Panel Discussion: “After Incarceration: Stories From Those Who’ve Lived It”
Thursday, September 14, 7 p.m., Somers Room, Tang Teaching Museum
A panel with Sheila Rule, Jasmyn Story ’15, and Frank Zarro will discuss mass incarceration from the perspective of people who have experienced it and are working to end it. They will share stories of what it is like to be incarcerated and its impact on family and loved ones. They know firsthand the challenges of finding work, housing and social support while confronting the stigma of incarceration. They will discuss how to help the formerly incarcerated regain their sense of dignity and success when they return to the community. The panel will consider alternatives to traditional punishment, especially restorative justice, community justice and other methods to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and racial disparities that plague the criminal justice system.
Click here to learn more about Restorative Justice and here to learn about Community Justice, including When People Work, a new social entrepreneurship helping formerly incarcerated people find employment.
Introduction and moderation by professor David Karp, Department of Sociology, and director of the Project on Restorative Justice. The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology. A reception will follow.
This event is part of the States of Inarceration exhibition and series at Skidmore College from September 2 to October 11, 2017.
David Karpis professor of sociology and director of the Project on Restorative Justice at Skidmore College. His scholarship focuses on restorative justice in community
and campus settings and on prison programs preparing inmates for return to the community.
Karp has published more than 100 academic papers and six books, including The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Colleges and Universities (2013), Wounds That Do Not Bind: Victim-Based Perspectives on the Death Penalty (2006) and The Community Justice Ideal (1999). Karp is on the Advisory Council for the National Association for Community
and Restorative Justice and the Board of Directors for the New York State Dispute
Resolution Association. He received a B.A. in peace and conflict studies from the
University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University
of Washington. Click here for more.
Sheila Rule is chief operating officer of WhenPeopleWork, an online employment system that matches formerly incarcerated job seekers—as well
as those nearing release and others with criminal records—with employers who are willing
to hire from this population. The system can also measure and analyze data to evaluate
the impact on the general society of hiring job-seekers who have criminal records.
Rule is also co-founder of the Think Outside the Cell Foundation. The foundation has
published books, produced a short documentary and sponsored conferences and workshops
in its efforts to end the stigma of incarceration and the discriminatory barriers
that prevent full reintegration into society. Rule was a journalist at the New York Times for more than 30 years before retiring to fully embrace her work in the criminal
justice reform arena. Her assignments ranged from politics to pop music, with about
seven years as a foreign correspondent in Africa and Europe. She was a senior editor
when she retired in 2008.
Jasmyn Story is restorative justice facilitator at an alternative high school in the San Francisco
Bay Area. She is a dedicated human rights activist with more than 5 years of experience
working in the volunteer sector. Formally the deirector of RJ Programming at the JAGS
Foundation, Story completed her M.A. in human rights at the University College of
London. She received her B.A. in anthropology from Skidmore College. Currently her
main focus is on community mobilization and the integration of restorative practices
into learning institutions.
Frank Zarro, founder of the In Our Name initiative, is responsible for strategic planning and
project coordination at First Fairfield Associates, a private social enterprise firm
located in Saratoga Springs. His work at First Fairfield includes three employment
projects, WhenPeopleWork.com, 1stGig.com and VetsBridge.com, and an adaptive restoration
and construction project in downtown Saratoga Springs. He helped to create the Skidmore
College Restorative Justice Project and serves as the project’s director of legislative
initiatives and civic education programming. Zarro has taught administrative law at
Pace University and college-level courses, including legal research and a law library
clinic, to incarcerated individuals at Mount McGregor Correctional Facility and Clinton
Correctional Facility and additional courses in the prison system in areas inlcuding
literature, history, government and business. Zarro received a master’s degree in
public administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
at New York University and a juris doctorate from Seton Hall University School of
Law. For more, click here.
