Upcoming Justice Events at Middlebury

Be sure to check out these really great upcoming events dealing with many of the issues examined through the symposium! This is an incredible opportunity to learn more about alternatives to the policing, surveillance, and punishment model of justice we've become adjusted to, and broaden Middlebury's discourse on justice issues.

Trans/Immigration and Prison Abolition
March 21 // 7:00 pm // Hillcrest 103 (Orchard)

In this lecture, Owen Daniel-McCarter will discuss the particular legal issues faced by transgender immigrants of color in the U.S., including an analysis of how current immigration policies disproportionately bar trans people of color from gaining citizenship, and how immigrant detainment practices uphold systems of misogynist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic violence. The lecture will address why these struggles are of concern to the Prison Abolition and Transformative Justice movements, and will conclude by outlining next steps that activists can take in dismantling interlocking systems of oppression. Owen-Daniel McCarter is the founding collective member and project attorney for the Transformative Justice Law Project (TJLP) in Chicago, which provides free, holistic legal services to poor transgender people of color targeted by the legal system throughout Illinois. Learn more here http://tjlp.org/.

Resisting the State: Transforming Justice
March 22 // 4:30 pm // Hillcrest 103 (Orchard)

In this workshop, Owen Daniel-McCarter and Baylie Roth '9.5 will lead a discussion of how state-sponsored systems of control negatively effect and create divisions among oppressed communities, including people of color, folks with disabilities, immigrants, women, poor people, and transgender people. We will question whether current national legal battles demanding things like hate crimes legislation, marriage recognition, and decriminalization of queer sex are harmful to our communities. The workshop will conclude with collective dreaming about what lessons can be shared among activists organizing both on and off college campuses, and how we can transform justice, empower disempowered communities, and push for liberation from institutional systems of control over our bodies. Owen-Daniel McCarter is the founding collective member and project attorney for the Transformative Justice Law Project (TJLP) in Chicago, which provides free, holistic legal services to poor transgender people of color targeted by the legal system throughout Illinois. Learn more here http://tjlp.org/.

Alternatives to Juvenile Incarceration

Juvenile incarceration has proven to be a tricky matter for the justice system. As symposium speakers Juliana Ratner (of the Free Minds Book Club) and John Perry (former Director of Planning for the VT State Department of Corrections) discussed this past Tuesday, incarceration of our youth at an early age often interrupts the normal life course development, schooling, and hopes for employment in adulthood. Most states set the age of adult prosecution around 16, which is now being questioned as too young for defendants to actually be making the decisions expected of an adult- Vermont, however, despite its liberal tendencies, legally prosecutes anyone over age 10 as an adult. While Vermont may continue to prosecute 10 year olds as adults, many states are reconsidering this; check out this NYT article on states prosecuting fewer teenagers in adult courts for more details on the developments in different states.

If you want to get involved, also be sure to check out the Free Minds Book Club writing blog, where young men who have been incarcerated in the DC prison system post their poetry and writing. They love getting feedback and comments, so you're definitely encouraged to comment or write to them!

Incarceration and Re-entry: The Inside Story

There are now over 2 million people incarcerated in the United States. While blacks represent about 12% of the total US population, they make up 39% of the prison population. The statistical evidence for the disproportionate incarceration of America's black population is undeniable, yet the majority of Americans rarely question this reality and take action to amend this disparity.

However, beyond the statistics, there are people, faces, families, and stories behind each of those 2 million inmates. Please join us on Thursday March 3 to hear Eddie Ellis, a former prisoner and prison rights activist, speak about his experience serving a 15 year sentence and his work in creating a model for re-entry for former inmates re-entering society. Check out this Washington Post article on Eddie and his re-entry handbook, and come with lots of questions tomorrow! Also, be sure to come to the Gamut Room at 9 pm for a Verbal Onslaught event: "Expressions of the Justice System." Everyone is welcome to share their justice-related poetry or spoken word!

Eddie Ellis, "The Story from the Outside and Within"
Thursday March 3, 4:30 pm BiHall 220


Expressions of the Justice System with Verbal Onslaught
featuring Eddie Ellis
Thursday March 3, 9 pm Gamut Room