Institute for Justice and Opportunity

Film Premiere: Unbecoming
2018-05-15 18:00 UTC | Screening Room L.63, 524 West 59th Street, New York, NY, 10019, United States
The Prisoner Reentry Institute and The Prison Window Media Project invite you to the premiere of Unbecoming, a short narrative film produced by the incarcerated community at Otisville Correctional Facility and high school students from The High School of Art and Design.
The evening will be hosted by Malik Yoba.
Reception begins at 6 p.m.
Registration for this event is now closed.

Pinkerton Symposium: Credible Messenger Mentoring
2018-04-19 12:00 - 17:00 | Overview
Join us at John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the Pinkerton Youth Justice Symposium:
“The Intersections of Healing Justice and Credible Messenger Mentoring”
Healing Justice is a movement that is both inwardly focused on healing from the wounds inflicted from structural oppression and outwardly focused on social change. Structural issues such as poverty, unemployment, underfunded schools, incarceration, lack of access to quality health care and poor quality housing are understood as root causes of violence and trauma, which erode trusting relationships and severely constrain collective action and agency. There is growing recognition that hope and healing are critical to transformation and growth. This transformation requires us to address institutional causes of trauma while simultaneously building practices that promote well-being. Healing becomes a political action and well-being, a collective necessity.
This discussion will be held in the 2nd Floor Dining Hall at 524 West 59th Street (between 10th and 11th avenues).
Registration has closed.

Tow Fellowship Applications Due
2018-04-09
The Tow Policy Advocacy Fellowship (TPAF) provides John Jay College of Criminal Justice graduate students with hands-on internships working for successful policy advocacy organizations in New York City while they complete relevant coursework to deepen and enrich their field experiences.
TPAF is open to eligible graduate students. Please submit your application online here.

Pinkerton Fellowship Initiative: Host Site Info Session
2018-03-19 15:00 - 16:30 | Westport Building, 500 W 56th Street, New York, NY, 10019, United States
The Pinkerton Fellowship Initiative (PFI) offers organizations opportunities to work with carefully selected students from John Jay College through meaningful internships that serve justice-involved youth. PFI bridges theory and practice by getting students out of the classroom and into the real world. Fellows apply their knowledge and skills to advance both the goals of host sites and the larger field of youth justice.
Join us for an information session on March 19 at Westport Building — Room 122 (map below) from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. to learn about the ins and outs of hosting a Pinkerton Fellow!
Register here to attend the session.

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Pinkerton Fellowship Applications Due
2018-03-15 | Overview
The Pinkerton Fellowship Initiative (PFI) offers John Jay students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with leading New York City agencies committed to youth justice while engaging in complementary scholarship to contextualize their experiences.
PFI is open to eligible graduate and undergraduate students. Please submit your application online here.

The David Rockefeller Fund Fall 2017 Fellowship Presentation
2017-12-13 14:00 - 15:00 | Overview
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Part 1: Credible Messenger Mentoring
2017-10-17 12:00 - 17:00 | Overview
What It Is and How It Works: Credible Messenger Mentors in the Workplace
Please join us at John Jay College of Criminal Justice on Tuesday, October 17th, from 12:00pm-5:00pm, for a conversation on Credible Messengers. Credible messenger mentoring is a transformative group mentoring intervention for young adults in the justice system. At its heart, men and women who were themselves justice-involved are hired to engage young people in structured and intentional relationships. Transformative mentoring relies on the hiring of credible messengers as paid mentors. Because mentors share — and have overcome —similar experiences, including involvement in the justice system, young people find them trustworthy. Transformative mentoring with credible messengers has been able to successfully reach young people who were disconnected from education and employment and not otherwise inclined to participate in positive youth programming. At its best, it helps young people change their attitudes and behaviors and ultimately go on to help others, becoming mentors themselves.
This discussion will be held in the 2nd Floor Dining Hall at 524 West 59th Street (between 10th and 11th avenues). Lunch will be served at 11:30am. Speakers will begin promptly at 12:00pm.
This symposium is generously sponsored by the Pinkerton Foundation and organized by the Pinkerton Fellowship Initiative at John Jay College.
Keynote Speakers

Clinton Lacey was appointed Director of the District of Columbia Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), DC’s cabinet-level juvenile justice agency, in 2015. Before joining DYRS, Clinton served as Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Probation; Director of the Youth Justice Program at Vera Institute of Justice; and Assoc. Exec. Dir. of Friends of Island Academy. He has more than 25 years of experience working with youth and families and travels throughout the USA and abroad speaking on such issues as racial and ethnic disparity, comprehensive re-entry services, and overall youth and human development. Clinton has a B.A. in Latin American and Caribbean History from Herbert H. Lehman College (CUNY) and is a graduate of the Institute for Not-for-Profit Management at Columbia University. Clinton is married and the father of two sons and a daughter.

Ed DeJesus has served as the National Director of Workforce Development Programs and Policy at Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP) since 2014. Prior to joining YAP, he served Executive Director at STRIVE-DC and as Director at National Youth Employment Coalition prior to that. Over the past 30 years, Ed has provided technical assistance and training services to more than 100 organizations. He received his BA from Fordham University and an MS in Urban Policy Analysis from the New School for Social Research. As a Kellogg National Fellow, he focused on international youth development.

Featured Panelists
Rev. Rubén Austria, Community Connections for Youth
Sharon “Ife” Charles, CCI Save Our Streets Bronx
Eric Cumberbatch, Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice
Tyree Hicks, Institute for Transformative Mentoring
Abdul Malik, Families United for Social & Educational Development
Elizabeth Walker, Good Shepherd Services
Carl Johnson, The Children’s Village
W. Cyrus Garrett, New York City’s Young Men’s Initiative
(more speakers to be announced)
Agenda
Registration & lunch
Opening Remarks
Featured Speaker & Q&A: Clinton Lacey, Director of the District of Columbia Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS)
Ice Breaker facilitated by Credible Messenger Mentors
Panel 1 and Q&A: A conversation with young people about Why Credible Messenger Mentoring Works
Panel 2 and Q&A: Managing for Transformation: Credible Messenger Mentors in the Workplace, Opportunities and Challenges
Featured Speaker: Edward DeJesus, Acting Vice-President Maryland-DC Region/National Director of Workforce Development Programs and Policy Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP)
Closing Remarks
Registration for this event is now closed.

2017-06-28 | Overview
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2017
REENTRY RESEARCH IN THE FIRST PERSON
PRISONER REENTRY INSTITUTE OCCASIONAL SERIES ON RESEARCH IN REENTRY
BUILDING COMMUNITIES, CHANGING LIVES: THE NYC JUSTICE CORPS COMMUNITY BENEFIT PROJECTS
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
524 West 59th Street
New York, New York 10019

Registration & Breakfast: 8:30 a.m., Room 9.64
Program: 9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Presentation: Building Communities, Changing Lives: The NYC Justice Corps Community Benefit Projects Report
Discussion with:
Dr. Shadd Maruna, Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Manchester School of Law
Cyrus Garrett, NYC Young Men’s Initiative
Dr. Carson Hicks, Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity
Dianne Morales, Phipps Neighborhoods
Marlon Peterson, Soros Justice Fellow & TED Fellow
NYC Justice Corps Leadership & Alumni, Community Stakeholders, and other invited guests.
registration for this event is now closed.

Part 2: Criminalizing Gender: Best Practices, Programs and Policies that Make a Difference
2017-04-19 08:30 - 13:00
Please join us at John Jay College of Criminal Justice on Wednesday, April 19th, from 9am-1pm, for a conversation on the examination of policies and practices that impact the criminalization of young women, cis gendered, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQ youth. We will also explore the ways in which policies have influenced rates of incarceration, as well as emerging research, recommended policies and practices that show promise to respond effectively and fairly.
This discussion will be held in the 2nd Floor Dining Hall at 524 West 59th Street (between 10th and 11th avenues). Breakfast will be served at 8:30am. Speakers will begin promptly at 9:00am.
This symposium is generously sponsored by the Pinkerton Foundation and organized by the Pinkerton Fellowship Initiative at John Jay College.
Keynote Speakers

Jeannette Pai-Espinosa is currently President of the National Crittenton Foundation which advocates for the needs and potential of girls and young women faced with childhood adversity, trauma, poor outcomes and poverty. In 2013, Jeannette was recognized with the Robert F. Kennedy Embracing the Legacy award for her work supporting the empowerment of girls and young women in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Jeannette holds a master’s degree of education in student development theory, counseling, and administration.
Jeannette is currently:
• Chair, National Foster Care Coalition
• Director, National Girls Initiative – Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice
• Advisory Committee, Rights4Girls
• Advisory Committee, Women’s Services – SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Andrea Ritchie is a Black lesbian police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, and advocacy around criminalization of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color over the past two decades. She is currently Researcher-in-Residence on Race, Gender, Sexuality and Criminalization at the Social Justice Institute of the Barnard Center for Research on Women. In 2014 she was awarded a Senior Soros Justice Fellowship to engage in documentation and advocacy around profiling and policing of women of color – trans and not trans, queer and not queer. Ritchie is the author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women and Color which will be published by Beacon Press in July 2017.

Ritchie was lead counsel in Tikkun v. City of New York, groundbreaking impact litigation challenging unlawful searches of transgender people in police custody, contributing to sweeping changes to the NYPD’s policies for interactions with LGBTQ New Yorkers. She also served as co-counsel to the Center for Constitutional Rights in Doe v. Jindal, a successful challenge to Louisiana’s requirement that individuals convicted of “crime against nature by solicitation” register as sex offenders, and Doe v. Caldwell, the class action filed to remove all affected individuals from the registry, resulting in relief for over 800 class members.

Featured Panelists
Alison Cornyn, President and Creative Director of Picture Projects
Lisa Crook, Director of Juvenile Justice Services at Leake and Watts
Nina Rose Fischer, PhD, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Kylynn Grier, Policy Coordinator at Girls for Gender Equity
Tashira Halyard, J.D., Senior Associate at Center for the Study of Social Policy
Sarah Mikhail, LMSW, Director of Family & Career Development at The Center: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center
Stacey Saunders, Assistant Director for System Involved Youth at The Door – A Center of Alternatives
Felicia Mosley Smith, LMSW, Senior Director, Youth Reentry Network Friends of Island Academy
Tiffany Williams, Program Coordinator at the Administration for Children Services
Registration is now closed.

The Strength of a Woman: Film Screening and Panel Discussion
2017-03-30 17:00 - 19:00 | Overview
Registration for this event is now closed.

Criminalizing Gender: An Examination of the Intersection of Youth Justice and Gender
2017-02-23 08:30 - 13:00 | Overview
Please join us at John Jay College of Criminal Justice on Thursday, February 23rd, from 9am to 1pm, for our Winter 2017 Pinkerton Fellowship Initiative Youth Justice Symposium where we will discuss the criminalization of LGBTQ youth, young women and girls. Speakers will address questions such as:

What are the factors that lead to the criminalization of young women, cis gendered, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQ youth?
How does criminalization impact young women, cis gendered, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQ youth?

This discussion will be held in the 2nd Floor Dining Hall at 524 West 59th Street (between 10th and 11th avenues). Breakfast will be served at 8:30am. Speakers will begin promptly at 9:00am.
This symposium is generously sponsored by the Pinkerton Foundation and organized by the Pinkerton Fellowship Initiative at John Jay College.
Featured Speakers

Mariame Kaba is the founding director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization dedicated to ending youth incarceration. She is also co-founder of the Chicago Freedom School, the Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls and Young Women, the Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander among other groups. She served as co-chair of the Women of Color Committee at the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network and was a founding advisory board member of the Women and Girls Collective Action Network. Mariame currently organizes with Survived and Punished, a coalition of freedom campaigns and anti-violence organizations dedicated to advocating for survivors who live at the intersection of gender violence and criminalization. A writer, speaker, and educator on prison abolition, racial justice, and gender justice, Kaba has been honored with several awards including the Moxie Award from the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Community Advocate of the Year Award from the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network. She is a 2016 Soris Justice Fellow.

Ana Oliveira, President & CEO of The New York Women’s Foundation, has devoted over 25 years to public health for under-served populations. Ana led the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), overseeing a complete overhaul of the agency from 1998-2006. Prior to GMHC, Ana spearheaded community-based programs at Samaritan Village, the Osborne Association, Kings County, and Lincoln Hospitals. Ana served on the NYC HIV Planning Council and the NYC Commission on AIDS, chaired the NYC Commission for LGBTQ Runaway and Homeless Youth, co-chaired the Board of the Women’s Funding Network and Mayor Bloomberg’s Young Men’s Initiative. Ana was a co-chair of the Young Women’s Initiative of New York City – the first effort dedicated to young women of color, and she was appointed by Mayor DeBlasio as a Commissioner of Human Rights.

Panel Discussions

Factors that lead to criminalizationImpact of criminalization

Ashley Ellis, School for Democracy and LeadershipLiz S. Alexander, She Dreams of Freedom

Jessica L. Trudeau, GEMSDawn Rowe, Girl Vow

Lindsay Rosenthal, Vera InstituteDenise Hinds, Good Shepherd Services

Jessica D. Warner, NY Foundling & CUNYMik Kinkead, Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Sumaya Powell, Youth Speakers InstituteEbony W., Youth Speakers Institute

Registration is now closed.

13th Movie Screening and Panel Discussion
2016-11-10 17:00 - 20:00 | Overview
Register now

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Excluded: A Dialogue on Safe, Supportive, and Affordable Housing for People with Justice System Involvement
2016-10-27 08:30 - 16:30 | Overview

Guiding Principles for Responding to the Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents
2016-10-05 09:00 - 12:00 | Overview
A presentation by nationally-renowned expert Ann Adalist-Estrin, Director of the National Resource Center for Children and Families of the Incarcerated
Please join us at John Jay College on Wednesday, October 5th, from 9am to 12pm, for a guest lecture by Ann Adalist-Estrin. Ms. Adalist-Estrin will share her guiding principles, developed over decades of working with, learning from, and being inspired by children with incarcerated parents, parents, and caregivers. This event is recommended for professionals who work with children and families; those who work within law enforcement, criminal justice, and the courts; those who work on policy and systems reform; those directly affected by the criminal justice system; and any other interested/concerned individuals.
New York City Councilmember Daniel Dromm will open the event by presenting a NYC Proclamation declaring October See Us, Support Us month in honor of NYC’s children who have experienced parental incarceration. Filmmaker Ebony Underwood will also speak and introduce Ms. Adalist-Estrin.
The event, co-sponsored by the Osborne Association, will be held in John Jay College’s Moot Court, room 6.68 of the New Building. Light breakfast will be provided.

Speakers

Ann Adalist-Estrin is Director of the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Rutgers University, Camden New Jersey where she also teaches in the department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice. Under Ann’s leadership, NRCCFI has provided training and consultation to government and non-government agencies and community programs in 48 states including Sesame Street’s “Little Children, Big Challenges Campaign; Connecticut’s Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative; OJJDP Youth Violence Prevention Forum Multi Discipline Trainings on Children of Incarcerated Parents and programs in Taiwan, The Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Argentina. In 2013 Ms. Adalist-Estrin was honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change” for her work as an advocate for children and families of the incarcerated. Ann is also a Child and Family Therapist in Jenkintown, PA and a trainer for the Healthy Steps for Young Children Pediatric Training Program at Zero to Three (formerly at Boston University School of Medicine).

Daniel Dromm has been a progressive leader in Queens for over 20 years. An award-winning public school teacher, Dromm was elected to the New York City Council in 2009 and represents District 25 (Jackson Heights & Elmhurst). He serves as the Chair of the Education Committee. Prior to his election, Dromm was an award-winning New York City public school teacher at PS 199Q in Queens from 1984 to 2009. In 2006, Dromm was chosen as "Outstanding Teacher of the Year" by his school's principal and in 2009 he was chosen as "Educator of the Year" by the Kiwanis Club of Sunnyside. He has also received the Marsho-Raimo Award from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). Dromm is the founder of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee and organized the first Queens LGBT Pride Parade and Festival, which he still participates in on the first Sunday in June in Jackson Heights. Dromm co-founded the Queens Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG), as well as the Generation Q Youth Services Program in Astoria. He also helped found the Queens Pride House. Daniel Dromm graduated from Marist College and earned his master's degree at City College. He lives in Jackson Heights.

Ebony Underwood is a creative consultant, filmmaker and 2016 Soros Justice Fellow at the forefront of reform initiatives supporting children of incarcerated parents. Ebony‘s interest in this advocacy work is personal and pivotal. As a daughter of an incarcerated parent, Ebony was traumatized and emotionally devastated by her father’s incarceration, silently suffering for years. In 2013, Ebony began to speak out and share her story through film, television and social media advocacy. She has produced a documentary short, Hope for Father’s Day, about her family’s ordeal, created a website www.inprison.net, published articles in Huffington Post and Vibe to tell her story, and spearheaded the 2016 Google-initiated digital #LoveLetters campaign to demonstrate the unbreakable bond between a child and their incarcerated parent on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. She has over 15 years’ experience in the music and entertainment industry, including producing grassroots campaigns and special projects as a marketing consultant for subsidiaries of Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. Ebony is a herald voice championing for the many children and families whose voices have long been left out of the conversation. Underwood holds a BA in political science from the City College of New York, where she was a Skadden Scholar.

Registration is now closed.

PFI Symposium
2016-04-08 09:00 - 13:00 | Overview
