Center for Justice at Columbia University- Upcoming Events





Upcoming Center Events

Film Screening and Discussion: “The Cooler Bandits”

Thursday, February 26
6:00 PM
Columbia Law School, Jerome Greene Hall, Room 106

The Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Center for Justice at Columbia present a film screening and discussion of the documentary film "The Cooler Bandits."  
Over twenty years ago, four men from the North Hill neighborhood of Akron, Ohio committed a series of restaurant robberies. During the robberies the men locked the restaurant employees in the walk-in coolers, gaining them the moniker "the Cooler Bandits." Although no one was physically injured, the group received collective prison sentences of up to 500 years. From 2006-2013, director John Lucas follows the unfathomable journeys of Charlie Kelly, Donovan Harris, Richard “Poochie” Roderick, and Frankie Porter as they cope and survive despite the harsh realities of prison. "The Cooler Bandits" documents these men in their respective stages of incarceration as they fight to maintain relationships with family and friends, and reintegrate into society after spending their adult lives incarcerated.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Lucas, along with two of “the Cooler Bandits,” Donovan Harris and Richard Roderick. Joining them will be the film’s producer and editor, Sam and Jason Pollard, respectively. The discussion will be moderated by Columbia School of the Arts Professor Jamal Joseph: director, writer, producer, and author of Panther Baby (Algonquin Books).

Public Humanities Initiative Justice Poetry: Readings and Discussion with Claudia Rankine, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Messiah

Tuesday, February 24
6:15-8:00 PM
Schapiro Center, Davis Auditorium
Columbia University

 
An evening of justice poetry featuring Claudia Rankine, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Messiah Ramkissoon. Poets read from their new and published works related to issues of justice and discuss the events and experiences that inspired them. Monica Miller, Associate Professor of English at Barnard College, opens the event, and a moderated discussion, led by Columbia School of the Arts professor and poet Timothy Donnelly, and questions from the audience follow the readings. Sponsored by the Heyman Center for the Humanities, The Center for Justice at Columbia University, and the Center for Race, Philosophy, and Social Justice.

Participants (Click on the links for bios)

Tuesday, March 3
11:30 AM- 12:50 PM
722 West 168th St, Conference Rm 532
Mailman School of Public Health


Redonna Chandler, Director of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research at NIDA, will offer a lecture at the Mailman School of Public Health on March 3rd and we encourage you to find the time to go.
March 6-7
Columbia University

The first weekend of March 2015, the Criminal Justice Caucus, the Center for Justice at Columbia University and the Beyond the Bars Fellows will host the fifth annual Beyond the Bars Conference.  Over the past four years, the conference has grown immensely, bringing together more and more people from different spaces and places to come together to think critically about how to end the injustices of our criminal justice system, and reimagine what a more just response to harm, accountability and safety could look like.  We continue to be humbled and amazed by the work of all our friends and colleagues and are grateful for your willingness to remain in community as we work towards practicing justice together.

This year’s Beyond the Bars conference will focus on the idea of transformation.  Due to the work of so many of you, people across the country are increasingly aware of the racial, economic and social injustices that have come from what we now call mass incarceration, and what some are beginning to refer to as mass criminalization.  Individuals, communities, organizations, institutions, political bodies and more, are working on changing criminal justice policies across the carceral continuum from policing, to the courts, to the jails and prisons, and to the barriers and conditions for people returning from incarceration.  

The questions this conference will pose are: How do we work towards lasting transformative change? How do we develop a framework for changing the way our country seeks  justice that does not perpetuate the roots of the problems that have led us here? How do we create change that addresses the systemic marginalization vis-a-vis racism, classism, patriarchy and the countless other isms, while also addressing the need for individual accountability and the safety of our communities and our society? What is a transformative agenda for changing the way we seek justice?
The Justice Forum: Race and Justice: Past, Present and Future
Tuesday, March 10
6:15- 8:15 PM
Columbia Law School, Jerome Greene Rm 104
435 W 116th St, New York, 10025


The third in a series of roundtable discussions about criminal justice in the United States, the Center for Justice at Columbia presents Race and Justice: Past, Present and Future. The most recent incidences of police killings of unarmed Black men have ignited a national discussion about race and our justice system. However, the drivers of America’s current state of mass incarceration such as minimum mandatory sentencing, the war on drugs, and stop and frisk have always disproportionately impacted people of color. This roundtable examines the history of race-based injustices in America, how those practices have informed the criminal justice system today, and what implications they have for the future.
The roundtable features Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad; historian, author and media commentator who is the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and Glenn E. Martin, a national leader and criminal justice reform advocate and founder of JustLeadershipUSA. Muhammad is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern America (Harvard University Press). Martin, who spent six years prison, has written for the New York Times, and is a frequent guest commentator on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry. The roundtable is moderaterd by Columbia Dean of Social Science and Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies Alondra Nelson, who authored Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination (University of Minnesota Press).
About The Justice Forum
Issues of mass incarceration and justice are complex and cut across many systems, structures, cultures, and communities. As such, the efforts and dialogues around changing the current criminal justice system must also cross disciplines, structures, cultures, and communities. The Justice Forum provides a space for leading thinkers in justice work from a variety of disciplines and experiences to collectively examine some of the most critical justice issues today. The Forum seeks to create a space for cross pollination of ideas and perspectives and contribute towards the efforts to rethink our current policies and practices in criminal justice.
Cosponsors
The Center for Justice at Columbia University
Heyman Center for the Humanities
Center for the Study of Law and Culture
Institute for Research in African American Studies
Participants
Glenn E. Martin, Criminal Justice Reform Advocate
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Executive Director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Moderator
Alondra Nelson, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Columbia University
Upcoming Events from Friends and Colleagues 
 Thursday, February 12
6:00PM - 8:00PM
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 106
Columbia Law School

The Center for the Study of Law and Culture presents The Paul Robeson Lecture with guest speaker Sherilynn Iffil. Reception to follow.

The Robeson Lecture is a highlight of the programming year for the Center for the Study of Law and Culture. The lecture was established to remember the actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson, who graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923. Past lecturers have included Angela Y. Davis, Cornel West, K. Anthony Appiah, Albie Sachs, Johnetta Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Penelope Andrews, Albie Sachs and Manning Marable.

NYS CLE Areas of Professional Practice credit available.

As the challenges facing young men of color rightfully move to the forefront of public discourse on equity and opportunity, the Ford Foundation and Vera’s Common Justice project aim to take up an often overlooked dimension of this conversation: the experience of young men of color who survive violence. This panel will bring together a wide range of perspectives—from prosecutors to faith leaders, members of Congress to psychiatrists--to address crucial questions about the violence young men experience and the support available to them in the aftermath of what they survive. The dynamic conversation will aim to analyze the current landscape and chart a course forward toward a more equitable and effective response to harm.
Speakers will include: District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Dr. Richard Dudley, Rev. Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, and Danielle Sered

Register
HERE!

February 24, 2015
6:00PM- 8:00PM
3rd Floor Lecture Hall
Columbia School of Journalism

Many times schools are looked at as a solution to an unequal society. This panel brings together a range of experts on the connections between schools and communities to highlight what policies and practices be undertaken to make both more just.

Panelists:

ZAKIYAH ANSARI - Advocacy Director, Alliance for Quality Education
R. L'HEUREUX LEWIS-MCCOY – Sociology & Black Studies, City College of New York/CUNY
CARLA SHEDD – Sociology & African-American Studies, Columbia University
JOSÉ LUIS VILSON - NYC Public School Teacher and Author


Free & Open To the Public 
Echoes of Incarceration Film Screening & Panel Discussion

March 9, 2015
6:00 PM Refreshments and Welcome
6:30- 8:30 PM Film screening and panel discussion
St. James' Episcopal Church
865 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021

Echoes of Incarceration is an award-winning documentary initiative produced by youth with incarcerated parents.  The project explores the issue of mass incarceration and its effects on families, and creates documentary films told from the life experiences of the filmmakers themselves.

The Osborne Association will be hosting a screening and panel discussion with the youth producers, the filmmaker, and Liz Gaynes of the Osborne Association.

Photo Credit: Echoes of Incarceration

Opportunities for Students

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