Today's Read Contributor Renowned journalist and author Dan Slepian took center stage at the American Probation and Parole Association’s (APPA) 50th Annual Training Institute, delivering an opening plenary session that left a lasting impression on hundreds of community supervision professionals. Just weeks after receiving a prestigious News & Documentary Emmy Award for his four-part documentary series The Sing Sing Chronicles, Slepian used his platform to highlight the profound role storytelling can play in shaping justice, leadership, and reform.
The plenary, titled “A Conversation on Legacy, Leadership, and the Future of Community Supervision,” brought Slepian into dialogue with APPA Executive Director and CEO Veronica Ballard Cunningham and Marcus Hodges, Associate Director at CSOSA and APPA Board President. Together, the three leaders created a powerful exchange that moved beyond policy and procedure to focus on the human element at the heart of probation, parole, and community supervision. Their collective message was clear: the narratives surrounding justice are not abstract but are deeply tied to the dignity, rehabilitation, and second chances of real people.
Slepian’s ability to weave narrative with truth has defined his career. For more than 30 years, he has worked as a senior investigative producer with NBC News and Dateline, where his journalism has consistently unearthed miscarriages of justice and sparked national conversations about accountability and reform. His persistence in revisiting cold cases and wrongful convictions has led directly to exonerations and policy changes, demonstrating how storytelling, when anchored in facts, can carry both personal and systemic consequences.
In 2024, Slepian’s investigative podcast Letters from Sing Sing became a cultural phenomenon, climbing to number one on Apple Podcasts and earning him recognition as a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The series chronicled his two-decade pursuit of justice for Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, a man wrongly convicted of murder in 1998. Through recorded letters, archival material, and interviews, Slepian offered a window into the emotional and institutional barriers of wrongful incarceration. The project not only shed light on Velazquez’s story but also underscored the broader flaws in the justice system.
That work reached an even wider audience in 2025 with the Emmy-winning The Sing Sing Chronicles. The documentary followed Velazquez’s release after 23 years in prison and expanded the lens to include the experiences of five additional wrongfully convicted men. By highlighting these individuals’ humanity and resilience, the series pushed audiences to question assumptions about guilt, punishment, and redemption. Receiving the Emmy for Best Documentary was both a professional milestone for Slepian and a validation of his long-standing belief that storytelling can serve as a form of advocacy and change.
It was against this backdrop of achievement that Slepian addressed the APPA’s landmark 50th annual gathering. Standing before an audience of probation and parole officers, policymakers, and reform advocates, he emphasized the moral weight carried by those in community supervision. He urged them to see their work not just as administrative oversight but as an opportunity to reshape lives through compassion and fairness. By grounding his message in his own investigative experiences, Slepian reminded attendees that every individual under supervision represents not only a file or a statistic, but a story that deserves to be heard.
Veronica Ballard Cunningham and Marcus Hodges reinforced Slepian’s message by connecting it directly to APPA’s mission. Cunningham reflected on the organization’s history, marking its 50 years as a period of both progress and ongoing challenges in the field of justice reform. Hodges, drawing on his experience at CSOSA and as APPA’s board president, highlighted the importance of leadership and legacy in guiding probation and parole into a future that prioritizes human dignity. Together with Slepian, they urged practitioners to embrace storytelling as a leadership tool, capable of inspiring empathy, breaking down stigma, and strengthening public trust in the system.
For many attendees, the session was more than an academic conversation. It served as a call to action, a reminder of why they chose careers in community supervision and why their daily work matters. Slepian’s stories of resilience and redemption gave context to the abstract policies often debated at professional gatherings, grounding them in the lived experiences of those most affected by the justice system.
The energy leaving the plenary was one of renewed conviction. Participants left with a deeper sense of purpose and an affirmation that rehabilitation is not only about programs and procedures, but about acknowledging the power of narrative to shape outcomes. The discussion underscored that storytelling and justice are not parallel concepts but intertwined forces capable of creating real change.
Dan Slepian’s presence at the APPA’s milestone institute marked more than just a keynote; it was a moment of connection between the fields of journalism and justice supervision. By reminding professionals of the transformative role they can play in people’s lives, Slepian helped open the 50th Annual Training Institute not only with inspiration but with a challenge: to lead with empathy, to preserve human dignity, and to recognize the stories behind every statistic.
