• Jun 11, 2020

Decarceration and Community: COVID-19 and Beyond

This discussion, which we cosponsored with the Radcliffe Institute, focuses on people who are incarcerated and their families, exploring how systemic racism and mass criminalization threaten both incarcerated individuals and their communities. The participants considered how recent events, including the COVID-19 crisis and the police murder of George Floyd, highlight and magnify historical inequities—with deadly results.

SPEAKERS:

Gina Clayton-Johnson, executive director and founder, Essie Justice Group

Soffiyah Elijah, executive director, Alliance of Families for Justice

Andrea James, founder, Families for Justice as Healing; executive director, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls

Zach Norris, executive director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Moderated by Dehlia Umunna, clinical professor of law and faculty deputy director of the Criminal Justice Institute, Harvard Law School

The panelists work directly with people affected by incarceration, including their own life experiences and those of their lived ones; several focus on the all-too-often neglected plight of incarcerated women and girls.

Watch the Video of the Panel: