Accounting for Violence
How to Increase Safety and Break Our Failed Reliance on Mass Incarceration
Presentation by Danielle Sered
Organized by Friends of Restorative Justice of Washtenaw County, Citizens Alliance for Prisons and Public Spending, American Friends Service Committee Michigan Criminal Justice Program, University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency
Thursday, October 12, 2017, 4–5:30 p.m.
Gerald Ford School of Public Policy
Annenberg Auditorium, Room 1120 Weill Hall
735 South State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Reception to follow
Over 50% of people in state prisons have been convicted of violent crimes, and in recent decades the rate at which people are being incarcerated for violent crimes has been increasing even as actual crime rates have been falling. Clearly any robust solution to the problem of mass incarceration in the United States must include a better way to handle violent offenses.
Danielle Sered will speak about her experience directing Common Justice, a program of the Vera Institute of Justice that develops and advances solutions to violence that transform the lives of those harmed and foster racial equity without relying on incarceration. It is the first alternative-to-incarceration and victim-service program in the United States that focuses on violent felonies in adult courts. The evidence shows that both violence and mass incarceration can be reduced at the same time.
Under Danielle Sered’s leadership Common Justice received the Award for Innovation in Victim Services from Attorney General Holder and the federal Office for Victims of Crime in 2012. Before planning the launch of Common Justice, Danielle served as the deputy director of Vera’s Adolescent Reentry Initiative, a program for young men returning from incarceration on Rikers Island. Prior to joining Vera, she worked at the Center for Court Innovation’s Harlem Community Justice Center, where she led its programs for court-involved and recently incarcerated youth. Danielle teaches about restorative justice at CUNY and was a Rhodes Scholar.
Sponsors
American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan
Church in Society of The Good Shepherd UUC
The Dispute Resolution Center
Episcopal Church of the Incarnation
Groundcover News
Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network
Shalom Community Church
St. Mary Catholic Church Chelsea
Social Justice Council of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor
Eastern Michigan University’s Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Criminology
University of Michigan:
Department of African American Studies
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Student Affairs Committee
Law School
Medical School Office of Health Equity and Inclusion
Residential College
School of Social Work