Author and advocate Piper Kerman (author of the memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison) speaks with ProPublica senior reporter Ginger Thompson, whose work has exposed some of the secret roles Washington has played in the global drug war. The conversation draws on Kerman’s personal experience with the U.S. prison system, and Thompson’s years of covering drug cartels worldwide. The two discuss how the drug war, both at home and abroad, fosters the incarceration of low-level offenders and exacerbates gaping racial disparities, and how the media approaches these issues. Introduction by Elizabeth Sackler. Video courtesy of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation.

Part of the series "States of Denial: The Illegal Incarceration of Women, Children, and People of Color."