Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Ruth Hopkins is an award-winning investigative journalist. She worked with the Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg from 2012-18, producing content about wrongful convictions, lengthy remand detention, police brutality and various other criminal justice issues. Ruth wrote a book on trafficking women into Europe, which was published in 2005 (I will never let you go again). In 2013, she broke an international story on private security company G4S’s South African prison. In 2016 Ruth was awarded the Sylvester Stein fellowship which she used to study the role race and class play in mass incarceration in the United States and how popular dissent against systematic injustice can lead to reform. Her non-fiction investigative book on the private prison, Misery Merchants (Life and Death in a Private South African Prison), was published in March 2020 by Jacana Media. Ruth also worked on an international documentary film based on the same investigation. It premiered in November 2019 to acclaim at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. See: youtube.com/watch?v=mSxZEEsmTcY
Roth Hopkins will be joined by her South African colleague Edwin Naidu as well as by U.S. prison expert Lauren-Brooke Eisen, who directs the Brennan Center’s Justice Program and leads the organization’s work to end mass incarceration. Her team focuses on exposing the profound social and economic hardships that impact those who encounter the justice system while creating policies that ultimately shrink its size and scope. Eisen is the author of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Columbia University Press, 2017) and a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting journalism grantee. She has authored several nationally recognized reports and articles on how to reduce America’s reliance on incarceration. Her work has been featured in media outlets across the country, including the New York Times, USA Today, Time, U.S. News & World Report, the Daily News, and the Marshall Project and has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, National Public Radio, as well as many other television and radio news programs.
The discussion is moderated by Khadija Sharife, an award-winning South African investigative journalist and senior editor for Africa at Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Sharife is the former director of the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers (PPLAAF) and currently also a board member of Finance Uncovered. She has worked with forums including the Pan-African Parliament, the African Union, the OECD, and UNEP. Her work is focused on illicit financial flows, natural resources, and political economy. She is the author of “Tax Us If You Can: Africa.”
This presentation and discussion took place at Yale University on 23 April 2021. Opinions and statements expressed by event moderators and participants are their own personal views and do not represent the views of the university.
Ruth Hopkins is an award-winning investigative journalist. She worked with the Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg from 2012-18, producing content about wrongful convictions, lengthy remand detention, police brutality and various other criminal justice issues. Ruth wrote a book on trafficking women into Europe, which was published in 2005 (I will never let you go again). In 2013, she broke an international story on private security company G4S’s South African prison. In 2016 Ruth was awarded the Sylvester Stein fellowship which she used to study the role race and class play in mass incarceration in the United States and how popular dissent against systematic injustice can lead to reform. Her non-fiction investigative book on the private prison, Misery Merchants (Life and Death in a Private South African Prison), was published in March 2020 by Jacana Media. Ruth also worked on an international documentary film based on the same investigation. It premiered in November 2019 to acclaim at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. See: youtube.com/watch?v=mSxZEEsmTcY
Roth Hopkins will be joined by her South African colleague Edwin Naidu as well as by U.S. prison expert Lauren-Brooke Eisen, who directs the Brennan Center’s Justice Program and leads the organization’s work to end mass incarceration. Her team focuses on exposing the profound social and economic hardships that impact those who encounter the justice system while creating policies that ultimately shrink its size and scope. Eisen is the author of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Columbia University Press, 2017) and a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting journalism grantee. She has authored several nationally recognized reports and articles on how to reduce America’s reliance on incarceration. Her work has been featured in media outlets across the country, including the New York Times, USA Today, Time, U.S. News & World Report, the Daily News, and the Marshall Project and has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, National Public Radio, as well as many other television and radio news programs.
The discussion is moderated by Khadija Sharife, an award-winning South African investigative journalist and senior editor for Africa at Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Sharife is the former director of the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers (PPLAAF) and currently also a board member of Finance Uncovered. She has worked with forums including the Pan-African Parliament, the African Union, the OECD, and UNEP. Her work is focused on illicit financial flows, natural resources, and political economy. She is the author of “Tax Us If You Can: Africa.”
This presentation and discussion took place at Yale University on 23 April 2021. Opinions and statements expressed by event moderators and participants are their own personal views and do not represent the views of the university.
