Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET. Visit www.pbs.org/religionandethics for additional information. Show # 1642 will be fed over PBS at 5:00 p.m. EST on June 21.
- Prisons and the Mentally Ill – In the U.S. the largest institutions housing the mentally ill are jails. On any given day Cook County jail in Chicago holds about 10,000 inmates and on average one in four is suffering from some kind of mental illness. Cook Country Sheriff Tom Dart tells Lucky Severson of the moral and financial costs of dealing this way with the mentally troubled and others describe their programs to house the mentally ill and keep them out of jail.
- Taylor Branch on 1963 – This year marks the 50th anniversary of several key moments in struggle for civil rights. “1963 is without a doubt the breakthrough pivotal year” for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch, who recently released a new work, The King Years. Managing editor Kim Lawton talks with Branch about some of the major milestones and the central role churches played in all of them.
- Supreme Court – Tim O’Brien reports on upcoming major rulings, including on affirmative action, about to be issued by the Supreme Court
