In this edition of Spirit In Action, our guest-host is Mark Leach and he talks about the weakening of the Endangered Species Act, why we should support the International Criminal Court, why and how young people should know how to seek conscientious objector status, why this is actually a good time to prepare for a career in public service, why he’s optimistic, and an original piece of research linking corruption with income disparity.

Mark Leach is guest-host for today's episode, sharing portions from his weekly radio show, Ecotopia Soon! Mark is a retired conservation biologist, activist, and a Quaker, and his perspective is that we are all in a leaky canoe together; we need to change our thinking to reach the safe shore of Ecotopia, where we treat Nature as our only life support system & we treat each other with respect.

Part 2 of interviews about treatment courts which achieve impressive results and save lots of money. Today we visit with participants of the local Drug & Mental Health Courts - Mike Gumulauskas & Rob Bergeron.

Reformatories seldom reform, and penitentiary seldom produce penitence, but groom criminals to re-offend. For certain offenders, treatment courts achieve impressive results and save lots of money, bringing bi-partisan support.

The Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice will be presenting its Lifetime Achievement award on October 3, 2009. One awardee, Esther Heffernan, is a Dominican nun and Sociology prof at Edgewood College, with a lifetime concern for prison reform. Steve Burns, program coordinator for WNPJ also joins us.