September 30, 2024, in his first event as Burns Chair, Professor Forman explored how criminal justice advocates, including those who were once incarcerated themselves, fought to make our prisons less destructive and to increase opportunity for people leaving prison. Two leaders, R. Dwayne Betts and Cassandra Cean-Owens joined him in conversation. Betts, a lawyer and poet, founder of Freedom Reads, which brought 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.
