Shades of Freedom

The session, titled The Importance of Now: Maintaining Momentum in Criminal Justice Transformation, ranges from the personal to the national, covering how both these experts began in criminal justice change, and how to address the particular needs of women involved in the criminal legal system. The discussion also addresses how misinformation impacts reform strategies, the tendency to focus on wins and then move on—rather than maintaining those wins—and the need to reach wider audiences with our messages.Guest BiosErica BondVice-President, Social Justice Initiatives, John Jay College of Criminal JusticeErica Bond has experience in the government, non-profit, public policy, and legal sectors. Prior to becoming Vice President of Justice Initiatives at John Jay College, Erica was the Policy Director at the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College, a research organization that seeks to advance safe, just and equitable communities through data and research on criminal justice policy, operations and reforms.  Previously, she served as Special Advisor for Criminal Justice to the First Deputy Mayor of New York City.Prior to joining city government, Erica was a Director of Criminal Justice at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (now called Arnold Ventures), where she worked to develop new research, policy reforms and evidenced-based innovations with the goal of transforming criminal justice systems nationwide. In this role, she partnered with criminal justice practitioners, researchers, and policymakers on initiatives to improve community safety, increase trust and confidence in the criminal justice system and ensure fairness in the criminal justice process. Erica is a mayoral designee to New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board. She has a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.DeAnna HoskinsPresident and CEO, JustLeadershipUSADeAnna R. Hoskins is President & CEO of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA). Dedicated to cutting the U.S. correctional population in #halfby2030, JLUSA empowers people most affected by the criminal justice system to drive reform. DeAnna is a nationally recognized leader and a formerly incarcerated person with experience as an advocate and policy expert at the local, state, and federal level. Prior to joining JLUSA as its President and CEO, DeAnna served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice, managing the Second Chance Act portfolio and serving as Deputy Director of the Federal Inter-Agency Reentry Council. Before that, she served as a county Director of Reentry in her home state of Ohio. DeAnna has always worked alongside advocates who have been impacted by incarceration, and knows that setting bold goals and investing in the leadership of directly impacted people is a necessary component of impactful, values-driven reform. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

Guest BiographyBorn and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Tasha Blackmon is a dynamic, collaborative leader, mentor and coach who brings more than 20 years of business operations experience to her role as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cherry Health, Michigan's largest Federally Qualified Health Center. Cherry Health provides integrated health care services to over 55,000 patients in Barry, Kent, Montcalm, Muskegon, Ottawa and Wayne counties in Michigan. During her 16 years with Cherry Health, Blackmon has championed health justice through aggressively disrupting healthcare disparities. Her experience comes from an operational perspective, having established high standards of care utilizing a health equity lens to treat an individual's health needs holistically, rather than symptomatically. She has led numerous large-scale expansion and development projects and held six positions within Cherry Health before becoming CEO in 2018.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

Sheena Meade talks about her beginnings in labor organizing, then helping to co-lead the successful fight to restore voting rights in Florida, and how that has led to a push, across the States, to automate the clearing of records, and other new collaborations, such as Next Chapter, to change employer approaches to hiring returned citizens.This episode is part of Rework Reentry, a partnership of The Aspen Institute and Slack supporting career options for returning citizens.Guest BiographySheena Meade is the Executive Director of the Clean Slate Initiative (CSI). CSI is a national bipartisan organization that builds state-based coalitions to pass legislation that automates the expungement of eligible arrest and conviction records. Before being selected as the organization's first executive director, Sheena served in various leadership roles focused on building long-term, sustainable change for communities. As a criminal justice program officer at Galaxy Gives, she helped develop and lead a Criminal Justice Fellowship program that helps grantees hone professional skills to build stronger, more impactful organizations.Sheena has also served as the director of strategic partnerships at the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and senior advisor to the Second Chances Florida Campaign. In those roles, she developed the blueprints for fundraising, events, and grassroots organizing that helped win the landmark ballot initiative that restored voting rights for Floridians who have completed all of the terms of their sentence. Sheena, who has been directly impacted by the criminal legal system, is a mother of five, proud wife, organizer, optimist, and leader of a national organization committed to ensuring meaningful opportunities for all, regardless of past records.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

While federal criminal justice policy gets a lot of attention, arguably the most important reforms are occurring in local jurisdictions. And many of those efforts are led by elected local justice leaders – sheriffs, DAs and prosecutors – or are being advanced through local ballot measures. These thousands of crucial elections, however, aren't getting much attention in the national press; even local press may pay only the most cursory attention, though the ramifications for local and national justice reform may be immense.Journalist and editor Daniel Nichanian has been focused on these races and issues his whole career. Formerly at The Appeal, and now launching his own digital magazine, Bolts, his focus on reporting local justice issues and elections gives important insights into the sometimes hidden, yet transformational work happening throughout the US. Guest BiographyDaniel Nichanian is the editor-in-chief and founder of Bolts, a digital publication launched in February 2022 that covers the nuts and bolts of political power and political change, from the local up. He is a writer and journalist who works on criminal justice, voting rights, local politics, and political theory.Nichanian completed a PhD in political theory in 2016 at the University of Chicago, and later worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago. He is also a former editor at The Appeal. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, FiveThirtyEight, Democracy, Philosophy & Rhetoric, Syndicate Theology, New York Magazine, Vox, and more.

LaTonya A. Tate's journey started as a nurse, then, in a turn, as a parole officer, then to founding the Alabama Justice Initiative and running for and winning a seat on the Birmingham City Council. All along the way, her family and her community have been close to her heart, and their struggles have built her into a force for change across Alabama, including stopping, for now, a new prison.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

Guest BioAn attorney and accomplished author, Marc Levin serves as Chief Policy Counsel to the Council on Criminal Justice, a membership organization that provides a center of gravity in the field for objective analyses of research and policies. He began the Texas Public Policy Foundation's criminal justice program in 2005 and in 2010 developed the concept for its Right on Crime initiative. In 2014, Levin was named one of the “Politico 50” in the magazine's annual “list of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction.”  Levin has authored numerous book chapters, policy papers, and articles on criminal justice policy and serves on the National Association of Drug Court Professionals Board of Directors, Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative Advisory Council, and the Urban Rural Action Board of Advisors.He has testified on criminal justice policy on four occasions before Congress and before numerous state legislatures. Levin graduated with honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government and received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. Levin served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Staff Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court.  As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

Danielle Sered envisioned, launched, and directs the nonprofit organization Common Justice. She leads the project's efforts locally and nationally to develop and advance practical and groundbreaking solutions to violence that advance racial equity, meet the needs of those harmed, and do not rely on incarceration.  Before planning the launch of Common Justice, Sered served as the deputy director of the Vera Institute of Justice's Adolescent Reentry Initiative, a program for young men returning from incarceration on Rikers Island. Prior to joining Vera, she worked at the Center for Court Innovation's Harlem Community Justice Center, where she led its programs for court-involved and recently incarcerated youth.Her book, Until We Reckon, received the Award for Journalism from the National Association for Community and Restorative Justice and was selected by the National Book Foundation for its Literature for Justice recognition. An Ashoka fellow and Stoneleigh fellow, Sered received her BA from Emory University and her masters degrees from New York University and Oxford University (UK), where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

When Renita Francois, Executive Director of the NYC Mayor's Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), asks the residents of the city's public housing developments how they define neighborhood safety, crime is not at the top of their lists. From going directly to the residents – the people best informed to define safety – Francois' office can build better responses to community needs within neighborhoods, and also use the resident input to guide city-wide policy improvements.In this episode of Shades of Freedom, Francois walks us through some innovative approaches to neighborhood safety and justice reform underway in New York City, and the impacts they are seeing in the housing communities where they've implemented resident-sourced solutions. Please join us for this exciting look at how engaging communities in defining and solving their own challenges can lead to real change.BIORenita Francois is a neighborhood safety and engagement strategist combining lived, front line, and executive experience to support communities and government in building partnership, establishing common goals, and increasing opportunity, well-being, and equity in New York City's most underserved communities. Mrs. Francois is the Executive Director of the Mayor's Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety, a citywide, multi agency, multi-disciplinary community safety intervention that centers public housing resident voices and priorities in the civic process. In this role she serves as a key advisor to the Director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice on public safety matters and oversees NeighborhoodStat, a signature initiative of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and an innovative model through which residents define what they need to feel safe and work with their neighbors, community partners and government agencies to achieve it.Her experience serving as a resource coordinator working directly for the juvenile justice bench at Brooklyn Family Court, and as a frontline staff member for public housing programs in both Los Angeles and Compton, California, give Ms. Francois unique insight into the multilayered challenges facing vulnerable communities. Renita Francois holds a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Cornell University.

Prisons in the U.S. are, by design and operation, focused on punishment. But does punishment have to be traumatizing? Could prisons and jails be places of healing? While healing-centered and restorative approaches are being looked at in pre- and post-incarceration programs, less focus has been on trauma and harm reduction for those currently incarcerated.In this episode of Shades of Freedom, our guest Nneka Jones Tapia, Managing Director for Justice Initiatives at Chicago Beyond and a former warden of the Cook County Jail, joins us to discuss the new Square One Project report, Harm Reduction at the Center of Corrections, which begins: “The American correctional system is not a system of accountability that rehabilitates people as it purports to do. Instead, it is a system of pain and punishment with reverberating impact on the people confined there, the people who work there, and the families and communities of both.”Guest BiographyDr. Nneka Jones Tapia is the Managing Director for Justice Initiatives at Chicago Beyond, which backs the fight against inequities in Chicago's communities and invests in the fight for all young people to achieve their fullest human potential. She is an experienced psychologist who is passionate about mental wellness, criminal justice reform, and supporting young people who have experienced trauma. Since joining Chicago Beyond in 2018, Dr. Tapia collaborated to launch programs focused on positive family engagement for families who are justice-involved, holistic healing supports within Chicago Public Schools and peer-led healing supports for youth. She is the former warden of Cook County jail in Chicago, Illinois - one of the largest single site jails in the country. Under her leadership, Cook County jail implemented several bold strategies to promote wellness and to reduce recidivism, including the Mental Health Transition Center, a program that has helped hundreds of people who have been incarcerated to successfully reenter their families and communities.--------As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

While there may be relatively few underlying concepts that liberals and conservatives might agree upon related to the justice system, perhaps one of them could be that justice should be parsimonious – defined as the government being authorized to exercise the lightest intrusion possible on a person's liberty that is necessary to achieve a legitimate social purpose. In this light, maybe there could be broad agreement that, for example, excessively long sentences for relatively minor crimes might fail this test.In this episode of Shades of Freedom, guests Daryl Atkinson (of Forward Justice) and Jeremy Travis (of Arnold Ventures) join us to discuss the new Square One Project report, The Power of Parsimony. If you are concerned about overincarceration, sentencing reform, and our culture of punishment - as meted out by the justice system, and in the added punishments which follow incarceration - this is the podcast for you.Guest BiographiesDaryl V. Atkinson is the Co-Director and Co-Founder of Forward Justice, a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center in North Carolina dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South. He also serves as a member of the steering committee for the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People & Families Movement, a national network of civil and human rights organizations led by directly impacted individuals committed to seeing the end of mass incarceration, America's current racial and economic caste system. Prior to joining Forward Justice, Daryl served as the first Second Chance Fellow for U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). While at DOJ, Daryl was an advisor to the Second Chance portfolio of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a member of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, and a conduit to the broader justice-involved population to ensure the DOJ heard from all stakeholders when developing reentry policy. Daryl previously served as the Senior Staff Attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), where he focused on drug policy and criminal justice reform issues, particularly removing the legal barriers triggered by contact with the criminal justice system. In 2014, Daryl was recognized by the White House as a “Reentry and Employment Champion of Change” for his extraordinary work to facilitate employment opportunities for people with criminal records. Daryl received a B.A. in Political Science from Benedict College, Columbia, SC and his J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis, MN.Jeremy Travis joined Arnold Ventures after serving for 13 years as president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York (CUNY). Under Jeremy's leadership, John Jay became a senior liberal arts college at CUNY, significantly increased the number of baccalaureate students, created the CUNY Justice Academy to serve community college students, and joined the prestigious Macaulay Honors College.Prior to his time at John Jay, Jeremy was a senior fellow with the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Before that, Jeremy served as director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). At NIJ, he established major initiatives to assess crime trends; evaluate federal anti-crime efforts; foster community policing and new law enforcement technologies; advance forensic sciences; and bolster research on counter-terrorism strategies.Jeremy's career also includes his role as deputy commissioner for legal matters for the New York City Police Department (NYPD); chief counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice; special adviser to New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch; and assistant director for law enforcement services for the Mayor's Office of Operations. In addition, he was special counsel to the police commissioner of the NYPD.He is the author of But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, and co-editor of both Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America and Prisoners Once Removed: The Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities. He earned his J.D. and M.P.A. from New York University and his bachelor's degree from Yale College. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

What would it take to make Detroit a “just city” – an actual sanctuary of justice for its residents? Amanda Alexander, founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Justice Center is working on exactly that. Based on a wide range of experiences – from learning alongside ACT-UP AIDS activists, to spending time in newly post-apartheid South Africa, to the Movement for Black Lives – Alexander combines her background as a historian and an attorney to reimagine safety and justice in Detroit.In this episode of Shades of Freedom, Alexander weaves together her own experiences, and the long history of global civil rights movements, to discuss what's going on right now in Detroit, including innovative supports for community members that prevent contact with the legal system in the first place, shifting funds from a focus on policing to prevention, and supporting communities to define and create their own safety.Guest BiographyAmanda Alexander, founding Executive Director of the Detroit Justice Center, is a racial justice lawyer and historian who works alongside community-based movements to end mass incarceration and build thriving and inclusive cities. Originally from Michigan, Amanda has worked at the intersection of racial justice and community development in Detroit, New York, and South Africa for more than 15 years.Amanda is a Senior Research Scholar at University of Michigan Law School, where she has taught Law & Social Movements and was an attorney in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic. She was a 2015-2018 member of the Michigan Society of Fellows with appointments in Law and Afro-American & African Studies. As a Soros Justice Fellow, Amanda launched the Prison & Family Justice Project at University of Michigan Law School to provide legal representation to incarcerated parents and advocate for families divided by the prison and foster care systems.Amanda serves on the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration, appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to develop ambitious and innovative strategies to reduce Michigan's jail population. She has served on the national steering committee of Law for Black Lives, and is a board member of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.Amanda's advocacy and research have won the support of an Echoing Green Fellowship, Law for Black Lives/Movement Law Lab Legal Innovator Fellowship, Social Science Research Council Fellowship, Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, and other fellowships and grants. She is the recipient of the NAACP-Detroit's Great Expectations Award, the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative's Racial Justice Cultivator Award, and the A. Philip Randolph Institute's Community Builder Award.Amanda received her JD from Yale Law School, her PhD in international history from Columbia University, and her BA from Harvard College. Previously she has worked with the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, the Bronx Defenders, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the Centre for Civil Society in Durban, South Africa. Her writing has been published in The Globe & Mail, Detroit Free Press, Michigan Journal of Race & Law, Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy, Michigan Child Welfare Law Journal, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Review of African Political Economy, and other publications.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

For Eric Cadora, Director of the Justice Mapping Center, the map is just the beginning of the process. In this episode of Shades of Freedom, he walks us through his youth in Lebanon, and on to his work in the US (and elsewhere around the globe) helping communities to understand their justice-related data, and turn that information into new ways to transform the justice system and enhance community safety.  Cadora speaks to the critical role he played in helping communities to understand, through his Million Dollar Blocks analysis, how whole neighborhoods of concentrated poverty and disadvantaged are further punished through the justice system. And by looking at data from other systems (such as housing, workforce, child welfare), how they are further harmed through “crisis management governance,” where high needs neighborhoods receive no prevention-oriented services, until the point that a crisis response is all that is left.He also describes his work behind Justice Reinvestment Plans, where communities look to how they could better invest policing and incarceration costs as prevention and community support services; and tells about his new work in the US in partnership with Aspen, the Justice and Governance Partnership, which will support mid-sized and rural jurisdictions to combine all these ideas into actionable change in their communities.LINKS
Justice Mapping CenterWashington Post Opinion Piece: Emergency management governance is our safety net. It’s not a good one.Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative Justice and Governance PartnershipBIOEric Cadora has worked toward criminal justice reform for 30 years, serving as a justice strategist and information technology consultant to government (both domestically and internationally), research institutes, and social purpose advocacy groups in pursuit of data-driven solutions to criminal and social justice challenges. Over that time, project partners have included the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Ford Foundation, the Urban Institute, Columbia University, the ACLU, NAACP, Children’s Defense Fund, and dozens of state departments of corrections across the country, as well as GIZ, DFID, and other international donor agencies. Cadora is the founder of Justice Mapping, a data visualization and geographical information systems consultancy.Cadora served as the Chief Research & Data Strategies Officer for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, where he oversaw the reorganization of the Office’s wide-ranging research initiatives with the NYPD, DAs offices, Legal Aid, the courts, and Department of Corrections. From 2001 through 2004, Cadora served as Grants Officer at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), supporting a portfolio of reform initiatives across the country against the overuse of imprisonment. While at OSF, Cadora conceived and launched the “Justice Reinvestment” initiative, which became a multi-million-dollar Federal grant program of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance. Before that, Cadora directed research and policy at the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services in New York, where he originated the “Million-Dollar Blocks” critique of prison spending.Cadora was co-recipient of the American Society of Criminology President’s Award in 2009. His most recent publication, Civic Lessons: How Certain Schemes to End Mass Incarceration Can Fail, can be found in the January, 2014 edition of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and he is co-author with Dr. Todd Clear of Community Justice.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

Chekemma J. Fulmore-Townsend, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Youth Network, joins us to discuss the evolution of youth justice work in Philadelphia, and her own personal journey from working directly with youth and families, to running Philadelphia’s major youth-serving nonprofit.Weaving together progress in the community, creating effective programs for youth, and the City of Philadelphia’s youth justice reforms, this episode focuses on the many different sectors and partners (including the community itself) that must work together – through good times and bad times – to create progress. While there’s a lot still to be done to create justice in the city that gave birth to America, Fulmore-Townsend finds hope in new innovations and approaches being tried out.Guest BioChekemma J. Fulmore-Townsend is President and CEO of the Philadelphia Youth Network. Prior to her appointment, Fulmore-Townsend served as PYN’s VP of Program Services, where she led a team accountable for program design, implementation, evaluation, compliance, and continuous improvement.  Prior to her work at PYN, Fulmore-Townsend served at the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation as the Senior Director of the Emerging Workforce, fusing data-driven decision-making with project management to implement and improve adult and youth workforce programs. In 2019, she was named as a Promise of America Awardee by America’s Promise Alliance.  In 2017, she was featured in The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s special report titled: “The Influencers: People Quietly Changing the Nonprofit World.”  In 2016, the Obama Administration honored her as a White House Champion of Change. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

This episode features:Art Acevedo, Chief of Police, Houston Police Department.Roy L. Austin, Vice President of Civil Rights, Facebook.Karol Mason, President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.Bill Whitaker, of CBS News and a 60 Minutes correspondent. (moderator)This bonus episode of Shades of Freedom is drawn from a February 2021 online event of the same name created by the Aspen Institute’s Criminal Justice Reform Initiative, and the Conversations with Great Leaders Series, in Memory of Preston Robert Tisch. View the full event video on YouTube.The panel discusses how, as a nation, we are witnessing increased public support for re-imagining and transforming the criminal justice system, and tackles the question of how we, and our leaders, can make change happen in a way that takes into consideration historic injustices, as well as the underlying social, economic, education and health disparities in the United States.--As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

For decades, prisoners have been denied access to college educations. Recent bipartisan federal legislation will remove one key barrier, but much remains to be done. The Reverend Vivian D. Nixon, Executive Director of College & Community Fellowship  – an organization that helps the women and families most harmed by mass criminalization gain access to opportunity – joins our podcast to explore her own journeys through both prison and college. Reverend Nixon calls out the power of education to create change in individuals, who can then change our society and our beliefs about who is valued, and who is not.Guest BioReverend Vivian D. Nixon is Executive Director of College & Community Fellowship (CCF) a New York City organization that helps women and families most harmed by mass criminalization gain equitable access to opportunity and human rights. Reverend Nixon identifies herself as a joyfully Black woman whose release from correctional oversight gave rise to a search for true liberation and guided her academic and career choices. Her work at CCF, and beyond, advances justice through economic and social equity, anti-racism, civic engagement, and artistic expression.Instructed and ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reverend Nixon has an MFA from Columbia School of the Arts, and currently teaches at Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action. Recognized with multiple honors, she is a recipient of the John Jay Medal for Justice and Fellowships with programs at the Aspen Institute, Open Society Foundations, and Pen America. Reverend Nixon has published book chapters, essays, and poetry, recently co-editing a collection of essays by justice impacted advocates: What We Know: Solutions from Inside the Justice System. Two book-length projects are in the works.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.Visit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.

The path to justice will be different in each community. Founded in the late 1800s with a state constitution that specifically excluded Black Americans, Oregon’s current criminal justice system’s struggles are built on that legacy. Our guest in this episode is Bobbin Singh, founding Executive Director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center. He discusses Oregon’s past and how that history influences its current policing response to protests  and the prison system’s response to COVID-19, as well as calls on Oregon to recognize its past in order to transform its criminal legal system.To learn more:Oregon Justice Resource CenterVisit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.

Dwayne Betts’ story is one of tribulation and triumph. At 16, he was tried as an adult and spent eight years in prison. He discovered a love for literature while incarcerated and decided to become a writer.Since his release in 2005, Betts has published three books of poetry and one memoir and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in law. Most recently, Betts and acclaimed poet and essayist Elizabeth Alexander announced The Million Book Project—an initiative that will establish 1000 "Freedom Libraries" in prisons across the U.S. Listen in to hear a moving testament on the power of literature and reading to change lives forever.To learn more:With Books and New Focus, Mellon Foundation to Foster Social EquityFreedom to Read: "Million Book Project" Brings Literature to 1,000 US PrisonsYale Law School's Justice CollaboratoryVisit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI.As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.

One piece of dismantling and rebuilding the justice system starts with our schools, which can be an onramp to the criminal justice system for Black girls, who in increasing numbers are subject to criminalization starting in our schools. How did we end up with schools that are based in fear, rather than love, and how is that leading towards the adultification and criminalization of Black girls in particular?Dr. Monique Morris joins us to look into these questions, as well as the paths forward to a better future. Dr. Morris is an award-winning writer, social justice scholar, professor, founder of National Black Women’s Justice Institute, the executive director of Grantmakers for Girls of Color. She is also the author of several books, including "Pushout," which PBS recently adapted into a documentary of the same name. We will explore the ideas in "Pushout," and the profound injustice Black girls face in our schools and our country. Dr. Morris is interviewed by Dr. Douglas E. Wood, Director of The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative.To learn more:Pushout, by Dr. Monique MorrisPushout, PBS documentaryVisit us online at The Aspen Institute Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and follow us on Twitter @AspenCJRI. 
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of The Aspen Institute.