Diaz is the managing director of Rock Nation,
that superstar rap mogul Jay Z's organization
and she's one of the founding members of Rock Nation's United Justice Coalition.
Dona. Welcome.
Good morning. Thank you for having me. Yes, we are really happy to have you today.
So the United Justice Coalition started informally,
I see back in 2019 to address violence in Black and Brown communities.
How have you expanded since then?
Um Well,
we have certainly uh gathered the support of
all the UJC advisors which are a remarkable
uh group of people who are dedicated to, to social justice and have
um incredible work and resumes in that effort.
Um We have uh really
bonded around um
the work
to uh
amplify the issues and the humanitarian crisis at
Parchment Prison, for example.
Um We've certainly gathered around this incredible
opportunity to um get the community together
for interesting conversations, powerful conversations around
um social justice issues.
And that takes in that, that's in the form of our UJC summit,
which we launched last year and which we'll be
hosting again on December 1st at the Javits Center.
So you just mentioned that
the second annual United Justice Coalition Summit is gonna be taking place.
And you also made a focus on these powerful conversations,
tell us about this year's event.
So this year, um there,
there are some conversations that we are revisiting from last year,
but we are also um including some important topics for this year.
So,
um we know that the United States has an incredible um and,
and sad sort of mass incarceration
uh problem, you know, with 5% of, you know, we have 5% of the world's population,
but incarcerate 20%
um of the population at the same time. And so,
you know, when we talk about criminal justice and we talk about social justice,
it's really uh one of the most important issues we can address as society today.
The summit is
our attempt to bring people from all walks of life to um
a
where we can learn about what these issues are.
Um really develop a better understanding of the, the sources,
the um the opportunities to address them and resolve them
and to network with one another. So we will be talking about everything from
um what's lacking in communities and how people
can get engaged in their communities to make change
to um what happens at police contact.
Um in what, how does the, the criminal justice system impact families?
I'm really looking at um the fact that we are all part of family units and
um we will all be affected to some degree.
In fact, you know, I remember reading a stat saying that
there are about 100 and 13 million adults in the
United States that have had at least one family member
in jail or in prison at least overnight one night.
And so it impacts us more than we think, whether directly or indirectly.
So we'll be talking about
AL
as well.
It's such a powerful thing that you're doing.
Thank you so much for your work, Dona Diaz.
Thanks.