Program: Join us at our June General Meeting to hear from a panel of subject matter experts as they discuss the very important issue of Social/Criminal Justice Reform

Date: Thursday, June 6, 2019
Meeting Time: 6:30 – 8:30 NEW TIME!!
Social & Light Potluck Time:  6:00-6:30pm
Place: Givens Community Center – Kitsap Room
Address: 1026 Sidney Road Port Orchard 98366
General Meeting Day: Monthly on First Thursdays

PANELISTS:
Tarra Simmons, the Executive Director of Civil Survival and Seattle University Law graduate who won a long fight to simply take the bar exam after being incarcerated.
Drew Hansen, State Representative from the 23rd District.
Tracy Flood, a local civil rights lawyer and President of the Bremerton chapter of the NAACP.
Chad Enright, the Kitsap County Prosecutor, and Danielle Armbruster of the Department of Corrections.
Danielle Armbruster, Assistant Secretary of Corrections,
Adison Richards, moderator

PROGRAM:
Our nation incarcerates people at the highest rate of any nation in the world. Washington State’s prison population has gone from about 3,500 in 1980 to over 18,000 today. Of that population, Washington State incarcerates almost six people of color for every white person, one of the highest rates in the country. Federal, State, and county budgets are eaten up by the costs of incarceration. Recidivism, or the rate that people return to prison, remains stubbornly high. Why? Is our criminal justice system working to reduce crime? How does incarceration impact a person’s life? Are there things we do that increase the likelihood someone will go to jail? How do we balance public safety with personal responsibility, while not punishing everybody for life for the worst thing that they have done? Can the goals of public safety and changing our methods of accountability work in common? What can we do about it?