The President, Pardons, A Push Toward the Vision for Black Lives
Channel: Institute for Policy Studies
Date: 20/12/2016

Raising up bold new perspectives on racial justice through dialogue, media analysis and a call to action!

It’s time for President Obama to take swift and substantial Executive Action- so what issues should we focus on in these last 100 days? The mass criminalization and incarceration of Black people permeates our nation at every level through schools, jobs , the 13th Amendment, militarization of police, voter disenfranchisement, and profits made by big business and counties at the direct expense of Black people. 

Black women in prison are America’s darkest, dirtiest secret, and their voices continue to be overlooked at the expense of our communities and successful movement building. This system also works to neutralize opposition by criminalizing liberation struggles through the incarceration of political leaders and activists, and suppressing the political rights of all prisoners.

Panelists:
- Lashonia Thompson-El,  with DC Corrections Information Council, served 18 years in prison… was released five years ago and has since dedicated her life to improving conditions of confinement and highlighting gender responsive criminal justice reform and reentry strategies,
- Stuart Anderson, founder and Director of Family & Friends Of Incarcerated People (FFOIP), is a motivational speaker and consultant from Washington, DC,
- Dhorubah Bin-Wahad, FBI COINTELPRO target was a former original member and leader of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army who spent over 19 years in prison as a political prisoner. (via Skype),
- Danny Glover, actor and activists (via Skype),
- Karen Dolan, is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, directs the Criminalization of Race and Poverty project there. She is author of The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of  Poverty and co-author of Mothers at the Gate: How a Family Movement is Transforming the Juvenile Justice System.
- Moderated by IPS’s Mandisa Routheni