes for his many years of public, community, and civil rights service and is the recipient of the Kelly Miller Alexander, Sr. “the National State Conference President of the Year Award”.
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Please tell your friends, colleagues and clients:
The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy and Jeff Grant is broadcast live at 9 am ET on the first and third Friday of each month from the WNHH 103.5 FM studios in New Haven. It is rebroadcast on WNHH at 5 pm ET the same day.
It’s the Isolation that Destroys Us. The Solution is in Community.
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Podcast Ep. 14: Recovery & Neighborhood with Tom Scott
Today on the podcast, we have one of my closest friends, Tom Scott. You might know Tom as one of the “two Toms” who co-founded Nantucket Nectars. Or as the co-founder and chairman of The Nantucket Project, a thought and ideas festival each fall on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Or as chairman at The Neighborhood Project that brings films about what matters most to discussion groups in people’s homes all over the country and the world.
But I know Tom differently, as my close confidant in drug and alcohol recovery in our home group in Greenwich, Connecticut. Tom and I both credit recovery with saving our lives, and with being the inspiration for Tom’s project about the power of neighborhood and my project bringing justice-impacted people out of isolation and into community. This episode explores this, and the depth of our relationship Tom and I forged to find the light from the darkest times of our lives.
So coming up, Recovery & Neighborhood with Tom Scott, on White Collar Week. I hope you will join us. – Jeff
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If you have a friend, family member, colleague or client with a white collar justice issue, please forward this email; they can reach us anytime – day or night! Our contact info: http://prisonist.org/contact-us.
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Guests on this Episode:
Tom Scott
Tom Scott is the creator of The Neighborhood Project, a national movement in which small groups of people meet monthly in living rooms to watch original content and have meaningful conversation. The Neighborhood Project is the only live premium content program in the United States that is addressing the core issues now facing individuals and neighborhoods — the isolation, anxiety and divisiveness that has become an epidemic.
“Neighborhood” is a product of The Nantucket Project (TNP), an annual festival of spirit, curiosity, ideas, film, art, music and dance on Nantucket each September. TNP brings together thought leaders across a wide range of disciplines to explore the most relevant, cutting-edge ideas and the implications such ideas pose for the betterment of culture, society and business. Richard Saul Wurman, the founder of TED, has called TNP “the most cared for, and well curated thing around.”
A graduate of Brown University with a Masters of Divinity from Yale, Tom is perhaps best known as the co-founder and original CEO of Nantucket Nectars. Founded in 1989 — long before it was cool to be a start-up founder — the fruit juice venture quickly grew to national prominence, making the “Inc. 500” list of fastest growing U.S. companies five years in a row and garnering Tom accolades, including the Mercury Award for Advertising and Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.
After selling Nantucket Nectars in 2002, Tom reinvented himself as a film and television producer. In 2004 he formed Plum TV, which owned and operated a network of stations around the country and received more than 14 Emmy awards. He produced television ads for companies like Nike and BMW. He created and produced the HBO series The Neistat Brothers with Casey Neistat. And in 2010 he won an Independent Spirit Award for producing the feature-length film Daddy Longlegs (also with Casey).
Tom lives in Connecticut with his wife and two sons.
You can find all episodes of our podcast “White Collar Week with Jeff Grant” on our website prisonist.org, our Facebook page, Podbean, YouTube (video), SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
Some very kind words from my dear friends Louis L. Reed and Babz Rawls Ivy in this brief PSA. Thank you Louis and Babz! – Jeff
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All Episodes:
Link here to Podcast Ep. 20: Glenn E. Martin & Richard Bronson: Reinventing Yourself After Prison
Link here to Podcast Ep. 19: Insider Trading Charges Dismissed, with Guest Richard Lee
Link here to Podcast Ep. 18: Is Your Life a Movie? The Producers, with Guests: Lydia B. Smith, Bethany Jones & Will Nix
Link here to Podcast Ep. 17: #TruthHeals: Systemic Abuse & Institutional Reform with Vanessa Osage, feat. Guest Co-Host Chloe Coppola
Link here to Podcast Ep. 16: Politicians, Prison & Penitence, with Guest: Bridgeport, CT Mayor Joseph Ganim
Link here to Podcast Ep. 15: A Brave Talk About Suicide, with Guests Bob Flanagan, Elizabeth Kelley, & Meredith Atwood
Link here to Podcast Ep. 14: Recovery & Neighborhood, with Guest: TNP’s Tom Scott
Link here to Podcast Ep. 13: Everything but Bridgegate, with Guest: Bill Baroni
Link here to Podcast Ep. 12: The Truth Tellers, with Guests: Holli Coulman & Larry Levine
Link here to Podcast Ep. 11: The Blank Canvas, with Guest: Craig Stanland
Link here to Podcast Ep. 10: The Ministers, with Guests: Father Joe Ciccone & Father Rix Thorsell
Link here to Podcast Ep. 09: Small Business Edition, with Guest: Taxgirl Kelly Phillips Erb
Link here to Podcast Ep. 08: The Academics, with Guests: Cathryn Lavery, Jessica Henry, Jay Kennedy & Erin Harbinson
Link here to Podcast Ep. 07: White Collar Wives. with Guests: Lynn Springer, Cassie Monaco & Julie Bennett. Special Guest: Skylar Cluett
Link here to Podcast Ep. 06: Madoff Talks, with Guest: Jim Campbell
Link here to Podcast Ep. 05: Trauma and Healing when Mom goes to Prison, with Guests: Jacqueline Polverari and Her Daughters, Alexa & Maria
Link here to Podcast Ep. 04: One-on-One with Tipper X: Tom Hardin
Link here to Podcast Ep. 03: Compassionate Lawyering: Guests, Chris Poulos, Corey Brinson, Bob Herbst & George Hritz
Link here to Podcast Ep. 02: Substance Abuse & Recovery During COVID-19: Guests, Trevor Shevin & Joshua Cagney
Link here to Podcast Ep. 01: Prison & Reentry in the Age of COVID-19: An Evening with Our White Collar Support Group.
Link here to Podcast Ep. 00: White Collar Week with Jeff Grant: What is White Collar Week?
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What is the White Collar Justice Community?
Welcome to White Collar Week with Jeff Grant, a podcast serving the white collar justice community. It’s the isolation that destroys us. The solution is in community.
If you are interested in this podcast, then you are probably already a member of the white collar justice community – even if you don’t quite know it yet. Our community is certainly made up of people being prosecuted, or who have already been prosecuted, for white collar crimes. But it is also made up of the spouses, children and families of those prosecuted for white collar crimes – these are the first victims of white collar crime. And the community also consists of the other victims, both direct and indirect, and those in the wider white collar ecosystem like friends, colleagues, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, law enforcement, academics, researchers. Investigators, mitigation experts, corrections officers, reentry professionals, mental health care professionals, drug and alcohol counselors, – and ministers, chaplains and advocates for criminal and social justice reform. The list goes on and on…
Our mission is to introduce you to other members of the white collar justice community, to hear their very personal stories, and hopefully gain a broader perspective of what this is really all about. Maybe this will inspire some deeper thoughts and introspection? Maybe it will inspire some empathy and compassion for people you might otherwise resent or dismiss? And maybe it will help lift us all out of our own isolation and into community, so we can learn to live again in the sunshine of the spirit.
Along the way, I’ll share with you some of the things I’ve learned in my own journey from successful lawyer, to prescription opioid addict, white collar crime, suicide attempt, disbarment, destruction of my marriage, and the almost 14 months I served in a Federal prison. And also my recovery, love story I share with my wife Lynn Springer, after prison earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, pastoring in an inner city church in Bridgeport CT, and then co-founding with Lynn in Greenwich CT, Progressive Prison Ministries, the world’s first ministry serving the white collar justice community. It’s been quite a ride, but I firmly believe that the best is yet to come.
So I invite you to come along with me as we experience something new, and bold, and different – a podcast that serves the entire white collar justice community. I hope you will join me.
It’s the Isolation that Destroys Us. The Solution is in Community.
Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is the world’s first ministry supporting the white collar justice community. Founded by husband and wife, Jeff Grantand Lynn Springer in Greenwich CT in 2012, we incorporated as a nonprofit in Connecticut in 2014, and received 501(c)(3) status in 2015. Jeff has over three decades of experience in crisis management, business, law (former), reentry, recovery (clean & sober 17+ years), and executive and religious leadership. As Jeff was incarcerated for a white-collar crime he committed in 2001, he and Lynn have a first-hand perspective on the trials and tribulations that white-collar families have to endure as they navigate the criminal justice system and life beyond.
Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is nonsectarian, serving those of all faiths, or no faith whatsoever. To date we have helped over three hundred fifty (350) individuals, and their families, to accept responsibility for their actions and to acknowledge the pain they have caused to others. In accordance with our commitment to restorative justice, we counsel our members to make amends as a first step in changing their lives and moving towards a new spiritual way of living centered on hope, care, compassion, tolerance, empathy and service to others. Our team has grown to over ten people, most with advanced degrees, all of whom are currently volunteering their time and resources.
Progressive Prison Ministries’ goal is to provide spiritual solutions and emotional support to those who are feeling alone, isolated, and hopeless. We have found that these individuals are suffering from a void but are stuck, and don’t know what to do about it. Our objective is to help them find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what may seem like insurmountable problems. Many of those we counsel are in a place where their previous lives have come to an end due to their transgressions. In many cases their legal problems have led to divorce, estrangement from their children, families, friends and support communities, and loss of a career. The toll this takes on individuals and families is emotionally devastating. White-collar crimes are often precipitated by other issues in the offenders’ lives such as alcohol or drug abuse, and/or a physical or mental illness that lead to financial issues that overwhelms their ability to be present for themselves and their families and cause poor decision making. We recognize that life often presents us with such circumstances, sometimes which lead us to make mistakes in violation of the law.
All conversations and communications between our ordained ministry, and licensed clinical relationships, and those we serve fall under state privilege laws. This is one reason that attorneys often allow and encourage their clients to maintain relationships with us while in active prosecution or litigation situations.
If you, a friend, family member, colleague or client are suffering from a white collar criminal justice issue or are experiencing some other traumatic or life-altering event, and would like to find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what seems like insurmountable problems, please contact us to schedule an initial call or appointment.
Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.
