Josie Duffy Rice (''
née
The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
'' Duffy) is an American writer and political commentator. Recently, she served as president of ''The Appeal'', a news outlet that centers the criminal justice system. Duffy Rice also co-hosted the podcast ''Justice in America''. Her work has been cited by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''.
Early life and education
Duffy Rice was born Josie Duffy, the eldest daughter of Eugene and Norrene Duffy, and was raised in Atlanta.
She has one sister,
For Keeps bookstore owner Rosa Duffy.
Her grandmother is Josie Johnson, a
civil rights movement activist who organized heavily in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
.
Duffy Rice received her bachelor's degree in political science from
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. She worked as an executive assistant for a public defender organization in the
Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
directly out of college, which influenced her decision to attend law school.
She received her
Juris Doctor
A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
degree from
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
.
Duffy Rice preferred writing to legal work, and after law school she began to work in the realms of policy and activism.
Career
Duffy Rice's work focuses on criminal justice issues such as
police brutality
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...
and
cash bail
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...
.
Duffy Rice advocates for
police abolition and
defunding police departments as one strategy towards that goal.
She appeared as roundtable guest on ''
The Daily Show
''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...
'' to discuss this perspective and has also discussed criminal justice-related issues for outlets such as
''Slate'', ''
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
'', and ''
Late Night with Seth Meyers
''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' is an American late-night news and political satire variety talk show hosted by Seth Meyers on NBC. The show premiered on February 24, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. Airing w ...
''.
Duffy Rice previously worked at Fair Punishment Project as a strategist.
In 2017 she joined the Justice Collaborative, which housed ''The Appeal'', a website that centered policy, politics, and criminal justice.
Duffy Rice was named president of ''The Appeal'' in 2019 and served until 2021.
Duffy Rice also co-hosted the podcast ''Justice in America'' with assorted guest hosts
Darnell Moore
Darnell L. Moore (born January 24, 1976) is an American writer and activist whose work is informed by anti-racism, anti-racist, feminist, Queer of color critique, queer of color, and anti-colonial thought and advocacy. Darnell's essays, social c ...
, Donovan X. Ramsey,
Derecka Purnell, and Zak Cheney-Rice. The show covers criminal justice topics like
mass incarceration
Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2021, over five million people were under supervision by the criminal justice system, with nearly two million people incarcerated ...
.
Duffy Rice was recently published in the September 2020 issue of ''
Vanity Fair'' guest edited by
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates ( ; born September 30, 1975) is an American author, journalist, and activist. He gained a wide readership during his time as national correspondent at ''The Atlantic'', where he wrote about cultural, social, and political is ...
.
In 2021, Duffy Rice was a co-writer of the first episode in the
Hulu
Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...
anthology series ''
The Premise
''The Premise'' is an American anthology television series created by B. J. Novak. It premiered on FX on Hulu on September 16, 2021. In February 2023, the series was cancelled after one season. The series was removed from Hulu on May 26, 2023.
...
''. Also in 2021, Duffy Rice joined the staff of
Crooked Media
Crooked Media is an American progressive political media company. It was founded in 2017 by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, all former top Barack Obama staffers and co-hosts of the '' Keepin' It 1600'' podcast. Dan Pfeiffer, also a ...
's ''What a Day'' podcast as one of three rotating co-hosts for ''What a Day'' founding anchor Gideon Resnick.
Duffy Rice, with fellow co-hosts
Tre'vell Anderson
Tre'vell Anderson is an American journalist, critic, editor, and podcaster. They previously worked for the publications ''Los Angeles Times'', '' Xtra'', and ''Out''. They co-host the podcasts ''What A Day'' (Crooked Media) and ''FANTI'' (Maximum ...
and Priyanka Aribindi,
[ replaced departing host ]Akilah Hughes
Akilah Saidah Kamaria Hughes (born August 31, 1989) is an American writer, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster, and actress. She has been a digital correspondent for MTV, HBO, Fusion TV, and Comedy Central. She began her career on a YouTube channel, "I ...
on July 30, 2021.Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...
program Fault Lines
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic f ...
, where she examined Tennessee's extreme sentencing laws for juveniles. In 2023, Duffy Rice was the host and co-Executive Producer of ''Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children'', a limited series podcast investigating a juvenile justice facility in Alabama.
Personal life
In May 2016, Duffy Rice married journalist Zak Cheney-Rice in Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
at the same venue where her parents had married 30 years previously.
Honors and awards
* 2020 - ''Fortune'', 40 Under 40
References
External links
Official website
*
''The Appeal''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffy Rice, Josie
Living people
21st-century African-American writers
Harvard Law School alumni
Writers from Atlanta
21st-century African-American women writers
21st-century American women writers
African-American women journalists
African-American journalists
Columbia College (New York) alumni
1987 births