Sen. Marie Pinkney and Rep. Mimi Minor-Brown are holding a virtual State Of The State Of Corrections In Delaware Summit this Tuesday and Wednesday. If you look at the linked agenda, this appears to be quite the ambitious and well thought-out program. Ideal for both newcomers to the issue and for policy wonks.
Sessions will run from 10 am to 3 pm on both days. From this article:
In an event announcement, Pinkney — who is also chair of the Senate Corrections and Public Safety Committee — said it’s time to think of prisons as a way to rehabilitate rather than punish.
“Locking people up and throwing away the key is not justice,” Pinkney said. “It does not make our communities safer.”
She argued that despite investing more than $350 million each year in Delaware’s correctional system, people return to the streets with even greater trauma than when they left.
Those incarcerated people are “disproportionally Black men – in decades-old prison facilities, where many receive inadequate medical care and few are given a chance to better their lives,” she said. “I am concerned that our refusal to confront the injustices in our own prison system is putting correctional officers at risk, failing our communities of color, and making our neighborhoods less safe.”
“I am committed to knocking down the barriers that prevent people from being successful when they re-enter society after being incarcerated,” said Minor-Brown. Too many people have the potential and drive to want to do better, but they keep hitting these barriers that block them in areas such as education, housing, employment, and entrepreneurship.”
You may sign up for any or all of the sessions here. They will be presented on Zoom. Might have to clear my heavy social itinerary to attend…