What are Prisons For?
A two-part webinar series for reporters and editors
On this page you can see video recordings of the conference, research papers and other resource materials, and media coverage, including stories by Reporting Fellows. Please bookmark this page and check back periodically!
INDEX
Click here for Agenda and Bios of speakers.
Click here to see a reference library of research, essays and journal articles on prisons and punishment.
Click here to see media coverage.
Click here to see Fellows articles.
Click here to see webinar recordings of the sessions.
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More than two centuries ago, American penal reformers founded the nation’s first prison. Conceived according to Quaker concepts of rehabilitation and penitence, the Walnut Street Jail (later renamed Walnut Street Prison) in Philadelphia, was no soft landing. Inmates were confined to solitary cells, where they were expected to reflect on their sins. Nevertheless, the project attracted praise from many observers, including Europeans. Charles Dickens, who knew a bit about prisons, called the system “kind and humane.”
What would he think today? The United States was the world’s top jailer in 2021. The number of men and women behind bars declined slightly at the height of the pandemic, from over two million to 1.8 million. But the U.S. still leads the world in the number of incarcerated people per 100,000 residents. Numbers are only a part of the story. Most of America’s incarcerated live in conditions varying from the just passable to the intolerable. For these individuals, housed in aging facilities, under the care of overworked and often hostile corrections staff, the rehabilitation envisaged by the dreamers of Walnut Street is (mostly) a distant dream.
Unease over the “American Way of Punishment” isn’t new. Fifty years ago, the uprising at Attica prison in New York focused attention on the abysmal state of American prisons―and led to some incremental reforms. But something may have changed. Driven by activists, scholars, corrections leaders and former inmates, a broader debate is emerging that reprises the fundamental question confronting the reformers in Philadelphia two centuries ago. What is a prison for? A seminal essay published last spring by two of the country’s leading criminologists—Jeremy Travis and Bruce Western—gave the question more clarity. Arguing it was past time to end the “era of punitive excess,” they asked “How can society respond to harm while minimizing the imposition of punishment?”
On November 3 and November 4, 2021, the Center on Media, Crime and Justice (CMCJ) hosted a webinar series aimed at addressing both questions. With the support of Arnold Ventures, the webinar invited some of the country’s leading thinkers about incarceration as well as innovative practitioners in corrections and the law to help journalists understand (and cover) the scope of the debate. Featured speakers included former Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, author of Between Vengeance and Forgiveness; Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, former U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner; Jeremy Travis, Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures; Baz Dreisinger, founder of the Incarceration Nations Network; and New York City Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi.
For a full list of Reporting Fellows, click here.
Please watch this space for updates.
REFERENCE LIBRARY
Prosecutor Mercy, Prof. Lee Kovarsky, Bryant Smith Chair in Law and Co-Director, Capital Punishment Center, University of Texas School of Law, New Criminal Law Review.
Ten Trends to Watch, by Danielle Sered, Common Justice.
Fatalism and Indifference: The Influence of the Frontier on American Criminal Justice, (forthcoming) by Michael Tonry, McKnight Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and Policy at the University of Minnesota Law School.
The Era of Punitive Excess, Jeremy Travis and Bruce Western, Brennan Center on Justice series, April 2021.
MEDIA COVERAGE
New York City Models ‘Post-Mass Incarceration’ Future: Jail Chief
Is It Time to Rethink the American Way of Punishment? The Crime Report, Nov. 4, 2021
Criminal Justice Reform Will ‘Save Democracy’: Krasner The Crime Report, Nov. 5, 2021
FELLOWS ARTICLES
MICHAEL BARAJAS
Decarcerating from the Bench, Bolts Magazine, March 7 2022
RON BERLER
Yes, it’s easier to get a gun than a job at Domino’s, Houston Chronicle, Op ED, July 5, 2022
CHANDRA BOZELKO
Could Separate Facilities for Transgender Inmates Save Lives? The Crime Report, December 21, 2021.
Five Myths about Gangs. The Washington Post, December 17, 2021.
Vaccine mandates should cover the incarcerated, too, not just prison guards and workers. STAT News, November 18, 2021.
CASSIE CHEW, CapitalB
The Rise and Fall of Prison Education, CapitalB, Jan 31, 2022
DAVID DUDLEY, St. George News
SYLVIA HARVEY, The Imprint
WISTA JEANNE JOHNSON
The Repeating Trauma of Black Gunshot Survivors
DYLAN SMITH, Tucson Sentinel
Innovative Pima County Drug Court is National Model
CHARLOTTE WEST, Open Campus
WEBINAR RECORDINGS
For a complete list of Speakers and their bios please click here.
NOVEMBER 3
SESSION ONE – KEYNOTE
Martha Minow, Former Dean, Harvard Law School (39:51)
SESSION TWO – HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Frank Baumgartner, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Christine Montross, Author, Jeremy Travis, Arnold Ventures [58:37]
Moderator: Maurice Possley
SESSION THREE – CHANGING THE FRAMEWORK
The Hon. Angel Harris, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court; Erin Kelly, Tufts University; Sydney McKinney, National Black Women’s Justice Institute; Stephanie Morales, DA, Portsmouth, VA. [1:15:18]
Moderator: Stephen Handelman
return to index
SESSION FOUR – PUNISHMENT AND POLITICS
Charles Allen, Council Member Ward 6, District of Columbia; Michael Romano, Three Strikes and Justice Advocacy Project, Stanford Law School; Steven Wasserman, National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys. [55:53]
Moderator: Stephen Handelman
NOVEMBER 4
SESSION FIVE – FUTURE WITHOUT MASS INCARCERATION?
The Hon. Nancy Gertner, Harvard Law School; Renaldo Hudson, Illinois Prison Project; Lee Kovarsky, University of Texas at Austin; Larry Krasner, District Attorney, Philadelphia County. [1:10:44]
Moderator: Stephen Handelman
SESSION SIX – HUMAN RIGHTS BEHIND BARS
Amy Fettig, The Sentencing Project; Terah Lawyer-Harper, Homecoming Project/Impact Justice; Vincent Schiraldi, Commissioner, New York City Department of Correction. [1:11:40]
Moderator: Maurice Possley
SESSION SEVEN – LESSONS FROM ELSEWHERE
Baz Dreisinger, Incarceration Nations Network/John Jay College; Lila Kazemian, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. [1:03:41]
Moderator: Stephen Handelman
SESSION EIGHT – COVERING THE DEBATE
Danielle Sered, Common Justice [1:01:17]
Facilitators: Stephen Handelman, Maurice Possley