Making Room for Justice
Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson of Gary, Indiana and Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York lead the distinguished group of speakers at this year’s 11th annual John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America, scheduled for Feb 25-26, 2016, at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson
The symposium, Making Room for Justice: Crime, Public Safety & the Choices Ahead for Americans, explored the challenges of reforming the criminal justice system as the nation headed into a presidential election year.
Thanks to media attention and increasing community activism, a mainstream and bipartisan consensus for change has begun to emerge. But change will also require some difficult choices in areas for which a consensus is still elusive. Can our national debate make room for a real discussion of justice?
Topics on the 2016 agenda include federal and state perspectives on sentencing reform, a review of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (one year later), and the future of community-police relations.
Other speakers include: Al Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon university; Christine Coulter, Deputy Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department; Hassan Aden, research director at the International Association of Chiefs of Police; Sen. Gerald Malloy, chair of South Carolina’s Sentencing Reform Oversight Council; Prof. Janice Johnson-Dias, Assistant Professor, John Jay College and co-founder, GrassROOTS Community Foundation; and Keir Bradford-Gray, chief defender of the Philadelphia Defender Association.
The symposium was organized by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay, with support from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Pew Public Safety Performance Project and the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice.
A program agenda is available HERE.
Conference Coverage
‘A Different Form of Criminal Justice” Mayors address conference, by Adam Wisnieski, TCR
Camden (NJ) Chief Scott Thompson Discusses Reinventing Police
“A Draconian System Where the Innocent Plead Guilty” Judge Jedd Rakoff addresses conference.
Justice in Waiting Guggenheim speakers debate whether bipartisan justice reform movement will gain traction this year
Fellows Stories
St. John Barned-Smith, Houston Chronicle
Stopping Gun Crime, June 18, 2017
Shelly Bradbury, Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Few Who Shoot, May 29, 2016
Kathleen J. Bryan, Montana Standard
Montana’s Drug Relapse, Dec 16, 2016
Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project/The Atlantic
How Mexico Saves Its Citizens From the Death Penalty in the U.S.
Gary Craig, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Law and Disorder: The Strain of Police-Community Relations, April 26, 2016
Rui Kaneya, Honolulu Civil Beat
How Hawaii’s Prisoners End up in Facilities Across County, January 17, 2017
Amy Radil, KUOW TV-Seattle
Hard to Change Policing, April 8, 2016
Rookie Bellevue Cop Deals With Troubled Kids, April 6, 2016
Kristen Senz, New Hampshire Bar News
Child Welfare & Opioid Addiction – Part 1: Striking a Balance of Protection, Treatment May 25, 2016
Part 2: The Rising Human Cost of Addiction June 27, 2016
Lex Talamo, Shreveport Times
Modern Day Slavery: Sex Trafficking (8-part series) May 22, 2016
How Online Predators Outgun Police (May 23,2017)
Joshua Vaughn, The Sentinel
Color of Crime Series: May 20-23, 2016
“Color of Crime: Examining Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System-Part 1”
“Color of Crime: A Carlisle Mother’s View of Race-Part 2”
“Color of Crime: Preventing Bias-Based Policing-Part 3”
“Color of Crime: The Ongoing Consequences-Part 4”
Series Sept 22-26, 2016: Failure to Share Pertinent Investigation
“I-81 Shooting: The Leadup to Murder for John Wayne Strauser Jr-part 1”
“The Death of Timothy Davison–part 2”
“The Death of Amy Lou Buckingham–part 3”
“I-81 Shooting: Criminal Justice systems’ Failure to Share Pertinent Information–part 4”
Josh Vaughn wins Lee Enterprise President’s Award for his criminal justice coverage–including the series above. [Nov 16, 2016]
Spencer Woodman
(Chicago Reader-Investigative Fund; Nov 16, 2016)
“Incarcerated For Years Without Trial”
*winner of 2018 John Jay Excellence in Criminal Justice Journalism Award
Resources from the Conference
The Rise of the Crime Beat ‘News Nerds‘ —Media Case Study by David Krajicek
Sentencing and Public Safety–“Bipartisan Support for Justice Reinvestment Legislation”
Download file
Criminal Justice Journalism in 2015: Annual Review (Criminal Justice Journalists)
Crime and Justice: Does the Press Get It Right?—Commentators weigh in on the year’s coverage