Photo of the panel with a projected slide behind them with the session title and speaker names

The final plenary session, "Artificial Intelligence and the Justice System: Challenges and Opportunities," features a panel from the TN Bureau of Investigation, @microsoft.com, the American Leadership Forum, and @statecourts.bsky.social. #RethinkJails

Thank you to everyone who attended our public defense research panel! It was great to see some familiar faces and meet new ones. Thank you to Diana Spahia & @cunyislg.bsky.social, Shannon Magnuson (JSP), and Sean McNulty (Toledo Legal Aid Society) for your work to make this happen! #RethinkJails

Photo of Deanne Benos speaking on the panel

Photo of a projected slide reading "Looking Beyond: #See Her, #Hear Her, #Believe Her, #Free Her"

Photo of a projected slide titled "Opportunities Matrix: Cutting the Women's Prison Population 50%+ and Beyond"

Benos discusses the Women's Justice Institute's goals and process of identifying and addressing the problem of women's mass incarceration, incorporating data collection, process mapping, data integration, and redefinition of false narratives. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide with the session title and speaker names

Photo of the panel

Now we have a panel discussion with Cheryl Wilkins (@columbiauniversity.bsky.social Center for Justice), Deanne Benos (The Women's Institute for Justice (Chicago)), and Stephanie Akhter (@counciloncj.org), facilitated by NeAngela Dixon (@macfound.org). #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide titled: "THE STUDY: An 18-month mixed-methods, intersectional exploration of the experiences of women with jails"

Photo of a projected slide titled "Initial Community Insights" discussing pathways to jail

Photo of a projected slide titled "Initial Community Insights" discussing women's experiences in jail

Photo of a projected slide titled "Initial Community Insights" discussing women's needs at the point of reentry

Lenore Lebron (Center for Justice Innovation) reviews a study of women's pathways into jail, with insights on impacted women's experiences and needs and system professionals' policy responses.

E.g., women are more likely than men to have child custody revoked upon incarceration. #RethinkJails

Photo of Bryn Hill speaking at the conference with a projected slide behind her titled "Women in Jails"

Photo of a projected slide titled "Women are more likely than men to be booked for certain charges"

Our next plenary session is "Understanding and Disrupting Women's Pathways into the Justice System." Bryn Hill (@cunyislg.bsky.social) discusses the data on how women's jail populations have increased relative to men's, and women are being charged with more felonies than before. #RethinkJails

Tia Strozier (CJI): Be aware of power dynamics in racial equity work. Name it and be intentional about leveling the table in equity discussions. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide with the session title "Operationalizing Equity: Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities" and speaker names: Nida Abbasi, MacArthur Foundation (facilitator); Tia Strozier (Center for Justice Innovation); Guisela Marroquin, Pretrial Justice Institute; Kevin Beckford, Pretrial Justice Institute

Photo of the panel

Photo of a projected slide titled "Cohort Racial Equity Strategies"

Our next panel with the Center for Justice Innovation and the Pretrial Justice Institute is discussing the work of the SJC Racial Equity Cohort, a group of sites testing racial equity strategies in their criminal legal systems. #RethinkJails

Photo of Brian Lovins speaking at the conference with a projected slide behind him titled "What Do We Know?"

Photo of a projected slide at the conference titled "Why Might Disparities Exist?"

In our opening general session, Brian Lovins (Justice System Partners) discussed challenges in addressing racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal legal system, noting that any progress will be made one step at a time. #RethinkJails

The final day of the final in-person @macfound.org Safety & Justice Challenge convening is underway! If you're at the SJC Research Symposium, I'll be speaking on the "Defense: Constraints, Caseloads, and Change: The State of Public Defense" panel at 11:30am. Come check it out! #RethinkJails

Photo of Sharone Mitchell, Jr. speaking on the panel.

Mitchell: Staffing is a key issue for case processing. Cook Co. Pub. Defs. were lucky not to have the staff attrition crisis that other PDOs have had recently. Doorbell cameras & body-worn cameras have exploded time to review discovery. Staff training in mental health is also a factor. #RethinkJails

Photo of the panel

The panel for the closing plenary features perspectives on case processing from Judge Toria Finch (Harris Co. TX), Mary Moriarty (County Atty, Hennepin Co. MN), Sharone Mitchell (Chief Public Defender of Cook Co. IL), and Ashley Wojslawowicz (Charleston Co. SC). #RethinkJails

Photo of the session

Photo of the session

Photo of a projected slide at the session with final remarks from the speaker

The final plenary session of the day, "Efficiency, Equity, and Due Process: Rethinking Case Processing," looks at trends in case filings, dispositions, and time to disposition. #RethinkJails

Photo of Renee Danser speaking on the panel

Judge Timothy Kuhlman (Lucas County, OH) and Renee Danser (Access 2 Justice Lab) discuss implementation of a diversion program aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities, along with a randomized controlled trial study of that program. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide reading: "CONTEXT MATTERS: What contexts matter in exploring the most effective strategies to reduce jail population?"

Brian Lovins (JSP) discusses the importance of context in strategy implementation. e.g., pretrial strategies in Harris Co. (TX) worked differently after the O'Donnell decision on early access to counsel; pretrial risk assessments don't change outcomes if not integrated effectively. #RethinkJails

Photo of Diana Spahia speaking on the panel with a projected slide behind her displaying a bar graph titled "SJC Coty and County ADP Reductions" with data from Philadelphia, Lucas County, East Baton Rouge Parish, Allegheny County, Multnomah County, and New Orleans Parish

Photo of a projected slide with a table titled "Strategies Implemented"

Diana Spahia (@cunyislg.bsky.social) reviews data from the SJC Practice Inventory, 337 jail reduction strategies implemented in 26 SJC sites nationwide. The most successful sites in reducing jail population addressed mental/behavioral health alongsidr probation or case processing. #RethinkJails

Photo of the panel

For the first round of breakouts, I'm in "Jail Reduction in Practice: Conditions and Context Critical to Strategy Success" with panelists from Bennett Midland, @cunyislg.bsky.social, Justice System Partners, Lucas County (OH), and the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law. #RethinkJails

Photo of Everrette Penn speaking on the panel.

Everette Penn (Prairie View A&M) decries the trend of criminal legal systems getting input from impacted individuals but not involving them in policy decisionmaking.

He encourages systems to consider HBCUs as research partners, as they are more affected than others by these policies. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide with session title "Beyond Reform: Shaping the Next Era of Criminal Justice Practice and Research" and panelists: Jocelyn Fontaine, Black and Brown Collective (Facilitator); Nancy Rodriguez, University of Texas; Nancy LaVigne, Rutgers University; Everett Penn, Prairie View University; Virginia Ryan, New Orleans Parish; Nicole Barton, Harris County

Photo of the panel at the conference

Our next plenary session, "Beyond Reform: Shaping the Next Era of Criminal Justice Practice and Research," features a panel of researchers and practitioners from SJC sites discussing how to continue and expand the progress of the past decade. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide with a bar and line graph titled "After 20+ years of steady increase, a 24% decline in jail population rates since 2007."

Photo of a projected slide weigh a bar chart titled "After 40 years of growth, a 24% decline in prison populations since 2010."

Photo of a projected slide of a line chart titled "After 20 years of growth, a 73% decline in youth prison population since 2000."

Photo of a projected slide with a line chart titled "A 72% increase in immigration detention since January 2025."

Jeremy Travis (@cunyislg.bsky.social) reviews jail reform from 1961 to the present. He highlights how "tough-on-crime" policy changes in the '70s and '80s ballooned jail and prison populations, and how ICE incarceration factors in. We need more impacted voices in policy decisionmaking. #RethinkJails

Photo of Reagan Daly speaking at the conference

Reagan Daly (@cunyislg.bsky.social) notes that ISLG is working with @macfound.org to create an online archive of SJC data, research, and policy products in a way that will be more easily accessible to the general public, not just SJC sites and partners. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide at the conference with a line graph titled "The population of women in jail is increasing faster than men since the pandemic"

Another takeaway: there is still more work to be done. In addition to continuing racial and ethnic disparities in jail populations, gender disparities have sharpened since the pandemic, with women's jail populations growing faster than men's. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide with a line graph titled "Declines in White Incarceration Rate Outpace Declines in Black Incarceration Rate"

Among notable takeaways from SJC data is that general decarceration strategies will not achieve racial equity without specific effort to address racial and ethnic disparities in jail populations. #RethinkJails

Photo of a projected slide at the conference reading "SJC Research Consortium"

Photo of the opening general session at the conference

Photo of Jenn Ferone speaking at the conference

Photo of Stephanie Platz speaking at the conference

Our opening plenary session reflects on the SJC Network's accomplishments in its decade of work and looks ahead to how data and progress from SJC sites will be carried forward in the years to come. #RethinkJails

Photo of Broadway in Nashville at night with honky tonk neon lights on either side of the road.

Photo of some guy with a sculpture on Music Row

Photo of Union Station Hotel in Nashville at night

I'm at the final convening of the @macfound.org Safety & Justice Challenge, the SJC Research Symposium in Nashville. Looking forward to discussing the role of public defenders in criminal legal system research on the "Defense: Constraints, Caseloads, and Change" panel tomorrow morning! #RethinkJails

Photo of a mural in Philadelphia that displays the text of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with "except as punishment for a crime" circled, and "#ENDTHEEXCEPTION" beneath.

Bittersweet that this is the @macfound.org SJC Racial Equity Cohort Steering Committee's final convening. I hope we and the REC will be able to continue work beyond this year. The efforts ongoing in the sites and by the Steering Committee are needed more than ever. #RethinkJails

Photo of Rev. Michelle Simmons and volunteers/staff at Why Not Prosper in Philadelphia talking about their community reentry work and the Straight Outta Trouble initiative at the SJC Racial Equity Cohort Steering Committee's learning retreat

Photo of a docent at the Formerly Incarcerated Renaissance Museum describing a painting made by an incarcerated man.

Photo of a mural at Why Not Prosper in Philadelphia that depicts a Black female running with a baton, with text surrounding her: "FORMERLY incarcerated. FINALLY FREE."

Photo of a presentation at the SJC Racial Equity Cohort Steering Committee's learning retreat in Philadelphia

Thank you to @macfound.org and @cjinnovation.bsky.social for an excellent SJC Racial Equity Cohort Steering Committee learning retreat in Philadelphia! Great to visit Why Not Prosper and see their outstanding work. Community reentry organizations like WNP deserve much broader support. #RethinkJails

Photo of the main ballroom at the close of the 2025 SJC Network Meeting

That wraps the 2025 SJC Network Meeting! Thank you to @macfound.bsky.social, PJI, Dan Chu Events, and everyone who has made these convenings so valuable and inspirational over the past several years. I'll miss these conferences! #rethinkjails

Photo of Bria Gillum speaking at the closing plenary session

Photo of a slide from Gillum's presentation: "Ten years ago, we issued a challenge to the nation"

Photo of a slide from Gillum's presentation: "In 2015, we launched the SJC with 20 cities and counties," with a map of the United States showing the 20 sites

Photo of a slide from Gillum's presentation: "And since have built a national movement," with a map of the United States showing 100+ sites

Bria Gillum (@macfound.bsky.social) delivers the conference's closing remarks, reflecting on how the Safety + Justice Challenge became a national movement, growing from 20 sites to over 100 communities in the last decade. #rethinkjails

Photo of Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton speaking on the panel

Lt. Gov. Stratton: "We've all heard that hurt people hurt people, but healed people heal people. And free people free people." #rethinkjails