She Was the Crystal Meth Queen of Waikiki. Then She Became a PTA Mom in New Jersey.

Where this was said

Prison, Racial Justice, and the Debt of Grace

At 49:35 · chapter starts 47:02

Mariana draws a parallel between Nikki's experience and that of a previous guest, Frank Mink, a former neo-Nazi who came to understand the racial inequity of the prison system from inside it. Nikki takes the point fully and without deflection: she was one white person in a sea of people of every other race, and she knows that people of color were sitting in Hawaiian courts the same month and year she was, for offenses that would have kept them incarcerated for years. She calls it a lottery she won — and a responsibility she has. That sense of obligation drives her current work with Rise Hawaii, her interest in prison reform, and her advocacy for communities she affected during her years as a dealer. The gratitude and the guilt coexist.