Reentry/Entry Symposium: Pedagogy, Programs, and Policies that Support and Sustain Justice-Involved CUNY Students

Reentry/Entry Symposium: Pedagogy, Programs, and Policies that Support and Sustain Justice-Involved CUNY Students

Friday, May 3rd, 2019 at Borough of Manhattan Community College, Fiterman Hall (245 Greenwich Street) 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

Admission is free and includes breakfast and lunch.

The City University of New York--which welcomes all comers and has always been a “portal of opportunity” for New Yorkers—has emerged as a national leader in educating justice-involved students. By welcoming and supporting justice-involved students into our institutions we open doors to education and economic opportunity. CUNY scholars, CUNY program staff and administrators, reentry experts from Community Based Organizations (CBOs), as well as justice-involved students and alums, will share research, best practices, knowledge and experiences. In so doing, we can reduce barriers, transform programs, coordinate efforts, and deepen productive relationships—all in an effort to diminish stigma, and promote equity and inclusion for justice-involved students (this includes those students who are formerly incarcerated and/or who have had contact with the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems) in higher education and beyond.

Lunch-time Keynote speakers:

• Reginald Dwayne Betts, Scholar, Poet, Yale Law School graduate and author of A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison, and PEN New England Award Winner for poetry for Bastards of the Reagan Era
• Christopher Beasley, PhD, Professor of Community Psychology, University of Washington and founder of the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network.
• Jim St. Germain, BMCC and John Jay College graduate, author of a critically acclaimed memoir, A Stone of Hope and founder of Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT), a mentoring organization.

Brief Schedule for the day:

8:30am: Registration

9am: Breakfast and critically acclaimed documentary: “Counterstory: After Incarceration,” Followed by a conversation with the filmmakers: LaGuardia Community College Professors Joni Schwartz and John Chaney.

10:30am-11:30am: Morning Breakout sessions

11:45am: Lunch and Keynote Panel

1:30pm: Criminal Justice and Education Legislative Update

2pm-3pm: Afternoon breakout sessions

3:15-4:30: Ann Jacobs, Director of the John Jay College Prisoner Reentry Institute, Jessica Jensen, Director of Statewide Educational Initiatives, and Tommasina Faratro, Special Projects Coordinator, will provide an overview of PRI’s educational continuum and the ways in which PRI employs a systems change framework through their statewide work. Included in the presentation will be an overview PRI’s newly released publication, Mapping the Landscape of Higher Education in New York State Prisons, and an overview of the CUNY Justice-Mapping Project.