SAVE THE DATE: February 14, 2013, 3 pm

SAVE THE DATE: February 14, 2013, 3 pm

The Institute for Research on Race & Public Policy Race & Disability presents:

*NOT IN MY CLASS (ROOM): RACE, DISABILITY, AND THE DILEMMAS OF DIFFERENCE*

• Alfredo J Artiles, Professor, College of Education at Arizona State University,
• Alfredo J Artiles, Professor, College of Education at Arizona State University
• Nirmala Erevelles, Professor, Educational Leadership at The University of Alabama

Moderated by

• Federico Waitoller, Assistant Professor, UIC Special Education

Location to be determined – UIC campus

What does the disproportional representation of students of color in special education tell us about how education addresses intersecting forms of difference? How do race and disability interlock in the history and the present of education? A panel of scholars will grapple with these questions and engage the audience in a conversation about race and disability, addressing discourses about difference and normality that affect institutional policies and practices.

October 10th at UIC: Liat Ben-Moshe “Deinstitutionalization, imprisonment and the politics of abolition””

October 10, 2012 at 3 p.m.
Liat Ben-Moshe
Visiting Senior Research Specialist, Institute on Disability and Human Development, UIC
Cosponsors: IRRPP Race and Disability Series, and UIC Department of Disability and Human Development
“Deinstitutionalization, imprisonment and the politics of abolition”

Institute for the Humanities
Lower level Stevenson Hall
701 South Morgan, University of Illinois at Chicago

LILLIAN AND LARRY GOODMAN DRUG PREVENTION SYMPOSIUM AND AWARDS CEREMONY: ADDRESSING STIGMA IN PREVENTION

This inaugural awards ceremony and symposium on addressing stigma in prevention will be held at Roosevelt University on October 11, 2012 from 3pm to 5pm in the Murray Green Library, followed by a networking reception from 5pm to 6pm. This event is free and open to the public. For professionals who register, two CEUs and CPDUs will be available. The event is co-sponsored by the Cebrin Goodman Center and Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy and our College of Education.

Author and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg will deliver the keynote speech and share his own struggles with alcohol, followed by a panel discussion with a team of experts on substance use, abuse and stigma. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker will emcee the event
.
Where: 430 S. Michigan Avenue, 10th Floor, Murray Green Library
When: October 11, 2012 from 3pm to 5pm. Networking from 5pm to 6pm.
Cost: Free and open to the public, but please register in advance at this link:

http://goodmansymposium.eventbrite.com/

Who: Alumni, teachers, students, professional counselors and preventionists. Two CEUs and CPDUs will be offered.

Stigma plays a significant role in the field of substance abuse prevention–from asking for help or getting treatment, to being perceived as an addict/alcoholic or the opposite–as not being part of the “in” crowd if one is not using. The panel discussion will include the following individuals:
• Peter Palanca (Moderator), Vice President, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities
• Sara Howe, CEO, Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association
• Dr. Celeste Napier, Professor, Department of Pharmacology at Rush University and Director of the Research and Recovery Center for Compulsive Behaviors and Addiction
• Terry London, Assistant Director, Chicago Institute for Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy
• Neil Steinberg, Writer, Chicago Sun-Times and author of Drunkard: A Hard Drinking Life
• Dr. Kristina Peterson, Assistant Professor of Counseling and Human Services, Roosevelt University.
Roosevelt University, College of Education, is an approved continuing education provider and will offer two (2.0) Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Professional Development Units (CPDUs) for educational professionals and two (2.0) National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) clock hours (CEUs) for mental health, prevention and treatment professionals.

For more information contact Kathie Kane-Willis at kkane@roosevelt.edu

New Report on Recidivism in the Illinois Juvenile Justice System

Published by illinoiscriminaljustice.org on September 5, 2012

A new report published by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) offers a snapshot of recidivism in the State juvenile justice system. Selected key findings from the report include the following: 86% of youth were re-arrested within 3 years of release; 95% of youth sentenced for a drug offense were re-arrested within 3 years of release; 68% of youth were re-incarcerated within 3 years of release; and 34% of youth were re-incarcerated as adults. Click here for the full report.

Roosevelt University’s Joseph Loundy Human Rights Project and Department of Psychology present the Second Annual Wrongful Conviction Distinguished Speaker Series

We are honored to welcome Joey Mogul, JD, Partner,  People’s Law Office, and Darrell Cannon, Police Torture Survivor and Activist.

Wed, Oct. 3, 4:00- 5:30pm, Gage Gallery of Roosevelt University, 18 S Michigan Avenue, Chicago

Darrell Cannon’s false confession after torture by police in 1983 led to his conviction for murder and a life sentence. He won a reversal of the conviction, but he was again convicted at a second trial. On appeal, Cannon’s lawyers informed the court of 28 newly discovered cases of torture and abuse by the same Burge henchmen who had tortured Cannon, and the Court issued a landmark decision granting Cannon a new hearing at which he could use this evidence to show that his confession was tortured from him. The case was again returned to the trial court, and, after a protracted evidentiary hearing that focused on the pattern and practice of police torture, the State of Illinois dismissed Cannon’s case in 2004. After another lengthy legal battle, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board finally rescinded a parole hold that was premised on the dismissed murder conviction and Cannon was released from prison in 2007 – – 24 years after he was wrongfully convicted.

Joey L. Mogul is a partner at the People’s Law Office in Chicago, Illinois and Director of the Civil Rights Clinic at DePaul University College of Law. Mogul’s practice focuses on representing individuals who have suffered from police and other governmental misconduct in civil rights cases, and defending individuals in criminal and capital cases. Mogul has worked to seek justice for Chicago Police torture survivors for the last fourteen years, which included presenting the cases to UN Committee Against Torture and the Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland in 2006. Mogul’s practice has also included representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in criminal and civil proceedings involving police and prisoner torture, abuse and misconduct. Mogul previously published The Dykier, the Butcher, the Better: the State’s Use of Homophobia and Sexism to Execute Women in the United States in the New York City Law Review and with co-author Ritchie, In the Shadows of the War on Terror: Persistent Police Brutality and Abuse of People of Color in the United States in the DePaul Journal for Social Justice. Mogul has spoken widely before both legal and popular audiences on the state’s use of homophobic, sexist and racist arguments in criminal cases and has devised legal training to counter such efforts. Mogul has also worked as an activist with Queer to the Left in Chicago, Illinois, the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights and with others to challenge the death penalty, torture by law enforcement officials, gentrification and supermax conditions. Mogul is an Oberlin College graduate and earned a juris doctorate from City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law.

Free and open to the public.  Brief reception follows, and copies of Mogul’s most recent book, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States, will be available for purchase.
The series is cosponsored by the Justice Council of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s School of Law.
For more information, contact Professor Bethany Barratt at bbarratt@roosevelt.edu or Professor Shari Berkowitz at sberkowitz@roosevelt.edu

Future Speakers and Dates:
October 24, 2012: Joshua A. Tepfer, J.D. & Terrill Swift
4-5:30pm in the Gage Gallery
TALK TITLE: Convenient Scapegoats: The Englewood Four and Juvenile Confessions
Josh Tepfer is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Northwestern University School of Law. As project coordinator and staff attorney for the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, he has been instrumental in helping to secure the freedom of wrongfully convicted individuals, including members of the Dixmoor Five and the Englewood Four.
Terrill Swift is one of five Englewood teenagers wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. Despite pretrial DNA testing that excluded all five, four of them were convicted until the Center on Wrongful Convictions linked DNA recovered from the victim to Johnny Douglas. Mr. Swift was released from prison in 2012 after serving more than 15 years.
November 1, 2012: Geoffrey R. Loftus, Ph.D.
4-5:30pm in the Gage Gallery
TALK TITLE: Why should juries be told about human perception and memory?
Dr. Loftus is a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, and is well-regarded as a leading expert in human memory and perception. As such, Dr. Loftus has been permitted to testify as an expert witness on perception, memory, statistics, and video-game behavior in approximately 320 civil and criminal cases. Dr. Loftus routinely lectures all around the world on his research, and is known both nationally and internationally for his work. He is also the recipient of several grants and has received grants from both the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health. He is the author of seven books and approximately 100 scientific articles, and has published in prestigious journals including, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review and Law & Human Behavior. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, his B.A. from Brown University, and completed a post-doc at New York University.
November 14, 2012: Richard A. Leo, Ph.D./JD
4-5:30pm in the Gage Gallery
TALK TITLE: False Confessions: Causes, Consequences, Solutions.
Richard A. Leo, PhD, JD, joined the law faculty of the University of San Francisco in 2006, after a decade as a tenured professor of psychology and criminology at UC Irvine and prior to that as a professor of sociology and adjunct professor of law at the University of Colorado, Boulder for three years. Dr. Leo is nationally and internationally known for his pioneering empirical research on police interrogation practices, the impact of Miranda, psychological coercion, false confessions, and wrongful convictions. Dr. Leo has authored more than 80 articles in leading scientific and legal journals as well as several books. According to the University of Chicago Leiter rankings, Dr. Leo is one of the most cited criminal law and procedure professors in the United States. He is regularly invited to lecture and present training sessions to lawyers, judges, police, forensic psychologists, and other criminal justice professionals. Dr. Leo is also often called to advise and assist practicing attorneys and has served as a litigation consultant and/or expert witness in hundreds of criminal and civil cases. Dr. Leo has worked on many high profile cases involving false confessions, including the cases of Michael Crowe, Earl Washington, Kerry Max Cook, Medell Banks, Angela Swartout, the Beatrice Six, and two of the Central Park jogger defendants. The work Dr. Leo did to help free four innocent prisoners in Virginia (known as the “Norfolk 4”) was the subject of a story in The New Yorker magazine in 2009 and a PBS Frontline documentary in 2010. Dr. Leo received his AB at UC Berkeley, his MA at the University of Chicago, and his PhD and JD at UC Berkeley.

Making Policy Come to Life

COFI REPORT FINAL Aug 14

Qualitative Study of COFI Peace Centers for Restorative Justice in the Brunson Math and Science Specialty Elementary School and the  Wells Community Academy High School

Conference on Violence in the Lives of Girls

Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls and Young Women

The Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women is hosting a conference about Violence in the Lives of Girls on September 14 and 15, 2012.
The purpose of the conference is to re-inject the voices of girls and young women into the conversations about violence in Chicago. Discussions about violence in the lives of Chicago youth are mostly focused on boys and largely address lethal and public violence. Within this context, girls and young women are generally silenced, and their experiences of violence are minimized and overlooked.
This gathering is divided into two days. On September 14th, adult allies who work with and support young women will share innovative intervention ideas and re-frame the discussion about violence in girls’ lives. On September 15th, several groups of young women representing Global Girls, the Illinois Caucus on Adolescent Health, and A Long Walk Home are planning and organizing their own conference.
Agenda for Friday September 14

9-9:30 a.m. Registration
9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Workshops: 1) Reconceptualizing Relationship Violence by Centering Young Women of Color
2) Healing Justice
12-1 p.m. Lunch (on your own)
1:15-3:45 p.m. Workshops: 1) Baby College for All
2) Strategy Session for Collective Responses to Teen Dating Violence

Conference Location: Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave, Room 300
Information: Space is very limited and Pre-Registration is REQUIRED. You can register HERE – Registration will close once we reach our capacity.

Note:
The conference is being offered at no cost to participants but it doesn’t mean that there are no costs associated with organizing it. We are grateful to the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation for providing the space for the conference, special thanks to all of the facilitators who are donating their time, and finally a huge amount of appreciation to all of the conference planners.
Please also keep in mind that we anticipate that many people will want to attend this gathering. Space is however limited so that we can have engaged conversation and discussion. With this in mind, we ask that you DO NOT register if you are not certain that you will attend. We want to insure that those who are able to attend are not turned away. So we ask that you not register unless you are certain that you will attend the event. We really mean this. Thanks in advance for your consideration.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
9:30 to 12:00 p.m.
Title: Healing Justice
Facilitators: Stacy Erenberg (Young Women’s Empowerment Project), Tanuja Jagernauth (YWEP, Sage), Sangeetha Ravichandran (A Long Walk Home)
Wondering how you can incorporate Self Care and Healing Justice into your work with youth? Then look no further! Join Sangeetha Ravichandran (A Long Walk Home), Stacy Erenberg (Young Women’s Empowerment Project, Sage Community Health Collective), and Tanuja Jagernauth (YWEP, Sage) for an interactive and popular education-style Arts-and-Body-Based Exploration of Self Care and Healing Justice. Participants will collectively define Self Care and Healing Justice and adapt an example curriculum to weave in Self Care and Healing Justice activities. Expect to have fun and walk away with tools you can use to create your own Self Care and Healing Justice curriculum for young people.

Title: Reconceptualizing Relationship Violence by Centering Young Women of Color
Facilitator: Mariame Kaba (Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Project NIA) and Scheherazade Tillet (A Long Walk Home)
Over the past 20 years, several teen dating violence and date rape curricula have been developed to educate youth about the warning signs and dynamics of abuse. This seems to be a good time for adult allies, youth workers, and educators to assess whether these curricula are relevant to the current lived realities particularly of young women of color. How should relationship violence prevention programs and curricula be re-conceptualized to meet the specific needs of young women of color in Chicago? Participants in this workshop will discuss the strengths and limitations of current teen dating violence and date rape curricula and programs. They will leave with specific ideas for how to more effectively intervene particularly with young women of color who are experiencing violence in their lives and relationships.

1:15 to 3:45 p.m.
Title: Baby College for All
Facilitators: Katy Groves (Youth Service Project) and Chez Rumpf (Center for Urban Research and Learning, Loyola University and Project NIA)
This workshop seeks to shift the framework around teen pregnancy and parenting. Pregnant and parenting teen girls often are pathologized as deviant young people who have become pregnant as a result of their personal deficiencies and problems. As such, services targeting these young women often attempt to “fix” or “reform” them through individual-level interventions. This workshop will engage participants in imagining ways to de-stigmatize teen pregnancy and parenting. Rather than frame teen pregnancy as a life-ending event that shoulders young women with insurmountable barriers, we will consider how to create structural supports for young mothers and how to cultivate a culture that places a high value on children.
Using a popular education approach, facilitators will lead participants through an activity to identify the current stigma and pathologizing discourse about teen pregnancy and to investigate the causes and consequences of this stigma. Through another activity, facilitators and participants will explore the historical evolution of this stigma. The workshop will close with a visioning exercise to develop concrete strategies to foster a sense of communal responsibility for children.
At the end of the workshop, participants will leave with:
• an understanding of the historical development of current discourses about teen pregnancy
• a critical assessment of these discourses
• ideas about how to create supportive environments for teen parents and their children

Title: Strategy Session for Collective Responses to Teen Dating Violence — Healing, Intervention, Accountability and Prevention/Transformation
Facilitator: Ann Russo, Building Communities, Ending Violence.
This workshop will offer the experience of a collective strategy session to show how community members might work together to effectively respond to teen relationship. The workshop will provide a structure for people to imagine collective responses that do not rely on the police or external authorities, and, if time, a chance to practice some of the skills it might take to implement them.

Stay tuned for information about the Youth-Led Girls’ and Young Women’s Conference that will take place on September 15th! We will be sharing information here on the blog about how young women can register to attend.

Feel free to share the link to the post about this event with others:
http://chitaskforce.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/violence-in-the-lives-of-girls-a-conference-for-adult-allies-september-14/