Join us as we welcome James Forman Jr., J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law at Yale Law School, as the 2024-25 W. Haywood Burns Chair in Human and Civil Rights at CUNY Law. Professor Forman, an expert in the race and class dimensions of schools, police, and prisons and one of the editors of the new book, Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change, will host a series of panel discussions examining practical interventions to address the harms of mass incarceration.
In his first event as Burns Chair, Professor Forman will explore how criminal justice advocates, including those who were once incarcerated themselves, are fighting to make our prisons less destructive and to increase opportunity for people leaving prison. He will be joined in conversation by two leaders, R. Dwayne Betts and Cassandra Cean-Owens. Betts, a lawyer and poet, is the founder of Freedom Reads, which brings books and handcrafted bookcases into prisons, transforming cellblocks into Freedom Libraries. Cean-Owens is the Director of the REFORM Advocacy Institute at REFORM Alliance, a national organization dedicated to transforming probation and parole, where she trains advocates on how to change policy and transform lives.
A complimentary copy of Professor Forman’s new book, Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change, will be provided to a limited number of event participants upon registration and attendance. A reception and book signing will follow the panel
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