Events Calendar - Month View

This Wednesday, NACDL begins a discussion series on their recently published Report on Risk Assessment Tools in the Criminal Legal System with two webinars, sponsored by MyCase. The NACDL Task Force on Risk Assessment Tools commissioned Dr. Melissa Hamilton to produce this comprehensive analysis of how risk assessment tools are developed and applied. The report is a significant contribution to the body of scholarship and resources concerning risk assessment tools. It is an in-depth and accessible resource for practitioners, policymakers, and advocates. It is designed to provide the information and guidance necessary to properly assess various risk assessment tools.

Part 1 - Overview of the NACDL Report on Risk Assessment Tools with Dr. Melissa Hamilton

This webinar will introduce the report commissioned by the NACDL titled “Risk Assessment Tools in the Criminal Legal System – Theory and Practice” and provide an overview of the issues presented when your clients are scored on standardized risk prediction instruments. Topics include a brief description on how tools are developed, what they are predicting, the potential for racial and gender biases, and types of legal challenges to consider.

(30 minute break)

Part 2 - A Lawyer‘s Overview of Risk Assessment Practices with John Philipsborn

Risk assessments of many kinds have emerged in activities from policing to post conviction release evaluations. While some of the more recent concerns have centered around the many issues arising out of algorithm-powered actuarial risk assessments, there are many more types of such assessments that the defense bar should be familiar with. John Philipsborn, who has been a criminal defense lawyer for more than 40 years, and is a frequent contributor to the NACDL Champion will discuss an overview of risk assessment.

Last summer, ProPublica, the Detroit Free Press and Bridge Michigan co-published the story of Grace (her middle name, used to protect her identity), a 15-year-old girl who had been sent to a detention center in suburban Detroit. Her offense: failing to complete online schoolwork. Our reporting spurred calls from politicians for her release and a #FreeGrace social media campaign. Less than three weeks after we broke news of the case, the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered her release.

But there was more to the story. A ProPublica analysis of Michigan’s juvenile justice system found that judges are routinely locking children up for noncriminal offenses like disobeying their parents or skipping school.

Join us for this live event moderated by ProPublica reporter Jodi S. Cohen. Other speakers include:

• Grace
• Elizabeth T. Clement, Michigan Supreme Court justice
• Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica reporter
• Sylvia Santana, Michigan state senator
• Eli Savit, Washtenaw County prosecutor
• Jason Smith, executive director of Michigan Center for Youth Justice
• Frank Vandervort, University of Michigan Law School professor

Panelists will explore the problems with and potential reforms for Michigan’s juvenile justice system, which ranks fourth in the nation — trailing only the much more populous states of California, Texas and Florida — in the number of minors held for noncriminal technical violations. We’ll also address your questions.

See all stories in the series here: https://www.propublica.org/series/grace

Supported by McKinsey and Company.

Georgetown University Department of Psychology and Georgetown Law Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative are hosting a conversation on race, adolescence, and policing with a panel of national experts.

Georgetown University Psychology Professor and Chair Dr. Jennifer Woolard will introduce a virtual "fireside chat" on the research and reality of race, adolescence, and policing with Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, Professor of African American Studies and Psychology and Founder of the Center for Policing Equity at Yale University, and Professor Kristin Henning, Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law.

This chat will then be followed by a panel discussing how these research advances can inform policy reform.

What is restorative justice and how does it show up in our communities? This webinar will answer these questions and is ideal for those who are new to the concept of restorative justice.

Impact Justice‘s National Training and Innovation Center for Restorative Justice Diversion presents this three part series. Part 2, Introduction to Restorative Justice Diversion, will be on March 10. Part 3, The Diversion Toolkit for Communities: An Overview, will be on April 13. This series is open to the public and will explore restorative justice and how it can change the way we respond to harm.

The evidence of differential treatment in the criminal justice system is overwhelming. According to the NAACP, Black and Hispanic individuals make up 32% of the population, but 56% those incarcerated. If Black and Hispanic individuals were incarcerated at the same rates as white individuals, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40%. The problems that lead to these disparities are historically-rooted, systemic and ongoing.

Join the ABA‘s Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice for a discussion of racial disparities and the criminal justice system with former North Carolina Chief Justice Cheri Beasley and former Director-General of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Ted Shaw. They will address the progress, backlashes, and personal cost of working to acknowledge and address discrimination in criminal justice, as well as guidance for future reform efforts.

Panelists include:
- Cheri Beasley – Partner, McGuireWoods; Former Chief Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
- Ted Shaw – Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights, University of North Carolina School of Law
- Malia Brink (Moderator) – Counsel for Indigent Defense, ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense

Joint Sponsor: ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense

Join the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice for a discussion about where IDJJ is headed and how it will impact youth committed to the juvenile justice system. This event will detail IDJJ‘s plans to reduce the harm of incarceration for youth in Illinois. As Juvenile Defenders, you will be offered an opportunity to provide feedback on IDJJ‘s plan for Transformation. Your participation will help to ensure that our practices improve as we seek to transform the Department.

Young people between the ages of 18-24 years old, also known as Emerging Adults, experience the worst racial disparities within the criminal justice system of any age group. Join Juvenile Law Center and its partners for this four-part webinar series featuring panels of national and local speakers examining key areas that can lead to reform.

Session One, entitled "Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region: How Do Our Laws Compare?" will examine policies affecting emerging adults nationally and in Wisconsin. The panelists will be Dominee Meek (Wisconsin Alliance for Youth Justice); Erica Nelson (Kids Forward), and Katrina Goodjoint (Juvenile Law Center).

Juvenile Defenders Dismantling Racism and CPCS Training Department present, "Commonwealth v. Evelyn - Issues in Raising Race through Expert Testimony." A discussion with
Trial counsel - Janice Bassil, Bassil & Budreau and Appellate Counsel - Hayne Barnwell, Attorney at Law.
Commonwealth v. Evelyn (485 Mass 691, September 2020) raised numerous issues to think about when litigating cases on behalf of Black youth. This discussion will primarily focus on the use of expert testimony throughout your case.
* How to work with clients to identify issues in the case.
* Thinking about reasonable suspicion and race.
* Where would an expert be helpful for the client’s case?
* How do we counteract police “experts”?
* How would Commonwealth v. Long and the use of statistics and experts to establish an inference of racial motivation, apply here?
* What kind of experts do we want? (Stereotype Threat, Implicit Racial Bias, Racial Trauma, Statistician?)
* How to create the record for appeal

The Rutgers University Law Review, in collaboration with the Rutgers Center on Criminal Justice, Youth Rights, and Race led by Laura Cohen invites you to join its annual symposium titled Prosecutors, Power, and Racial Justice: Building an Anti-Racist Prosecutorial System. The symposium will be a 4-part series discussing the power of prosecutors to perpetuate or upend the status quo of racial injustice in our criminal and juvenile legal systems. As Defenders, this symposium offers the opportunity to see how the "other side" works and hopefully make take steps toward our work in promoting an anti-racist and fair criminal justice system.



The opening date will be February 26, 2021 at 3:00pm - 5:00pm EST and will feature speaker, Angela J. Davis, author of Policing the Black Man: Prosecution and Imprisonment, who will discuss how prosecutors have contributed to racial injustice in the criminal legal system and how they might repair the damage they‘ve caused!