Redefining Justice in America

Friday, September 25, 2015
6:00-7:30 PM
Edison Theatre, Washington University in St. Louis

John T. Chisholm is the chair of the national Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. He is the district attorney of Milwaukee County, and his office handles criminal cases for the State of Wisconsin in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

As district attorney, Mr. Chisholm organizes his office to work closely with neighborhoods through his nationally recognized Community Prosecution program. He designed a Child Protection Advocacy Unit to better serve child victims, formed a Public Integrity Unit to focus on public corruption and developed a Witness Protection Unit to thwart attempts to intimidate victims and witnesses of crime. He helped start the drug treatment court and participated in Milwaukee County’s selection as a seed site for the National Institute of Corrections’ Evidence Based Decision Making framework.

Mr. Chisholm is a U.S. Army Veteran and worked with the Veterans’ Administration and partners to establish resources for veterans who encounter the criminal justice system in Milwaukee County, resulting in the Veterans Treatment Initiative and Treatment Court.

A decarceration leader with JustLeadershipUSA, Ronald D. Simpson-Bey is committed to cutting the national prison population in half by 2030. As a program associate for the Criminal Justice Program at American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he leads the restorative justice co-mentorship program, known as The Good Neighbor Project. This groundbreaking program – the only one of its kind in the state – is designed to shift public discussion and discourse on punishment.

Mr. Simpson-Bey also is a research assistant at the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work, where he studies the impact of re-entry on the formerly incarcerated and their families. He is part of the newly formed Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration in Michigan and the Nation Outside Organization.

Mr. Simpson-Bey is a co-founder and advisory board member of the Chance for Life organization in Detroit. He comes to this work from many perspectives. He served 27 years in the Michigan prison system as an engaged, thoughtful and creative leader, founding many enrichment programs rooted in transformation, redemption, and self-accountability.

Glenn E. Martin, Founder and President of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA), will moderate the discussion. JustLeadershipUSA is a national advocacy organization dedicated to cutting the US correctional population in half by 2030. Mr. Martin is a national leader and criminal justice reform advocate who spent six years in New York State prisons. He regularly contributes his expertise to national news outlets such as MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera and CSPAN on topics such as policing, decarceration, alternatives to incarceration, and reentry issues.

This special event is part of the Smart Decarceration Initiative’s inaugural conference From Mass Incarceration to Effective and Sustainable Decarceration, hosted by the Center for Social Development at Washington University’s Brown School.