Breaking Down Walls: Mass Incarceration Meets the Academy

The Goldring Reentry Initiative (GRI) is pleased to invite you to our second annual criminal justice event, Breaking Down Walls: Mass Incarceration Meets the Academy, on Saturday, March 29th, 2014 at the Penn Museum.  This free day-long event aims to foster dialogue and galvanize change by uniting community members, academics, advocates, service providers, and people impacted by the criminal justice system in discussion and resource sharing.  

Breaking Down Walls will include three presentations highlighting criminal justice research by academics alongside personal narratives by previously incarcerated people to inform and personalize that research.  A panel discussion will examine the relationship between research and practice as it relates to activists, religious organizations, social service agencies, city government, and the Philadelphia Prison System. 

Dr. Cornel West will deliver the keynote address and Dr. Heather Ann Thompson will provide the opening remarks.  The event will also feature a resource fair of local advocacy and service provider organizations from 8am-9am and during the lunch break.  Photographs from Richard Ross’s Juvenile In Justice exhibit will be displayed at the event. 

Pennsylvania Licensed Social Workers will receive 6 free CEUs for attending the entire conference (pre-registration required). 

For more information, please see the attached flyer; we encourage you to share it with your various networks.  To register and for details, see the GRI website: http://www.sp2.upenn.edu/gri/