Jefferson City

Matthew Huffman is the Public Affairs Director for the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, and Joan Masters is the Senior Coordinator of Partners in Prevention – a coalition of 24 Missouri colleges and universities working toward healthy and safe campuses.

They spoke about drug-facilitated sexual assaults and how those have changed during the last few decades – from perpetration using illegal substances like rohypnol, or roofies, to legally obtainable drugs and even – just alcohol

Matthew Huffman works at the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, and we checked in – eight months into the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

He spoke about how the lives of Missourians experiencing domestic violence are being further complicated by intersecting factors – housing insecurity, continued isolation, gun violence and more.

Huffman mentioned a new report from The Violence Policy Center called “When Men Murder Women An Analysis of 2018 Homicide Data,” in which Missouri ranks 2nd for number of women killed by intimate partners.

Jabar is an inmate at Jefferson City Correctional Center. He’s been in prison for 25 years, after being sentenced to death row at 17. He is one of the youngest Missourians ever to be put on death row. Then after a retrial at age 19, he was sentenced to life without parole.

Jabar maintains his innocence, has written numerous books for children, as well as adults, based on his life growing up in St. Louis and his time in prison, and because of a law passed back in 2016, he has the chance to apply for parole as soon as this month.

This law allows people sentenced to life without parole prior to August 2016, for a crime they committed before they turned 18, to apply for a parole hearing after serving 25 years.

He spoke with me about how being in prison from such a young age has changed him, and about what keeps him going.

As a note, Jabar is a nickname.

Dr. Opeoluwa Sotonwa is the executive director of the Missouri Commission for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing in Jefferson City.

He spoke about the importance of accessible communication for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Missourians and about some recent advances – like the availability of clear masks and American Sign Language interpreters at Governor Mike Parson’s COVID-19 briefings – and how those have impacted the lives and well-being of all Missourians during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

You are hearing Dr. Opeoluwa Sotonwa as interpreted by AJ Housewright.

Dr. John Dane is the State Dental Director and Gary Harbison is the executive director of the Missouri Coalition for Oral Health.

They spoke about some of the concerns they have about the possible long-term impacts of COVID-19 on oral health, as many dental clinics have been closed and Missourians may have gotten out of a normal oral health routine.

This week we hear a selection from an interview with Dr. John Dane, the state dental director, and Gary Harbison, the Director of the Missouri Oral Health Coalition.

They were guests on KBIA’s Intersection – you can hear that longer interview here.

They spoke about some of the ways that oral health is impacting Missourians and about the relationship between physical and oral health.

Jannis Evans and Devin Hursey both work in the HIV treatment and prevention field and have served on committees advocating for people with HIV in Missouri and across the country.

They sat down at this month's Legislative Advocacy Day sponsored by the Missouri HIV Justice Coalition where they both were advocating for changes to Missouri's HIV criminal laws, and they spoke about some of the reasons HIV impacts communities of color at a higher rate.