CNN anchor Don Lemon presented the Justice Media Trailblazer to political commentator Van Jones for his work with his foundation, #Cut50 at John Jay College on Thursday, February 16th.
The event was hosted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Crime Report. Nearly 160 people showed up for the dinner and award ceremony. Van Jones wasn’t the only person to receive an award that night. John Jay College and Harry Frank Guggenheim awarded Shane Bauer of "Mother Jones" along with Ryan Gabrielson and Topher Sanders of "ProPublica" for “Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting.”
When the event commenced, President Jeremy Travis took to the stage to give a brief introduction to the award ceremony and its 12-year history of “bringing together experts and journalists.”
NY1’s host of “Inside City Hall” Errol Lewis was the emcee of the night and stressed the importance of journalism in today’s society and congratulated John Jay on its systemic work in justice saying that “John Jay is very special and needs to be supported."
Shane Bauer received the first award of the night in the “single-story” category for going undercover for four months as a guard in a private Louisiana prison. It was there that he uncovered injustices in a “world of corporate run prisons.”
The award that followed was for a journalistic series and was accepted by Topher Sanders on behalf of himself and Ryan Gabrielson who was absent from the event.
Sanders and Gabrielson had worked together on a series called “Busted” where they investigated the wrongful convictions of thousands of people based on police misuse of $2 roadside drug tests.
After the Guggenheim awards were given out, Don Lemon stepped on stage to introduce Van Jones for the Justice Media Trailblazer Award.
Don Lemon shared anecdotes about Van Jones at the start of his career as a political commentator at CNN. Lemon seemed to be holding back tears as he told the audience that Van Jones was “everything that we want a commentator to be.”
When Van Jones finally took to the stage he started off with a personal story, telling the audience why he got into his work at #Cut50, an organization he founded that seeks to cut the prison population by half within the next 10 years.
He talked of his time at Yale and how he witnessed both students and New Haven residents using drugs. He noted that the difference between the students of Yale and the local teenagers was that the Yale kids if caught, were sent to a rehab facility for their drug use while kids on the outside were sent to prison.
He went on to describe how he had been fighting for criminal justice reform starting as a young lawyer up until today. He told the audience that criminal justice is one of the most important things you can do with your life.
When asked if he had any advice for John Jay students who were criminal justice majors or were just looking to pursue social justice Jones said, “I don’t think that we understand enough of the business side of the world. The incarceration industry it’s an 80 billion dollar a year industry. Most of us who care about this stuff, we might have a BA, an MFA, we don’t have a business degree and I really wish more people who cared about society would go and get business degrees. You can probably bridge a lot if you add some business courses . . . you can tell the story using a different lens.”
Jones also spoke about the current political climate when asked by a guest to share what he had learned about those who elected Trump. He urged Democrats to stop hating, putting people in the same corner and building Trump’s coalition for him stating that there are different kinds of Trump supporters. There were some who did enjoy his rhetoric on the campaign trail while others found it “distasteful but not disqualifying.”
He commented on Democratic political participation and how liberals “worked hard to stop McCain and Romney” from becoming president but did nothing for Trump. He spoke on how Democrats weren’t pluralistic enough and left out folks who felt let down and were hurting.
Diane Hilaire, the manager of diversity and inclusion at Macy’s which is a part of the John Jay Foundation, said that “the fact that Van Jones was going to be here was the icing on the cake.”
Hilaire praised Jones by going on to say that “he’s not afraid to say what he feels and he doesn’t come off [as] arrogant or mean. To see such greatness in journalism as a corporate, communication, PR, media studies major . . . I was fortunate to be invited to come tonight.
