Featured Sessions
Opening Session
Sunday, February 8 • 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Danny
K. Davis
U.S. Congressman, IL
Everybody Deserves a Second
Congressman Davis introduced the 2nd Chance Act in the 110th congress. The act is designed to rehabilitate and to prepare ex-offenders for a healthy and positive reentry into normal society once they are released from correctional facilities and institutions and to reduce recidivism.
America has more of its people in prison than any other developed nation in the world - more than two million. The vast majority, 95 percent of the men and women in our prisons will eventually return to the community. That means that every year more than 650,000 offenders are released from state and federal prisons and return back to civilian life.
These men and women deserve a second chance. Their families, spouses and children, deserve a second chance and their communities deserve a second chance. A second chance means an opportunity to turn a life around. A chance to break the grip of a drug habit. A chance to support a family, to pay taxes, to be self-sufficient.
Today, few of those who return to their communities are prepared for their
release or receive any supportive services. When the prison door swings open, an
ex-offender may receive a bus ticket and spending money for a day or two. Many
leave prison to return to the same environment which saw them offend in the
first place. But, as they return they often face additional barriers to reentry:
serious physical and mental health problems, no place to stay and lack of
education or qualifications to hold a job. As a result two out of three will be
rearrested for new crimes within the first three years after their release.
Youthful offenders are even more likely to re-offend. Join Congressman Davis as
he discusses the key components of the second chance act and how you play a
critical role in the reentry process.
Plenary Session
Monday, February 9 • 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Bart
Lubow
Director of Programs for High-Risk Youth
Annie E. Casey Foundation Baltimore, MD
Safely Reducing Incarceration: Lessons from the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative
Learn about the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), perhaps the nation's most ambitious effort to date to demonstrate that jurisdictions can reduce reliance on secure detention without sacrificing public safety. In addition, during this informative presentation, Mr. Lubow will discuss practical and relevant strategies for reducing the criminal justice system's reliance on incarceration - focusing on what probation can do. Based on over 35 years of experience in the criminal justice with both adult and juvenile offenders, Mr. Lubow will present lessons learned relevant to the criminal justice system
Closing Session
Wednesday, February 11 • 9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Pete
Earley
Journalist
After his college age son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and became entangled in the criminal justice system, journalist Pete Earley decided to investigate why so many persons with mental disorders are being incarcerated. According to the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 305,000 persons who suffer from Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and severe and persistent depression are currently behind bars. An additional 500,000 are on probation and 700,000 go through the criminal justice system each year. In his presentation, Earley – a former Washington Post reporter and three time New York Times best-selling author will discuss his family’s struggle and the findings of a nine month investigation that he undertook inside the Miami-Dade County jail’s psychiatric cellblock where he followed a handful of psychotic inmates through the criminal justice system and into the streets to observe first-hand how they were treated. Earley will explain why jails and prisons have become our new asylums, successful alternatives to incarceration and innovative ways for states to fund mental health services.