Convening discussions on prisoner reentry
AEIdeas
On Thursday December 8, the American Enterprise Institute will co-host an all-day conference with the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs to promote nonprofit, private sector, and public policy solutions to the challenges facing the formerly incarcerated. Cut50, a bipartisan initiative of The Dream Corps, and Dave’s Killer Bread Foundation are supporting partners.
Twenty20.
The event, which will take place in Baltimore at the University of Baltimore’s Learning Commons, is titled Opportunity and reentry: Creating pathways for returning citizens in Maryland and beyond.
In a similar vein across the country, Cut50 and Dave’s Killer Bread Foundation (DKBF) will co-host the Second Chance Summit: San Francisco – Working to expand employment opportunities for people with criminal backgrounds in the Bay Area on December 8th as well. The American Enterprise Institute has signed on as a supporting partner.
The two events demonstrate the growing interest of the private sector, nonprofit organizations, and policymakers in improving opportunities for “returning citizens” who face legal and social barriers to reentry in their search for legitimate, gainful employment and full participation in American society post-release.
The goal of the two conferences is to improve nonprofit, private sector, and public policy strategies for re-integrating the formerly incarcerated into economic and community life.
The AEI- University of Baltimore conference, which is divided into six panel sessions, will address a broad array of issues impacting returned citizens in Maryland and across the country.
Session I participants will discuss the Texas-based Prison Entrepreneurship Program, which provides life and business skills to inmates seeking to start their own businesses upon release. (AEI researcher Elizabeth English will release a white paper examining the program in tandem with the event.)
Session II emphasizes the role of courts in the criminal justice system reform efforts for the formerly incarcerated.
The lunch session examines the federal Pell Grant pilot program for inmates seeking undergraduate degree credit while incarcerated.
Session III focuses on innovative state and city efforts to improve outcomes for at-risk and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Session IV highlights the role the business community and employers can play in successful reentry.
Session V wraps up the conference with returned citizens reflecting on what strategies and practices make for successful reentry.
Speakers and panelists include judges, business leaders, public policy experts, nonprofit program administrators, and academics.
Opening remarks will be provided by the state of Maryland’s Secretary of Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation Kelly Schulz and the regional business association, the Greater Baltimore Committee’s, Donald Fry.
The conference builds on the ongoing work of AEI scholars and experts on criminal justice reform, work which includes:
- Nicholas Eberstadt’s March 31, 2016 op-ed in The Washington Post on the need to redeem ex-convicts and make them fully functioning members of society.
- Arthur Brooks’s address at a White House event on criminal justice reform and prisoner re-entry in April 2016.
- Stan Veuger and Harvard professor Daniel Shoag’s working paper on the economic effects of ‘ban the box’ legislation in March 2016.
- My op-ed for CNN.com, “Help ex-inmates lead productive lives”, in April 2016.
AEI has also hosted numerous public events on criminal justice reform:
- Prison break: Why conservatives turned against mass incarceration (May 24, 2016).
- Remarks from Senator John Cornyn of Texas on criminal justice reform (June 20, 2016).
- How can we have less crime and less incarceration? (September 9, 2015).
- Can prison help convicts? A conversation with two former inmates turned prison reformers (November 6, 2015).
AEI is committed to continuing its work on criminal justice issues, including reforms that improve opportunity for the formerly incarcerated as they re-enter society after prison.
