Accounting for violence: How to increase safety and break our failed reliance on mass incarceration
Date & time
Location
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow.
About the event:
Over 50% of people in state prisons have been convicted of violent crimes, and in recent decades the rate at which people are being incarcerated for violent crimes has been increasing even as actual crime rates have been falling. Clearly any robust solution to the problem of mass incarceration in the United States must include a better way to handle violent offenses.
Danielle Sered will speak about her experience directing Common Justice, a program of the Vera Institute of Justice that develops and advances solutions to violence that transform the lives of those harmed and foster racial equity without relying on incarceration. It is the first alternative-to-incarceration and victim-service program in the United States that focuses on violent felonies in adult courts. The evidence shows that both violence and mass incarceration can be reduced at the same time.
Under Danielle Sered’s leadership Common Justice received the Award for Innovation in Victim Services from Attorney General Holder and the federal Office for Victims of Crime in 2012. Before planning the launch of Common
Justice, Danielle served as the deputy director of Vera’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. Danielle teaches about restorative justice at CUNY and was a Rhodes Scholar.
Co-sponsors as of Sept. 6, 2017:
ACLU of Michigan, AFSC Michigan Criminal Justice Program, Church of the Good Shepherd, Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, Community Members of Washtenaw County, Dispute Resolution Center, Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, Friends of Restorative Justice of Washtenaw County, Groundcover News, Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency, Michigan UU Social Justice Network, Shalom Community Church, Social Justice Council of UU of Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Law School, Medical School Office of Health Equity and Inclusion, Residential College, School of Social Work