First 150 registrants will enjoy a free copy of Dismantling Mass Incarceration!

On March 13th at LMU Loyola Law School, Professor James Forman, Jr., will deliver a distinguished lecture on how to achieve meaningful and lasting criminal justice reform, drawing from his most recent book, Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change. 

Following the lecture, LLS Professor and criminal justice scholar Michael Serota will moderate a lively panel discussion with three of the nation’s leading voices on criminal justice issues: Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU Yasmin Cader; renowned community organizer Raj Jayadev; and LLS Professor and criminal justice scholar Priscilla Ocen.

Book signing & outdoor reception to follow with live music from Geoff Gallegos '20, award-winning musician and frequent collaborator with Grammy-winning artists.

Dismantling Mass Incarceration is a first-of-its-kind anthology of actionable policy solutions to the imprisonment crisis in the United States, as proposed by reform advocates, policy experts, community organizers, and those who’ve been formerly incarcerated. The anthology is co-edited by Professors Premal Dharia (Harvard), James Forman, Jr. (Yale), and Maria Hawilo (Loyola Chicago).

About the Participants

James Forman, Jr., the J. Skelly Wright Professor at Yale Law School, is one of the nation’s most insightful and influential scholars on criminal justice issues. His scholarship addresses schools, police, and prisons with a particular focus on the race and class dimensions of those institutions. Prior to entering academia, Professor Forman worked for many years as a public defender in Washington D.C., while also founding impactful institutions committed to uplifting the disadvantaged and poor people of color, such as the Maya Angelou Public Charter School for previously arrested youth. Among many other scholarly accomplishments, in 2018, Professor Forman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his first book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America. Professor Forman’s second book is Dismantling Mass Incarceration.

Yasmin Cader is a Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU and the Director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality. In her 30-year career as a civil rights lawyer and public defender in Washington, D.C., New York, and Los Angeles, she has been at the front lines of the fight for racial justice and brings a unique perspective and creative vision to addressing the most important issues facing our country. Prior to joining the ACLU, Yasmin was the co-founder of Cader Adams Trial Lawyers, a women-owned litigation boutique in Los Angeles.

Raj Jayadev is the co-founder of Silicon Valley De-Bug, which is an organization that focuses on community organizing, advocacy, and multimedia storytelling. Through De-Bug's criminal justice community program, Raj developed “participatory defense,” which is a community model that was developed for families whose loved ones are facing the criminal court system. Raj’s community work and writings have been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, BBC, TIME Magazine and media outlets across the country. In 2018, Raj was awarded a multi-year “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Foundation. 

Priscilla Ocen is a Professor at LLS and one of the nation’s leading criminal justice scholars. Her scholarship explores the ways in which the intersection of race, gender and class make women of color vulnerable to various forms of violence and criminalization. Professor Ocen’s writing has appeared in leading academic journals such as the California Law Review and the UCLA Law Review, as well as popular media outlets such as the Atlantic Magazine and Ebony. Professor Ocen is also the co-author of the influential policy report, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected. Most recently, Professor Ocen served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the California Department of Justice, where she advised Attorney General Rob Bonta on issues related to criminal justice reform.

Michael Serota is a Professor at LLS and an internationally recognized scholar who focuses on the development and reform of criminal laws. Professor Serota specializes in running long term interdisciplinary projects which bring together experts from across academia and the policy world to study empirical questions about the criminal law. Professor Serota is the author of more than 20 scholarly articles and essays, which have been cited hundreds of times, including by state and federal courts, casebooks, and legal treatises. Professor Serota also advises state governments, reform organizations, and media outlets on criminal justice reform issues, building on his years of experience working as a code reformer and legislative drafter in Washington D.C.