Moderated by GCSW Leadership Board member Charles Lewis Jr. (of Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy (CRISP)), Undoing Racism by Eliminating Debilitating Criminal Penalties was a highly informative discussion by the panelists: Carrie Pettus-Davis, associate professor and director of the Institute for Justice Research Development at Florida State University and co-lead for Promote Smart Decarceration; Cedric Hendricks, associate director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision in Washington, DC; Margaret Love, executive director of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center; and David Muhammad, executive director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.
Opening remarks were offered by U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, D-CA, an original co-sponsor of the REDEEM Act, legislation that would ease the barriers to re-entry for individuals convicted of felonies. The Act would expunge or seal records of offenses committed by children and provide a way for adults to seal non-violent criminal records after completing their criminal penalty.