Program of Events March 23, 2015 University of Washington School of Law Seattle, Washington This event is supported by: KEYNOTE ADDRESS Theodore Shaw Theo Shaw is a Community Advocate for Southern Poverty Law Center’s Louisiana office and fellow with the Youth Justice Leadership Institute of the National Juvenile Justice Network. Theo graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 2012, where he received a BA in Political Science. Planning on going to law school in the future, Theo has already acquired valuable experience in his area of interest, including one with the Innocence Project, a national nonprofit organization that works to free wrongfully convicted prisoners. Now as an advocate for the nonprofit civil rights organization – the Southern Poverty Law Center – Theo’s mission includes efforts to alter the course for at-risk youth, a necessary objective to keep students in school and out of correctional facilities, therefore permitting them to make positive contributions to their communities. 2 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Monday, March 23, 2015 8:30-9:00 am REGISTRATION 9:00-9:05 am WELCOME Gates Hall, Room 138 Caitlin David Carlson | Legal Foundation of Washington Michele Storms | University of Washington School of Law 9:05-9:30 am KEYNOTE ADDRESS Gates Hall, Room 138 Theodore Shaw | Southern Poverty Law Center 9:30-11:00 am PLENARY SESSION Gates Hall, Room 138 “Beyond Mass Incarceration – Charting a New Path” Our system of mass incarceration is increasingly seen as both a cause and symptom of major inequities in our culture. This panel will assess the current situation and analyze the forces at play that brought us to this point. Panelists will discuss ways of moving forward from a variety of perspectives, including law enforcement, policy advocates and law makers. The Honorable Judith Hightower | Seattle Municipal Court Moderator Starcia Ague | Juvenile Justice and Rehabilitation Administration Alison Holcomb | ACLU Campaign To End Mass Incarceration Senator Pramila Jayapal | Washington State Legislature Chief Deputy Jim Pugel | King County Sheriff's Office 11:00-11:15 am SHORT BREAK 3 11:15 am-12:00 pm BREAKOUT SESSIONS – PART 1: Introductions and Agenda Setting FAMILY CONNECTEDNESS Focus: Family Law, Prison Phone and Video Visitation Issues, Impacts on Families of Incarcerated Individuals Gates Hall, Room 115 Lillian Hewko | Washington Defenders Association Elizabeth Hendron | Northwest Justice Project Facilitators HEALTH AND WELLNESS Focus: Mental Health, Medical and Mental Health Care in Prison, Affordable Care Act (ACA) Implementation Gates Hall, Room 116 Rachael Seevers | Disabilities Rights Washington Elisabeth Smith | Northwest Health Law Advocates Facilitators REMOVING STIGMAS AND BARRIERS Focus: Impacts of a Criminal Record, Sealing and Vacating Issues, Housing, Employment, Education Gates Hall, Room 117 Stacey Reeh | University Beyond Bars Rhona Taylor | Columbia Legal Services Facilitators FINANCIAL SECURITY Focus: Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs), Child Support, Relicensing, Consumer Debt Gates Hall, Room 119 Glenna Awbrey | STAR Project Tony Leahy | CENTS Facilitators DE-INCARCERATION Focus: Ending and Reducing Mass Incarceration, Alternatives to Incarceration, Sentencing Reform Julie Schaeffer | Center For Justice Aurora Martin| Columbia Legal Services Facilitators 4 Gates Hall, Room 127 12:00-12:45 pm LUNCH BREAK Boxed lunch will be available at the Registration tables for all registered attendees 12:45-2:00 pm BREAKOUT SESSIONS – PART 2: Discussions and Next Steps Session will take place in the same rooms as Part 1 sessions 2:00-2:15 pm SHORT BREAK 2:15-3:15 pm RECONVENING Gates Hall, Room 138 Merf Ehman | Columbia Legal Services Moderator 3:15-4:30 pm PLENARY SESSION Gates Hall, Room 138 “Beyond Mass Incarceration – Building Transformative Movements” Now is a hopeful time for people seeking to reform the criminal justice system, as progressive and conservative reformers, and over twothirds of the American people, all support major overhauls to our costly and counterproductive criminal justice system. Yet reducing the rate of imprisonment won’t ameliorate the harms it has inflicted on communities of color or solve underlying problems that produced mass incarceration to begin with. This panel will get behind the sound bites that far too often dominate the conversation around criminal justice reform to have deeper dialogue around grassroots efforts to address mass incarceration and its consequences. We’ll consider what it might take to build a larger community-based movement, why such a movement is needed, and how we can play a role. Nikkita Oliver | Gates Scholar For Public Service Moderator Nick Allen | Columbia Legal Services Charisse Domingo | Silicon Valley De-Bug Lillian Hewko | Incarcerated Parents Project, Washington Defenders Association Shayne Rochester | Evergreen Manor (Partnership for Families Project/SAMHSA) Dustin Washington | Community Justice Program, American Friends Service Committee 4:30-5:30 pm RECEPTION Gates Hall, Room 115 5 ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS Starcia Ague is currently a Youth and Family Advocate Administrator with Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services at Juvenile Justice and Rehabilitation Administration. This is a continuation of her interest in ensuring that Washington’s juvenile justice system actively engages incarcerated youth with empowering programs and measures. In 2014 was selected as a SOROS Justice Fellow by the Open Society Foundation. She was recently appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice. Nick Allen is a staff attorney with Columbia Legal Services in its Institutions Project. Charisse Domingo is an organizer and trainer with Silicon Valley De-Bug's Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project (ACJP). ACJP is the creator of participatory defense— a community organizing model for people facing charges, their families and communities that impacts the outcome of cases and transforms the landscape of power in the court system. Charisse has been part of ACJP since its inception. She is also a documentary photographer. Lillian Hewko, Incarcerated Parents Project attorney at the Washington Defender Association, assists defense attorneys representing incarcerated parents and develops legislative policy and advocacy strategies to help reduce the chances of family separation and parental incarceration. She is a founding board member of the Incarcerated Mothers Advocacy Project (IMAP), which provides legal information and resources for individuals in prison and advocates for systemic change. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Legal Voice in 2013, she helped lead the passage of the Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill, SHB 1284. 6 Judith Hightower has been a Municipal Court Judge for the City of Seattle since 1991. Rather than seeking an appointment, Judge Hightower filed as a write-in candidate in the primary election. She far exceeded the necessary 5% of votes needed to be placed on the general ballot. Her grass roots campaign garnered 35% of the votes cast in her position. She has a passion for access to justice issues and has been a member of the State Bar’s Access to Justice Board’s Education Committee and former Advisory Board member of the Seattle University Law School’s Access to Justice Institute. Alison Holcomb’s work has included the creation of Seattle and King County’s groundbreaking Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program that has reframed police thinking about low-level street crime and public safety. She also served on the Council’s Jail Capacity Study Advisory Group, assisting with the assessment of whether the city’s need for jail beds could be reduced by relying less on jail time and more on treatmentfocused approaches to both misdemeanor and felony lower-level drug offenders. Senator Pramila Jayapal is serving her first term in the Washington State Senate, representing the 37th Legislative District. Her home of nearly twenty years, the 37th is one of the most racially and economically diverse districts in Washington state. She has spent the last twenty years working both internationally and domestically as a leading national advocate for women’s, immigrant’s, civil and human rights. She is the founder and former Executive Director of OneAmerica, Washington state’s largest immigrant advocacy organization, where she led one of the largest voter registration efforts in the state, helping over 23,000 New Americans to register to vote. Nikkita Oliver is a former teacher, community organizer, and artist working towards a JD and Masters of Education at the University of Washington. 7 Prior to joining the King County Sheriff’s Office Jim Pugel was Chief at the Seattle Police Department (SPD), where he began his career as a volunteer officer and then was hired as a police officer in 1983. Jim accepted the position of Assistant Chief in 2001, and served in several capacities – the Operation Bureau Chief, the Field Support Bureau Chief and then the Criminal Investigation Bureau Chief. He retired after 31 years of service in April of 2014, then in September of last year came out of retirement to accept the position of Chief Deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Office. Shayne Rochester is a community advocate and formerly incarcerated father who successfully reunified with his child after being involved in the child welfare system. A survivor of addiction, incarceration and the child welfare system, he does peer-to-peer advocacy helping CPS involved families in his roles as a member of the Washington State Parent Advocacy Network, the Snohomish County Parent Advocacy Committee, Family Case Manager at Evergreen Manor (Partnership for Families Project/SAMHSA), facilitator for the Fatherhood Engagement Program and the Life After CPS program. In 2013, he helped lead the passage of the Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill. Michele Storms serves as Assistant Dean for Public Service law at the University of Washington School of Law. She has been a civil legal aid attorney and a clinical law instructor working most often in the areas of domestic violence, child welfare and related issues. Over the years Ms. Storms has provided training and has written on topics such as leadership and diversity and has served as a facilitator for meetings and retreats for non-profit organizations. Ms. Storms is grateful to have been able to devote her entire legal career to public service and law, and is doubly grateful to be in a position now to encourage and support others in pursuing similar paths. 8 Dustin Washington is the Director of the Community Justice program with the American Friends Service Committee, Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health and a Core-Trainer with the Peoples Institute Northwest. Dustin also served as Interim Manager of the Race and Social Justice Initiative for the City of Seattle in 2014. Dustin coordinates the Tyree Scott Freedom School project, the Youth Undoing Institutional Racism organizing collective and leads a juvenile justice transformation project, End the Prison Industrial Complex (EPIC). Dustin’s work in Juvenile justice centers on interrupting the school to prison pipeline, developing a community based anti-racist restorative justice project for youth and stopping the construction of a new youth detention center. NOTES 9 NOTES 10