the program for Beyond Bars

Program of Events
March 23, 2015
University of Washington School of Law
Seattle, Washington
This event is supported by:
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Theodore Shaw
Theo Shaw is a Community Advocate for Southern Poverty
Law Center’s Louisiana office and fellow with the Youth
Justice Leadership Institute of the National Juvenile Justice
Network. Theo graduated from the University of Louisiana
at Monroe in 2012, where he received a BA in Political
Science. Planning on going to law school in the future,
Theo has already acquired valuable experience in his area
of interest, including one with the Innocence Project, a
national nonprofit organization that works to free
wrongfully convicted prisoners. Now as an advocate for
the nonprofit civil rights organization – the Southern
Poverty Law Center – Theo’s mission includes efforts to
alter the course for at-risk youth, a necessary objective to
keep students in school and out of correctional facilities,
therefore permitting them to make positive contributions
to their communities.
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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Monday, March 23, 2015
8:30-9:00 am
REGISTRATION
9:00-9:05 am
WELCOME
Gates Hall, Room 138
Caitlin David Carlson | Legal Foundation of Washington
Michele Storms | University of Washington School of Law
9:05-9:30 am
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Gates Hall, Room 138
Theodore Shaw | Southern Poverty Law Center
9:30-11:00 am
PLENARY SESSION
Gates Hall, Room 138
“Beyond Mass Incarceration – Charting a New Path”
Our system of mass incarceration is increasingly seen as both a
cause and symptom of major inequities in our culture. This
panel will assess the current situation and analyze the forces at
play that brought us to this point. Panelists will discuss ways of
moving forward from a variety of perspectives, including law
enforcement, policy advocates and law makers.
The Honorable Judith Hightower | Seattle Municipal Court
Moderator
Starcia Ague | Juvenile Justice and Rehabilitation Administration
Alison Holcomb | ACLU Campaign To End Mass Incarceration
Senator Pramila Jayapal | Washington State Legislature
Chief Deputy Jim Pugel | King County Sheriff's Office
11:00-11:15 am
SHORT BREAK
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11:15 am-12:00 pm
BREAKOUT SESSIONS – PART 1: Introductions and Agenda Setting
FAMILY CONNECTEDNESS
Focus: Family Law, Prison Phone and Video Visitation Issues,
Impacts on Families of Incarcerated Individuals
Gates Hall, Room 115
Lillian Hewko | Washington Defenders Association
Elizabeth Hendron | Northwest Justice Project
Facilitators
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Focus: Mental Health, Medical and Mental Health Care in
Prison, Affordable Care Act (ACA) Implementation
Gates Hall, Room 116
Rachael Seevers | Disabilities Rights Washington
Elisabeth Smith | Northwest Health Law Advocates
Facilitators
REMOVING STIGMAS AND BARRIERS
Focus: Impacts of a Criminal Record, Sealing and Vacating
Issues, Housing, Employment, Education
Gates Hall, Room 117
Stacey Reeh | University Beyond Bars
Rhona Taylor | Columbia Legal Services
Facilitators
FINANCIAL SECURITY
Focus: Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs), Child Support,
Relicensing, Consumer Debt
Gates Hall, Room 119
Glenna Awbrey | STAR Project
Tony Leahy | CENTS
Facilitators
DE-INCARCERATION
Focus: Ending and Reducing Mass Incarceration, Alternatives to
Incarceration, Sentencing Reform
Julie Schaeffer | Center For Justice
Aurora Martin| Columbia Legal Services
Facilitators
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Gates Hall, Room 127
12:00-12:45 pm
LUNCH BREAK
Boxed lunch will be available at the Registration tables for all registered attendees
12:45-2:00 pm
BREAKOUT SESSIONS – PART 2: Discussions and Next Steps
Session will take place in the same rooms as Part 1 sessions
2:00-2:15 pm
SHORT BREAK
2:15-3:15 pm
RECONVENING
Gates Hall, Room 138
Merf Ehman | Columbia Legal Services
Moderator
3:15-4:30 pm
PLENARY SESSION
Gates Hall, Room 138
“Beyond Mass Incarceration – Building Transformative Movements”
Now is a hopeful time for people seeking to reform the criminal justice
system, as progressive and conservative reformers, and over twothirds of the American people, all support major overhauls to our
costly and counterproductive criminal justice system. Yet reducing the
rate of imprisonment won’t ameliorate the harms it has inflicted on
communities of color or solve underlying problems that produced
mass incarceration to begin with. This panel will get behind the sound
bites that far too often dominate the conversation around criminal
justice reform to have deeper dialogue around grassroots efforts to
address mass incarceration and its consequences. We’ll consider what
it might take to build a larger community-based movement, why such
a movement is needed, and how we can play a role.
Nikkita Oliver | Gates Scholar For Public Service
Moderator
Nick Allen | Columbia Legal Services
Charisse Domingo | Silicon Valley De-Bug
Lillian Hewko | Incarcerated Parents Project, Washington Defenders Association
Shayne Rochester | Evergreen Manor (Partnership for Families Project/SAMHSA)
Dustin Washington | Community Justice Program, American Friends Service Committee
4:30-5:30 pm
RECEPTION
Gates Hall, Room 115
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ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Starcia Ague is currently a Youth and Family Advocate Administrator with
Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services at Juvenile Justice
and Rehabilitation Administration. This is a continuation of her interest in
ensuring that Washington’s juvenile justice system actively engages incarcerated
youth with empowering programs and measures. In 2014 was selected as a
SOROS Justice Fellow by the Open Society Foundation. She was recently
appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice.
Nick Allen is a staff attorney with Columbia Legal Services in its Institutions
Project.
Charisse Domingo is an organizer and trainer with Silicon Valley De-Bug's Albert
Cobarrubias Justice Project (ACJP). ACJP is the creator of participatory defense—
a community organizing model for people facing charges, their families and
communities that impacts the outcome of cases and transforms the landscape of
power in the court system. Charisse has been part of ACJP since its inception.
She is also a documentary photographer.
Lillian Hewko, Incarcerated Parents Project attorney at the Washington
Defender Association, assists defense attorneys representing incarcerated
parents and develops legislative policy and advocacy strategies to help
reduce the chances of family separation and parental incarceration. She is a
founding board member of the Incarcerated Mothers Advocacy Project
(IMAP), which provides legal information and resources for individuals in
prison and advocates for systemic change. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow
at Legal Voice in 2013, she helped lead the passage of the Children of
Incarcerated Parents Bill, SHB 1284.
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Judith Hightower has been a Municipal Court Judge for the City of Seattle since
1991. Rather than seeking an appointment, Judge Hightower filed as a write-in
candidate in the primary election. She far exceeded the necessary 5% of votes
needed to be placed on the general ballot. Her grass roots campaign garnered
35% of the votes cast in her position. She has a passion for access to justice
issues and has been a member of the State Bar’s Access to Justice Board’s
Education Committee and former Advisory Board member of the Seattle
University Law School’s Access to Justice Institute.
Alison Holcomb’s work has included the creation of Seattle and King
County’s groundbreaking Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD)
program that has reframed police thinking about low-level street crime and
public safety. She also served on the Council’s Jail Capacity Study Advisory
Group, assisting with the assessment of whether the city’s need for jail
beds could be reduced by relying less on jail time and more on treatmentfocused approaches to both misdemeanor and felony lower-level drug
offenders.
Senator Pramila Jayapal is serving her first term in the Washington State
Senate, representing the 37th Legislative District. Her home of nearly twenty
years, the 37th is one of the most racially and economically diverse districts in
Washington state. She has spent the last twenty years working both
internationally and domestically as a leading national advocate for women’s,
immigrant’s, civil and human rights. She is the founder and former Executive
Director of OneAmerica, Washington state’s largest immigrant advocacy
organization, where she led one of the largest voter registration efforts in the
state, helping over 23,000 New Americans to register to vote.
Nikkita Oliver is a former teacher, community organizer, and artist working
towards a JD and Masters of Education at the University of Washington.
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Prior to joining the King County Sheriff’s Office Jim Pugel was Chief at the
Seattle Police Department (SPD), where he began his career as a volunteer
officer and then was hired as a police officer in 1983. Jim accepted the position
of Assistant Chief in 2001, and served in several capacities – the Operation
Bureau Chief, the Field Support Bureau Chief and then the Criminal
Investigation Bureau Chief. He retired after 31 years of service in April of 2014,
then in September of last year came out of retirement to accept the position of
Chief Deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Shayne Rochester is a community advocate and formerly incarcerated
father who successfully reunified with his child after being involved in the
child welfare system. A survivor of addiction, incarceration and the child
welfare system, he does peer-to-peer advocacy helping CPS involved
families in his roles as a member of the Washington State Parent Advocacy
Network, the Snohomish County Parent Advocacy Committee, Family Case
Manager at Evergreen Manor (Partnership for Families Project/SAMHSA),
facilitator for the Fatherhood Engagement Program and the Life After CPS
program. In 2013, he helped lead the passage of the Children of
Incarcerated Parents Bill.
Michele Storms serves as Assistant Dean for Public Service law at the University
of Washington School of Law. She has been a civil legal aid attorney and a
clinical law instructor working most often in the areas of domestic violence,
child welfare and related issues. Over the years Ms. Storms has provided
training and has written on topics such as leadership and diversity and has
served as a facilitator for meetings and retreats for non-profit organizations. Ms.
Storms is grateful to have been able to devote her entire legal career to public
service and law, and is doubly grateful to be in a position now to encourage and
support others in pursuing similar paths.
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Dustin Washington is the Director of the Community Justice program with
the American Friends Service Committee, Associate Professor at the
University of Washington School of Public Health and a Core-Trainer with
the Peoples Institute Northwest. Dustin also served as Interim Manager of
the Race and Social Justice Initiative for the City of Seattle in 2014. Dustin
coordinates the Tyree Scott Freedom School project, the Youth Undoing
Institutional Racism organizing collective and leads a juvenile justice
transformation project, End the Prison Industrial Complex (EPIC). Dustin’s
work in Juvenile justice centers on interrupting the school to prison
pipeline, developing a community based anti-racist restorative justice
project for youth and stopping the construction of a new youth detention
center.
NOTES
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NOTES
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