Alternatives to Incarceration Part 1

30 Minutes features excerpts from the YWCA Southern Arizona’s “Alternatives to Incarceration,” which was part seven in their Mass Incarceration Community Conversation Series. Grace Gamez of the American Friends Service Committee’s Reframing Justice Project, and Heather Hamel, Founder and Executive Director of Justice that Works discussed Alternatives to Incarceration. What alternatives work and where are they being used now? Can these be expanded and for whom?

The Mass Incarceration series is a multiyear series of free forums focused on providing information, dialogue and education for community members on the various challenges and policies that affect our formerly and currently incarcerated neighbors.

Speakers:

Grace Gámez  is currently developing AFSC’s multi-media storytelling project, Reframing Justice. With Reframing Justice, she drew upon her previous research, Fierce Mamas’ Rising, to design a program that centers the voices and experiences of formerly incarcerated/convicted people and their loved ones. Her commitment to mobilizing the power and knowledge of formerly incarcerated/convicted people is informed by her own experience in Arizona’s criminal punishment system. Grace holds a doctorate in Justice Studies from Arizona State University, and a Master of Science in Mexican American Studies and Public Health from the University of Arizona.

Heather Hamel is an activist and attorney committed to racial justice and ending mass incarceration. In 2013, Heather graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she served as the Supervising Editor of the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. After school, she clerked for Chief Judge Johnsen of the Arizona Court of Appeals and practiced law at Perkins Coie, LLP, focusing on civil rights and immigration law. She is also a blog-contributor to the Huffington Post’s law and politics pages.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Recorded and produced by Amanda Shauger.