Realizing Release: Parole Advocacy and The Fight for Decarceration

In September 2024, over 100 individuals joined us at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law for an engaging two-day event focused on parole advocacy and the ongoing fight for decarceration. The in-person gathering brought together experts, activists, and community members to discuss the importance of parole reform and the impact it has on our society. It was a unique opportunity to learn, connect, and be part of the movement towards a more just and equitable criminal justice system.

Over 20% of the people in state prisons are there because of our punitive post-conviction supervision systems. When people are released from prison, they are not fully free. Realizing Release convened advocates, lawyers, system-impacted folks, and community organizers for an opportunity to learn about the legal and advocacy strategies being deployed across the country, assess ongoing challenges and successes, and deepen collaborative regional and national networks working toward decarceration.

September 14 | 9:30 AM

In our opening plenary, we heard from advocates who have successfully transformed pieces of parole release and revocation systems in their states through direct services, legislation, impact litigation, and grassroots advocacy. These guest speakers provided a basic overview of the commonalities among parole systems, including their harms and challenges, while offering practical lessons for how systems can be changed to reduce incarceration.

Speakers:
– Alexa Van Brunt, Illinois Director, MacArthur Justice Center
– John Cooper, Executive Director, Safe & Just Michigan
– Anthony Dixon, Deputy Director, Parole Preparation Project NY
– Carletha Sterling, Board Chair, Uncommon Law 

Watch this plenary on MacArthur Justice Center’s YouTube Playlist.

September 14 | 3:15 PM

Realizing true release from punishment requires us to address the many ways punishment continues after incarceration. In this plenary, we heard directly from advocates who have navigated supervision about how systems continue to surveil, control and punish people after release, how these systems play an integral role in maintaining the prison industrial complex, and how communities are mobilizing to resist and challenge them.

Speakers:
– Johnnie Veal, Executive Director, Project Sound Off
– LaTanya Jenifor-Sublett, Dir. Of Holistic and Liberatory Peer Re-entry, Chicago Torture Justice Center
– Chesa Boudin, Executive Director, UC Berkley Law Criminal Law & Justice Center
– Ken Nixon, Dir. of Outreach and Comm. Partnerships, Safe & Just Michigan  

Watch this plenary on MacArthur Justice Center’s YouTube Playlist.

September 15 | 9:30 AM

This plenary situated the fight for decarceration through parole among other struggles for social change. Advocates from diverse movement campaigns examined how structures of power and control are replicated across different systems, including prisons, policing, immigration, and environmental justice. Speakers shared strategies for building solidarity among and across movements that will strengthen our work and sustain us for the challenges ahead.   

Speakers:
– Jimmy Soto, Justice Practitioner Fellow, Center for Study of Race, Politics & Culture, University of Chicago
– Aislinn Pulley, Executive Director, Chicago Torture Justice Center
– Renaldo Hudson, Education Director, Illinois Prison Project
– Robert Lilly, Participatory Defense Organizer, Grassroots Leadership
– Samah Sisay, Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights 

Watch this plenary on MacArthur Justice Center’s YouTube Playlist.

September 14 | 11:00 AM

Documenting problems is often the first step to fixing them, but parole systems are intentionally opaque and subject to little or no oversight or documentation requirements. Participants learned tangible and specific strategies for identifying and gathering data, records and other pieces of information that can help them define the scope and scale of the problems in their state and inform the approaches they take to solving them. 

Presenters:
– Matthew Bonanno, National Parole Transformation Project
– Emmett Sanders, Policy analyst, Prison Policy Initiative
– Sarah Staudt, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Prison Policy Initiative

Watch this workshop on MacArthur Justice Center’s YouTube Playlist.

September 14 | 11:00 AM

Supervision is justified by local decision-makers as a means of increasing public safety and offering support to people leaving prison, but what do the facts actually tell us? This session provided an in-depth review of existing research about the impacts of supervision and an analysis of the relationship between supervision systems and public safety.

Presenters:
– Ryan Sakoda, Associate Professor, University of Iowa College of Law
– Kaelin Rapport, ACLS Leading Edge Fellow, Center for Law and Social Policy 

Watch this workshop on MacArthur Justice Center’s YouTube Playlist.

September 14 | 11:00 AM

The bars and beds of the prison are enabled by societal values and ideas just as much by policies and budgets. This session featured experts in narrative and storytelling who provided insight about how dominant narratives and collective values impact and shape advocacy possibilities. They shared strategies to incorporate narrative into our analysis of existing problems and shift the conversations we are having to make our efforts more effective. 

Presenters:
– Ben Austen, Author of Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change
– Charles Preston, Community Engagement Manager, Injustice Watch 

Watch this workshop on MacArthur Justice Center’s YouTube Playlist.

September 14 | 11:00 AM

Participatory defense is a community organizing model that empowers individuals and communities to actively participate in the defense of their loved ones facing criminal charges. This session explored how to apply lessons from participatory defense to the parole context, including how to build campaigns that engage our communities and build community-based power to sustain lasting change.  

Presenters:
– Imani Mfalme, Community Organizer + Trainer, Participatory Defense Network
– Pauline Rogers, Executive Director, RECH Foundation 

Watch this workshop on MacArthur Justice Center’s YouTube Playlist.