
Robina Annual Conference
Reversing Mass Punishment in America
Thank you to all who attended our 2017 Annual Conference, “Reversing Mass Punishment in America,” on Friday, December 8, 2017, with keynote speaker Professor James Forman, Jr. (Yale Law School), author of Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, at the McNamara Alumni Center, University of Minnesota. Videos and photos of the event will be available soon.
Conference Description
While the United States is the undisputed leader of incarceration rates worldwide, little attention has been paid to other forms of punishment in which America has become a leader including community supervision, revocations from supervision to prison, economic penalties, and collateral consequences of conviction. As an example, the Robina Institute’s comparative research of probation rates between American states and European countries finds that, on average, U.S. probation rates are as much as five times higher than that of Europe. Thus, the issue in America is one of mass punishment, not just mass incarceration.
Since 2011, the Robina Institute has conducted original research in sentencing law and policy that examines this trend toward mass punishment. Our work has focused on studying probation and parole practices and revocations across the United States— in both rural and urban communities; researching and publishing information about the impacts of criminal history enhancements; and providing a unique, online resource that gives an in-depth look at state and federal sentencing guidelines systems. The conference examined some of the issues that contribute to mass punishment and discuss ways in which we can reverse this alarming trend and also reduce racial disproportionality.
CLE Credit
4.25 Standard and 2 Elimination of Bias CLE credits have been requested for this event. The event code is #250328.
Agenda
8:00 a.m. |
Check-In and Breakfast (McNamara Alumni Center, Memorial Hall) |
Conference Agenda
9:00 a.m. |
Welcome Justice Kathleen Blatz, former Chief Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court; Chair, Robina Foundation |
9:05 a.m. |
Conference Introduction: Professor Richard S. Frase (University of Minnesota Law School) |
9:15-10:05 a.m. |
Keynote Address-- Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America Professor James Forman, Jr. (Yale Law School)
Marion Barry, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, and Johnnie Cochran are not names you would associate with the staggering incarceration rates plaguing black and minority communities across the country. Yet, as James Forman, Jr. writes in his critically-acclaimed new book, Locking Up Our Own, it's undeniable that the urgency and good-intentioned politics of black leaders in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, as they sought to reduce crime and curb out-of-control drug addiction, has unspooled now, decades later, into a devastating tally of young men whose lives have been lost to the penal system. Weaving data and history with human stories, Forman’s book builds on his work as a public defender in Washington, D.C., a founder of a charter school for incarcerated teens, and a law professor.
This keynote address— and Professor Forman's book—will challenge the conference audience to think about ways they can contribute to change in our current criminal justice system.
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10:05-10:15 a.m. |
Break |
10:15-11-15 a.m. |
Plenary: American Exceptionalism in Mass Punishment Professor Kevin R. Reitz (University of Minnesota Law School)
In the mid- and late twentieth century, the United States diverged markedly from other Western nations first in its high rates of serious violent crime and soon after in the severity of its criminal punishments. This has left a legacy of American exceptionalism in crime and punishment for the new century. It is well known that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with a nationwide rate seven times the Western European average. Less well known, U.S. probation and parole supervision rates now stand at 5-to-10 times the European average. Moreover, economic sanctions have expanded in many American jurisdictions, and are increasingly used as revenue sources for local governments, courts, and criminal justice agencies. These uses of economic penalties are not replicated in other advanced democracies. Finally, all states and the federal government have adopted hundreds of civil disabilities that are applied to ex-offenders, called “collateral consequences of conviction.” Once again, the breadth and weight of these civil measures appear to be unique to America.
Since the early 2000s, the term “mass incarceration” has gained wide circulation in the U.S. It is more realistic to see “mass punishment” as a uniquely American phenomenon.
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11:15-12:15 a.m. |
Plenary: Racial Disproportionality in Punishment Professor Richard S. Frase (University of Minnesota Law School)
African American and Native American offenders are incarcerated at much higher rates than white offenders. Racial disproportionality is evident at all stages of criminal justice processing, beginning with arrest, and in many systems it grows worse at each successive stage of processing. One major contributor to disparity increases at the point of sentencing is penalty enhancement based on the offender’s prior conviction record; since African American and Native American offenders tend to have higher criminal history scores, these sentence enhancements have a very substantial disparate impact, greatly contributing to the problem of disproportionate minority confinement. Some criminal laws also have disparate impacts on minority offenders. This session will discuss research on racial disparity and disparate impacts in criminal justice, and examine ways to mitigate these impacts.
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12:15-1:15 p.m. |
Lunch (Professor Forman’s and Professor Reitz’s respective books will be for sale over the lunch break. Professor Forman will sign books at the end of the conference) |
1:15-2:15 p.m. |
Break-Out Session 1
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2:15-2:20 p.m. |
Break |
2:20-3:20 p.m. |
Break-Out Session 2
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3:20-3:30 p.m. |
Break |
3:30-4:30 p.m. |
Plenary: Community Supervision and Mass Punishment Dr. Gregory Dillon (Dallas County Probation, Texas)
In the United States, the number of people on community supervision (probation) is growing higher and higher each year. The Robina Institute's Probation Revocation Project conducted research in rural and urban jurisdictions across the country to examine various issues related to community supervision. We found a range of policies and procedures and perspectives. Many individuals are required to comply with a high number of conditions in order to be successful on supervision and eventually released. If they fail to comply with these conditions, they could face the risk of violating the terms of their supervision, which could lead to a revocation of their probation or supervision and a sentence in jail or prison. This panel will discuss the implications of what it means to have a large number of conditions, as well as how the length of terms of some sentences could be potential contributors to the rise in mass punishment practices in the U.S. We will examine opposing perspectives: from the point of view that suggests that there are too many conditions and that terms are too long which could set individuals up for failure, and from the perspective that these conditions are necessary and the length of terms are adequate or should be longer to rehabilitate individuals and increase public safety. |
4:30-4:45 p.m. |
Wrap-Up: Reversing Mass Punishment in America |
4:45-5:15 p.m. |
James Forman, Jr. Book signing (Memorial Hall) |
4:45-6:30 p.m. |
Conference Reception (Memorial Hall) |
Materials
Speakers & Moderators
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Hon. Pamela Alexander
Judge, Fourth Judicial District Court
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Kathleen A. Blatz
Former Chief Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court; Chair, Robina Foundation
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Dr. Gregory Dillon
Deputy Director, Dallas County Community Supervision and Corrections Department
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Professor Richard Frase
Co-Director, Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
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James Forman Jr.
Professor of Law and Yale Law School
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Dr. Rhys Hester
Deputy Director of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing
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Dr. Tracey Kyckelhahn
Senior Research Associate, United States Sentencing Commission
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Dr. Julia Laskorunsky
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
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Dr. Ashley Nellis
Senior Research Analyst
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Professor Kevin R. Reitz
Co-Director, Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
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Dr. Edward Rhine
Project Director, Parole Release and Revocation
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Professor Julian Roberts
Co-Director, Criminal History Enhancements
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Assistant Professor Ebony Ruhland
Assistant Professor of Criminology
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Scott Schultz
Executive Director, Kansas Sentencing Commission
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Professor Loretta Stalans
Professor at Loyola University
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Hon. George Stephenson
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Alexis Watts
Research Attorney
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Bennet Wright
Executive Director of the Alabama Sentencing Commission; President of the National Association of Sentencing Commissions
Directions and Amenities
Contact
If you have additional questions please email us at robina@umn.edu or call (612) 626-6600.