VPP Mass Incarceration Awareness Week: Criminal Justice Reform Discussion Panel

The feature event of Vanderbilt Prison Project's Mass Incarceration Awareness week, we have invited a diverse array of speakers from the Nashville community to give their perspectives working against mass incarceration. Because this issue is rarely discussed in mainstream media, it is very difficult to hear from people actively working against this specific system of oppression. Additionally, the speakers will be able to provide advice that activist students can use to take action on the issue now, and potentially in their career later down the road. 

List of Speakers:
Larry Craig- Program Services Director at Project Return, a Nashville non-profit that helps formerly incarcerated people reintegrate to society by connecting them to job opportunities, housing, and providing other services.

Molly Lasagna, MA & M.Div- Executive Director of Tennessee Higher Education Initiative, which funds and coordinates college education programs to residents within the Tennessee Department of Corrections, so formerly incarcerated students can continue their academic and career pursuits upon their release. Additionally, Molly is an alumnus from the Vanderbilt Divinity School. 

Peter Vielehr, MA - Vanderbilt PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology, teaches at Turney Center Industrial Complex, and uses data-driven statistics to research mass incarceration and policing, most notably in the 2016 report "Driving While Black: A Report on Racial Profiling in Metro Nashville Police Department Traffic Stop."

Chris Slobogin, JD & LL.M- Director of the Criminal Justice Program at Vanderbilt Law School, with vast expertise on mental health, evidence, criminal law and procedure (been named one of the five most cited professors in the country). He has also served on three American Bar Association task forces: Law Enforcement and Technology; the Insanity Defense; and Mental Disability and the Death Penalty. 

Stacy Rector- Executive Director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penality, which focuses on policy reform to end the death penalty, organizing rallies, vigils, and speaking events to increase public awareness. Additionally, they use their annual Justice Day on the Hill to directly speak to Tennessee legislators about fixing this system. 

Julieta Martinelli- Current Soros Justice Media Fellow and former WPLN (NPR) newsroom fellow on immigration, criminal justice and other social issues. She works to spread awareness about police brutality, the death penalty, the prison-industrial complex, and prison reform. Last summer, she spent time in Texas reporting on the immigration crisis. 

Rev. Susan McBride- Works at No Exceptions Prison Collective, an interfaith prison ministry that focuses on ending mass incarceration, rebuilding communities, and reuniting families through policy reform. They focus specifically on three core issues- sentencing reform, improving internal conditions, and abolition of private prisons. She is involved with the issue through a myriad of personal relationships, a religious perspective, and advocacy for inmates. 

Rev. Jeannie Alexander, JD- Director of aforementioned No Exceptions Prison Collective, Alexander has served as Head Chaplain at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, was a co-founding resident of the Harriet Tubman House, and writes and teaches about mass incarceration as slavery, alternatives to prison, Christian anarchism, and transformative justice.