The White House hosted a high-profile summit meeting on federal prison reform on May 18, and Carrie Pettus-Davis, who helped to organize it, sat among cabinet members. The summit “was a message to the world that the United States is ready to change how it does incarceration,” she says.
Writer and activist Shaun King and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin spoke at the Smart Decarceration Initiative’s second conference.
About 65 people participated in the October 17 event to celebrate the new book “Smart Decarceration: Achieving Criminal Justice Transformation in the 21st Century,” led by co-editor Carrie Pettus-Davis, PhD.
The Smart Decarceration Initiative will hold its second national conference, “Tools and Tactics: Promising Solutions to Advance the Era of Smart Decarceration,” November 2-4 at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.
With an era of decarceration of America’s penal system quickly approaching, a Washington University in St. Louis expert and co-editor of a new book offers concrete strategies for ushering in a metamorphosis of the criminal justice system.
The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration, spending $52 billion a year on correctional supervision and another $948 billion in related social costs.
The Smart Decarceration Initiative has launched a two-year research project to advance “deferred prosecution” programs, thanks to funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
An ambitious call to action on pressing social problems in America was issued January 14 at the Society for Social Work and Research annual conference in Washington, D.C.
Answering the call to participate in the Smart Decarceration Initiative’s first conference, about 150 people from throughout the country gathered September 24-27 at Washington University in St. Louis to work on redefining justice in America.
The United States faces the tremendous challenge of reducing its overreliance on prisons and jails. As the social and economic costs of incarceration rise, great need—and opportunity—exists to reverse the trend. The new Smart Decarceration Initiative, based at the Center for Social Development, is taking up the challenge.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this academic year, the Center for Social Development is expanding by bringing in new leaders and new bodies of work.