The Goldring Reentry Initiative (GRI) would like to invite you to our first annual community conversation on Saturday, March 16th, 2013. The event, called Breaking Down Walls: Intersections of Mass Incarceration and its Implications, aims to create a platform for innovative responses to criminal justice issues in Philadelphia. This free day-long event will feature panel discussions that humanize the experience of mass incarceration, deconstruct social problems connected to the criminal justice system, and create action plans to address criminal justice issues within Philadelphia. (See attachment.)
The GRI is based out of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, and works to break the recidivism cycle for those leaving the Philadelphia Prison System. Through a continuum-of-care model, GRI students support individuals as they transition out of jail and into the community.
Please register for the event at http://breakingdownwalls2013.eventbrite.com/ and see the Breaking Down Walls Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/events/406483809437616/?ref=ts&fref=ts for more information.
Get more info about the Goldring Reentry Initiative (GRI): www.sp2.upenn.edu/gri/
Like the GRI on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GRI.SP2.Penn
part of the problem of recividism is that a person who was once incarcerated has their options in the future pemanently damaged. Automatic expungement once released would be extremely helpful. Some people seem to take simplistic and sanctimonious attitudes that after a person ‘pays their debt’ there still may be long term consequences and/or that an offender should have comtemplated the consequences before committing the crime. Such attitudes presume to know every circumstance, or cause and effect, that led to breaking a law which most probably was buried or ignored through a plea deal. Even if a crime was categorically a case of premeditated poor intent, permanent, public stigmas only lend to recidivism due to lack of options instead of the ability to pursue a new start. Waiting for the option and the process of expungement is just more years of punishment which is not acknowledged as punishment, as if it weren’t a difficulty at all. Many groups have highlighted these points before, but little has been done. Not every law breaker should be treated like pedophile about which the public needs to be warned with the assumption they a chronic problem or the simple fact that they broke a law is proof enough that they have a chronic problem. If someone gets ‘caught’ once or even 3x doesn’t necessarily mean that the offender did it more than once or three times, but they get punished with the assumption as if they committed the act 100s of times and only caught once or three times; the law can’t make that assumption, the law needs to prove it.