Whose Poverty? Whose Crime? Unlocking the Criminalization of Poverty.
Thursday - Friday, March 6th-7th, 2008
Boalt Hall School of Law
University of California at Berkeley
Sleeping outside or in a vehicle, soliciting employment, convening in a public space and/or suffering in public from a mental illness are citable offenses in the United States. This criminalization of poverty results in more and more poor families, youth, elders, and adults in this country facing police harassment, abuse, and even incarceration for living in poverty. By bringing together an innovative and powerful mix of voices from poverty and race scholars, alternative/activist policy makers, poverty and civil rights attorneys, legal advocates, media producers, activists, artists, and community leaders, the symposium will provide a forum to explore short and long-term legislative and community based solutions to the problem, and launch an in-depth look at the harmful impacts of this dangerous trend on poor people and on US society as a whole.
Sponsors: the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice and the Institute for the Study of Social Change.
Co-Sponsors: POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork, East Bay Community Law Center, and the Center on Culture, Immigration, and Youth Violence Prevention.
For more information about the conference and to register please visit HERE
For more information contact: Dr. Deborah Lustig, 510-643-7238,
dlustig@berkeley.edu
Thursday, March 6
- 12:00-1:30pm State Action, Community Perspectives, and the Moral Order (Location TBA)
- 1:45-3:45pm Breaking It Down: The Root Causes of the Criminalization of Poverty (Location TBA)
- 4:00-5:30pm The Raven Lecture on Access to Justice (Booth Auditorium)
Dorothy Roberts
Professor of Law, Northwestern University
Reception follows lecture in the Goldberg Room
Friday, March 9 (Goldberg Room)
- Rachel Moran, Director, Institute for the Study of Social Change
- Mary Louise Frampton, Director, Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice