New drama '61st Street' aims to spark conversation about criminal justice system

Record ID: 1671095

  • Title: New drama '61st Street' aims to spark conversation about criminal justice system
  • Date: 27th April 2022
  • Summary: UNKNOWN LOCATION (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, COURTNEY B. VANCE, SAYING: “I think one of the beauties of the piece is that I think everyone can put themselves in that situation and go what if, you know, what if I got into a situation where there was no one to help me. And if you get in that, that…it could be the health system. It could be the prison system. It could be the judicial system. If you get in there, people assume you’re guilty and they back away from you because it’s overwhelming.”
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2022 16:12
  • Keywords: 61st street Courtney B. Vance amc
  • Location: UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
  • City: UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Television,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA002418426042022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: CONTAINS PROFANE LANGUAGE
    In AMC Networks' new television drama “61st Street," Emmy and Tony award-winning actor Courtney B. Vance plays devoted lawyer Franklin Roberts who after questioning if he made a difference during his career in Chicago as a public defender, decides to go all-in on a case that could shake the criminal justice system.
    Roberts works through an illness representing Moses Johnson, a promising Black high school track runner destined for success in college, played by Tosin Cole. Johnson becomes wrongfully accused of murdering a police officer, setting the scene for plot twists leading to a bigger discussion of systemic issues in a marginalized community including its relationship with the police department, drug wars, prison conditions, and access to resources.
    “I think everyone can put themselves in that situation and go what if I got into a situation where there was no one to help me,” said Vance. “It could be the prison system. It could be the judicial system. If you get in there, people assume you’re guilty and they back away from you because it’s overwhelming."
    “You see the effects of what certain things have on a family, how that one mistake or being in the wrong place at the wrong time has on a family or has on the police force or has on the system…how people are dealing with things on a human level,” Cole said.
    The show's first two seasons were shot in Chicago where creator Peter Moffat and executive producers Michael B. Jordan, Alana Mayo, and J. David Shanks made sure the show kept authenticity in depicting the vibrancy of South Side and its struggles with input from residents, advocates of the community and police officers.
    Shanks, a former cop and South Side Chicago native, thinks there can be a better job of leveling the playing field as far as resources and opportunity in the city and adds that while there are good police officers, there are some who are bad apples in the bunch. Shanks spent time in the city’s criminal courts building watching people of color be processed and sent to jail.
    “My hope is that people take from these two seasons an opportunity to talk about some really serious issues that I think we as a country have to address as far as policing and the criminal justice system and just the relationships between law enforcement and marginalized communities of color,” Shanks said.
    Some of the messages of “61st Street” can also translate across the globe.
    “These things do happen in London,” said Cole who grew up in the city. “People feel injustice and still feel like classism is a thing and obviously Black people are a minority there as well. Whatever you feel like you’re going through we may feel it as well."
    The show simply boils down to the importance of treating people with respect, Vance says.
    “We look at Ukraine, those people are human and you can’t just go in and take somebody’s stuff because you want it just because you have more bombs or more strength or more military,” said Vance. “You wouldn’t want anybody doing that to you. It does unto others. It’s [the] golden rule, not whoever has the gold makes the rules…If you take care of people they will take care of you.”
    (Production: Arlene Washington, Alicia Powell)
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