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Join the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship Program and the Center for Criminal Justice for “Free Them All: Defending the Lives of Criminalized Survivors of Violence.” This forum will explore the ways in which the criminal legal system impacts women who have experienced violence and will feature a keynote speech by Mariame Kaba, organizer, educator, and prominent civil rights activist.

Although the prison and jail population in the U.S. has begun to decline, the number of girls and women detained in federal and state prisons across the country has increased. A large percentage of them have been prosecuted for violent offenses. Often, their charged conduct is directly connected to domestic, sexual, or systemic violence they have experienced, yet their cases have escaped public scrutiny. The legal community has been slow to respond to the specific pathways, policing practices, and prosecutorial decisions that contribute to the criminalization and mass incarceration of survivors of violence.

The event will probe the ways in which our laws and legal systems center on harmful constructs of race and gender that are especially damaging for survivors of violence and women of color. In doing so, the program will test the notion that the criminal legal system is the right site for anti-violence work and will highlight promising new ways communities can address violence outside of the carceral state. A discussion featuring Anisah Sabur, Coordinator, Coalition Building & Peer Support, STEPS Centering Survivor’s Advocacy Project and Ashley Sawyer, Director of Policy & Government Relations, Girls for Gender Equity will delve deeper into the role of lawyers and Brooklyn Law School in advancing conversation and practice around these critical issues. Moderated by Kate Mogulescu, Assistant Professor of Clinical Law, Brooklyn Law School.

Sponsored by the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship Program and the Center for Criminal Justice.