Criminal Justice Policy Coalition's

2004 Fall Conference

 

FULL DAY CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

8:30 - 9:00             Registration/Coffee

9:00 – 9:15             Welcome and Introductions

 9:15 – 10:00           Keynote Address

Progressive Criminal Justice with Sensible Public Safety

Michael J. Ashe, Jr., MSW, Sheriff of Hampden County

 

10:15 – 11:45          Moderated Panel Discussion

Current Realities and Costs: Setting the Stage for Discussion

Paul Benedict, LICSW, Department of Mental Health N.E. Forensic Director; Sarah Cohen, Probation Officer, Roxbury Municipal Court; Gary Larareo, Criminal Justice Coordinator, Bureau of Substance Abuse Services; Dana Moulton, Projects Assistant, Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery, formerly incarcerated; Hon. Maurice H. Richardson, JD, Assistant Professor, UMass Medical School Center for Mental Health Services Research

Moderator: Whitney A. Taylor, Executive Director, DPFMA

  

12:45 – 2:15 Session A Workshops

 ONE: Arrest Diversion Models

How can law enforcement through training and/or partnership with service providers divert people with mental illness and/or addiction away from arrest and incar­ceration?

Sarah Abbott-Carr, MA LSW, Program Director- Clinical Responder, Framingham Jail Diversion Program; Gladys R. Aquino-Gaines, Commander, Training and Education Div., Bureau of Profes­sional Development, Boston Police Department (tentative); Albert Grudzinkas, J.D., Coordinator for Legal Studies Center for Mental Health Services Research, Law and Psychiatry Program, UMass Medical School

Moderator: Patrice Brymner, JD, CJPC

 

TWO: Dual Diagnosis and Diversion

How can this “hard to serve” population be better served through court training and diversion to treatment?

Hon. Kathleen Coffey, West Roxbury Div., Boston Municipal Court Dept.; Consumer of Dual Diagnosis Services, TBA; Julie White, LICSW, Director, Women’s Resource Center, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Dept.

Moderator: Whitney A. Taylor, DPFMA

 

THREE: Post-Release Challenges

How can we work together to improve com­munity re-entry, prevent recidivism, and better address long-term costs of incarceration?

Francisca Fajana, JD, Staff Attorney, Mas­sachusetts Law Reform Institute (CORI Reader); Robert B. Pilsbury, Ed.M., private practice psychologist, sober housing consultant; Ronald J. “Cornbread” Owens, Prisoner’s Re-entry Working Group (formerly incarcerated at MCI- Walpole); Carol Streiff, Prisoners Re-entry Working Group; Representative from Boston Re-entry Initiative

Moderator: Dana Moulton, MOAR

 

 2:30 – 4:00 Session B Workshops

 ONE: Achieving Policy Reform

How can we use legislation and the budget process to further policies of greater social accountability and caring?  Assessing past efforts, identifying obstacles, and seeking new strategies.

Michael D. Cutler, JD, attorney and former CJPC board member; Sidney Gelb, MS, Metro Boston Director/Public Policy Chair, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; Kay Khan, MS, State Representative (D-Newton), Psychiatric Nurse; Constance Peters, MSPA, Vice President for Substance Abuse, Mental Health Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts, (tentative)

Moderator: Dorothy Weitzman, LICSW, Boston College GSSW; CJPC Board; NASW Crim. Justice Chair

 

TWO: Juvenile Justice Concerns

What can be done to better serve mentally ill and addicted youth in early encounters with the criminal justice system?

Bradford Feltus, LMHC, LADC-I, private practice Mental Health/Addictions Counselor; David K. Wilcox, Ed.D, Clinical Director, Middlesex County Juvenile Court Clinic; Howard Wolfe, MA, LMFT, Dir. New England Inhalant Abuse Prevention Coalition, member, Mass. Inhalant Abuse Task Force; Representative from District Attorneys Office

Moderator: Richard Barnum, MD, Citizens for Juvenile Justice

 

THREE: Mental Health and Drug Courts

How can mental health courts best be developed to help and not harm? Are our drug courts suc­cessfully serving people with addictions?

Drug Court/Mental Health Court Client(s), TBA; Hon. Maurice H. Richardson, JD, Asst. Prof. UMass Medical School, Center for Mental Health Services Research; Sonya Pence, JD, private defense attorney; Hon. Robert Ziemian, JD, Boston Municipal Court Dept., Drug Court

Moderator: Whitney A. Taylor, DPFMA

 

4:15 – 4:45                Moderated Conference Wrap-up

Moving Forward: Policy Directions

Group recommendations for priorities and next steps.