right direction but there is that. lisa, you had another? >> i actually have another question from the university of central florida audience and this is from a student. mie -- mayor dwyer, are you comfortable with plans for a scaleability twitter publicayore with plans for a scaleability twitter public relations response should the pulse attack occurred in a workday rather than at night? >> it would have been a far different experience and

community -- communication challenge if it happened during the workday.cation challenge if happened during the workday. heather and i were talking about it earlier today that not only would we have had the communication aspect but we'd have had thousands of employees and businesses instead of being in the middle of the night with nobody around except the people that were inside the pulse nightclub and the first responders, so it would have been a totally different reaction and although i don't think at 11:00 at bar would have been open that aspect would have been different, a lot more challenges. our protocol is still right in terms of how we would do that but certainly the other organizations that are gathering information and conveying information, the amount of social media that would have been out there retweeting or tweeting to begin with would have been far more difficult experience for us. >> is that sort of social media and communications exercise part of national level exercises, juliette, when we practice at a national level for incidents, are they exercising that aspect of it? >> yes, it is but i think look you can't put lipstick on a pig. if your response is not good and you're not going to make it look pretty by a really strong communications, you essentially need both, but it's taking longer than most people like to get the social media viewed as probably, i don't want to say more significant than local news but as significant so that chain is just taking longer, what does it mean to be out there with tweets, who are the people doing it? do they know how to do it? are you live tweeting? do you know what to do it. that's going to be i don't want

to say generational shift but as police chiefs get younger as others, that's going to be, they're going to have grown up with facebook and twitter and feel more comfortable than it being an alien thing. it's still taking too long. >> i just wanted to add on the federal level we have the challenge we recognize with the fbi which is that is not closest to the people. it doesn't have the authenticity, at a big state or out of the fbi to talk about an incident or dhs. it's one of the challenges on the national security side we were talking about counter counter narratives. it's really hard to think about the u.s. government sending out a whole bunch of tweets about how great it is in the west and how awful it is under the caliphate. it doesn't necessarily -- it's not the voice that should necessarily be doing it. we're thinking who should be the step above that should be sending that message, but even that then who is the clearance of the content. it gets complicated very fast and then you get back to the problem of how do you make it as fast to counter the messages that the enemy can put out very fast. >> there are no more questions. okay, one more. i'll pull us back to the hero point again. just to say that when we looked at what happened in pulse, remember, we have a shooter who was actively trying to make himself the hero of his own

story or what he thought heroic was, and the reason that didn't get out in realtime was because facebook took it down. some of it was probably community rules that were automated and some of it was probably done with a human touch. so i would just point out that the social media companies again do have a responsibility and a role here, and one that's going to be constantly evolving as the threat and the perpetrators change and also as the technology changes. again, live streaming launched two days before this attack on facebook, so this is not going to be static. it's going to be changing, but they have a role to play in not letting someone who is advocating for this kind of criminal violence make himself the hero. so lisa, you had another question from our audience, our remote audience? >> this is from dr. vas questions again and it's for peter singer. he says that i've heard presenters talk about the use of cell phone cameras and other devices by u.s. troops have complicated u.s. and allied military operations in the field. are you familiar with similar stories that you can share and if this is a problem, is it an issue that the u.s. military is doing a better job at dealing

with? >> sure, so it's definitely an issue, and i think it's a great illustration on this idea there's no more secrets or at least the secrets have a shorter half-life. the bin laden raid was supposed to be the most secretive military operation of the last generation. we all know the famous image of the president watching in the situation room live but simultaneous to it you had a pakistani i.t. consultant living in abbottabad live tweeting the operation. and so if that's happening -- this is several years back. we're moving forward. you were mentioning facebook live and we see that. again to go to the election you have this why can't we keep our operations in mosul secret? part of why we can't keep it secret is not only that there's

massive desert in between, but also everyone from isis fighters to our allies are tweeting to their -- and there's a youtube channel. they created a hashtag they, ou. we are not in the same world. this presents, i wanted to circle back to what you raised, media companies sort of need to regulate this, need to control, but this is a new question for them in what they let out so there are acts of violence that some we would say, should not be up. others we would say are newsworthy and we can have an argument around that. this became an issue in the police shooting in minnesota that was, you know, the images of it were put online by one argument violated terms of service. it was a killing online. other people said no, this needs

to be shown and part of this debate on police violence and race relations. the challenge is, these companies are the ones asked to determine this. one, are they well equipped to do it? two, do we want them to do it? three, do they want to do it? they didn't set out to regulate this world. they set out to create a cool tech and they feel uncomfortable about it, too. >> an official we spoke to pointed out you have big companies that have capacity and the interest in figuring out that horrible gray area. what's freedom of speech and what is dangerous speech and what do you want to allow on your site. he pointed out, there are a lot of social media company that is are more than a guy in the garage with a server and who neither that has capacity nor interest to regulate what is being posted. so, it's not -- may not even be the case that you can regulation

or control because not everything that is being seen by all of us has someone moderating it that wants to control it. so, that's an element here, too. >> the scenario that the mayor laid out of, we had this one case of it being at night, a group that we all clearly disagree with, but you get another scenario of, you know, a killing in daytime, you know, how that might be different including the video of it gets out. you know, how the reaction, the politics of it might be different. >> well, we are just about out of time. katie, juliet, any last comments for the audience? >> i want to thank you for allowing me to participate in this forum and the work you have done. >> thank you all for coming. it was wonderful to get in this conversation with you. let's give the panel a good round of applause.

for those of you here in person, thank you for tuning in and sends us questions. if you are here in person, join us for the reception outside. house republicans settled on their leadership for congress. the slate was elected unanimously. paul ryan will be house speaker with kevin mccarthy at number two. steve scalise as whip and mag gi rogers conference chair. president obama embarked on his last trip at the president of the u.s. he is in greece today and tomorrow, he will meet with the

president and prime minister. thursday, he will make his sixth visit to germany for a meeting with angela merkel, the uk and france and italy. then friday, he attends the asia pacific summit in peru before he comes back to the u.s. republican donald trump is elected as the next president of the united states. follow the transition of government on c-span. we'll take you to key events as they happen without interrupt n interruption. watch live on c-span. listen on our free c-span radio app. milan that trump is the second born foreign lady. learn about the influence of america's presidential spouses from c-span's book, first

ladies. it's a look into the personal lives and influence of every presidential spouse in american history. it's a companion to c-spans tv series and features interviews with 54 of the nation's leading first ladies. biographies of 45 first ladies and archival photos from their lives. first ladies published by public affairs is available wherever you buy books and now available in paperback. up next, a group of former prison inmates and policy analysts discuss the importance of education for inmates. it focused on academic counseling, mentoring services and the barriers associated with re-entering. this is hosted by the center for law and social policy.

good afternoon, everyone. all right. so, we want to transition now to our second panel. where we are going to focus on the topic of re-entry. we have had a wonderful afternoon so far together with with nick turner setting the stage and giving us the framework, the opportunity, a moment of opportunity to address justice reform, to address the intersections of racial equity and most importantly to think about what are the strategies and policy solutions we need to ensure individuals who are

formerly incarcerated can thrive and realize their full potential. you have heard many stats from the open speaker and the first panel that many young, many folks focus on youth policies so i'm thinking young, but youth and adults face many barriers in the collateral consequences of mass incarceration. over 40,000 barriers are documented by the bar association that. employment, education, housing, lone bearing, licensing. those are critical areas that are very, very important to be able to thrive economically and support your families and contribute to your families. we also know that education and

training matters while behind the walls. there's lots of research. last time we talked about the research and the importance of it, the investment that was mentioned from fred. we also know we need to think about how those things that happened while in prison actually translate and coordinate when folks are returning home. we started this day off by seeing a video of young people and children and how incarceration impacts families. as we enter the next panel, before i introduce the panel, you know, let's keep that in mind. this whole work we are talking about is really about not just individuals, but about families and about communities. so, i'm really pleased today to be able to introduce our panel. first, we have vivian nixon and vivian, all the information is up there in your packets.

she's executive director of the college and community fellowship. it's a nonprofit organization that helps formally incarcerated women receive higher education. pleased to have her. next is teri, the director of education at the pennsylvania department of corrections and she is responsible for educational programming across 26 state correctional institutions in the state. and we have will heaten, the director of policy affairs, which is a nonprofit organization that offers comprehensive employment services exclusively for people with criminal records. and last but not least, deanna hoskins, a senior policy for corrections and re-entry at the department of justice assistance division where she oversees

second act portfolio and supports the departments where the federal agency re-entry. join me in welcoming the panel. [ applause ] so, what we'll do is have a round of questions that i'll ask the panelists. we'll leave time for audience questions from you all before we do our closing session. as always, please tweet out questions, please tweet any a-ha moments, anything you want to reemphasize to reconnecting justice. i'll start with you, teri. at the state level. so, i mentioned having the need for strong continue yum for education while incarcerated as well as making sure those opportunities are coordinated upon re-entry. in pennsylvania, your department received a re-entry education

grant. you are using it to focus on career programs. can you talk about how that works going and what do you see as good things that are happening and some a-ha moments. >> we, at the department recognized, it is important for us to take our inmates and provide them with marketable skills for them to use upon their release. these skills will help them obtain employment but we don't just mean any job. we want them to gain a life sustaining employment where they can help to support their families, have some benefits and things when they are released. our focus on this grant is working with the work force investment boards in pennsylvania. we have a lot of employers working with our vocational advisory teams. we have regional vocational board meetings and working with employers to tell us what jobs are available, what jobs are out

there and what certifications they are looking for. our goal with this grant is to take our vocational programs and tweak the certifications that we are offering so they are matching up what's out there. many of the employers right now are telling us they have more jobs available than they have applicants to fill them. we have the work force. we just need to make sure they have the correct certification and skills upon reentering. they are willing and able to look at hiring exoffenders as part of their work force. the next year and two years of our grant are going to be focused on taking our curriculum, our textbooks and our certification programs and updating them and bringing them into the type of work that these employees will see and actually do when they are in the field. many of our programs are old. some of the equipment is old and that's not what's being used in the field. so, this grant is to help us

move that continuum over so they are practicing and using the equipment they will be using in the field. >> great, great. we'll build on that with you vivian to talk post secondary opportunities. we talked about the importance of post secondary and college. connecting that to the work force pieces, talk about your work while the women are incouri incarcerated and returning home. >> thank you for inviting me to this wonderful event. i'm happy to be here with so many colleagues i have worked with throughout the years. we will live in a continuum of services. when you think about the expansion of opportunity that is now occurring through the second chance initiative, we know that there are going to be more people coming out of prison with some exposure to college.

it is very unlikely all of those people will have earned degrees while on the inside. the work we do at college and community fellowship is becoming ever more important. what we do is create a bridge from post secondary opportunities presented to people while they are incour incarcerated and making sure they are able to connect to similar opportunities in the community. many things have to happen so that works. so, the first step in our bridge is our second chance mentoring grant where we have staff going into women's prisons in new york state, talking to women about college opportunities, both those who have had some college while incart rated and those who are close to getting a high school equivalency. when they come out, there's a pathway that we have from what we call our community sisters program, which is a program that works with people who are not quite ready to enroll in college

yet because they have other housekeeping issues they have to take care of upon release, finding housing. many do need to work at least part time getting reunified with children and all the other stipulations that are demanded of them if they are on parole. once they move through that phase, they go into a phase we call future fellows. that is the phase during which we help them apply for financial aid, find the right school, help them fill out the application, pay for the applications, help them find other scholarships. we provide various incentives to people. so, if a person doesn't have a laptop, they can get a laptop. if they need books for a semester, we pay for the books. the next phase is called our fellow's stage. that's for people who have successfully completed 12 credits at 2.5 gpa or higher. they get a little more

incentives in terms of computers or cash scholarships. we have annual scholarships that range for the person most improved in academics to the person with the least debt associated to the person whose most community involved. we give ten scholarships in our graduation event. we have a graduate program called college beyond. many of our students come right all the way through that pathway from community sisters up through fellowship and graduate school. the glue that holds our work together is really that it's not -- it's not just another door you knock on to get another scholarship. it's not just another form you fill out to get support. it is one to one academic counseling, tutoring, mentoring and also group based network and social building through life

skills workshops that people take at their will, depending on the topic, plus community meetings that are mandatory where the community meeting is not always someone standing in front of the room giving information to participants but us helping participants facilitate each other's progress. share information that they have learned along the way. we have people who have learned how to really navigate the housing system really well in new york city. that's not an easy thing to do. why not have that student teach the others how to do that. the same thing with the child care system and other systems that our students are involved in. we believe in building social capital. we believe in financial capability. every student gets financial capability training. we do home ownership workshops. for us, re-entry is not the goal. it's a very specific point in time where people should get stabilized. our goal is lifelong, re-sbi

inauguration, sustained civic engagement and a life that one can enjoy and be proud of and can pass that on to their children and to their communities. i was great nick mentioned the buzz. it is multigenerational when you provide education to a parent. the last thing i will say because i'm probably going on because i can go on. the last thing i'll say, i forgot what the last thing was. >> you know what? we can -- you know what, we'll have a few more minutes. >> just one quick thing. we recently added a career enhancement education program. so, many of our students have been telling us that on their way to getting their college degree, they are working in a job. it's not at a level that's really, you know, economically sufficient to live in new york city. but, if they get this one certification, they can get a

promotion while they are still going to school. we partnered with one of our funders and paying for city university of new york certificates in health related fields and in business fields. that's giving our students a boost up in the world of work. thank you. >> great. no, that was excellent. a lot of what you commented on and talked about what you do and building social capital. a lot of the work we do in our work is connecting how you think about whole families, the parents, the children, the young people. how do you provide the support they need in a program way supporting the programs, but also what are the policy solutions needed to make sure what vivian just discussed and talked about how the program can thrive. i'm going to turn it over to you, will. talk about ceo. you are a comprehensive model as well knowing that re-entry is a

point and time, not the goal. and that folk who is are returning home are dealing with a whole host of issues beyond just getting job or getting training. so, what are -- talk about your program and what are some of the public policies that will make it better for your program to thrive and people going through your program to achieve goals. >> certainly. i want to reiterate my thanks as well. it's a privilege to be here today with all the speakers. quickly, a background about center for employment opportunities or ceo. we are a nonprofit that was a demonstration. we have a lot to thank for that institution and we continue to work with them closely. we connect with folks coming home within the first three months of their release, usually. there's a lot of research out there that says those are some of the most vulnerable moments and that re-entry as people come

home. what we do is we are very, very focused on when they come to our organization, they are enrolled into a one week life skills education course that focuses on a number of things. upon graduation, we hire them on as our own employees and immediately provide them with employment through social enterprise where we provide transitional work crews via service contracts we have with a lot of government agencies at the state and local level. what that work environment is able to do is it's definitely about the work itself but it's a very constructive pro-social environment that allows people to start preparing for what they need to be able to cope with when they transition into an unsubsidized job. three to four days a week, seven to eight hours a day, they are working with fellow crew members

and a ceo staff member alocngsie of them. at the end of the day, provided with one-on-one feedback. what went well? what didn't go well? what was causeing difficulty. what affects when grow home. we pay them every day. i think one thing that a lot of times people not familiar with this work don't appreciate is, you know, somebody -- it can be very, very hard to manage your finances. and to have to wait two weeks or a month, you know, for us in terms of managing that in finances is very, very difficult. so, being able to provide a little bit of income on a daily basis is something that, again, helps alleviate the stress that so many of these individuals are coping with. then, one additional day a week, they come into our office where they have a job coach. they are working on building a resume, practicing their

interviewing skills. for a lot of individuals as well, they are terrified and, i mean i tell everybody all the time, think back to when you were, you know, in grade school or high school and walking to the first job interview and never done it before. what was running through your mind? that's what every single one of these individuals is dealing with. after they go through that phase of the program, what we are really, really focused on is not placing somebody in a job, but how we help them stay connected to that job over the long term and use it as a bridge to a much more fulfilling life where they have a much more opportunity ahead of them for a career growth. so, for the next year, once we placed them into a full-time job in the local community, they have a retention specialist that works with them over the course of the next year to navigate the array of barriers that all of these individuals have to cope with, whether it's housing, transportation, child care, i

mean you name it, health care. but, what all that is, it's focused on helping them create a more stable way to focus on succeeding in that job. another thing i say to people is think about the fact that if each of us have to go into work at 5:00, 6:00, we walk out, we didn't know we were going to sleep. how focused are you going to be on your job when you don't know where you are going to lay your head that night? that's a big deal. so, that's what we are focused on. what we are trying to incorporate into that, more and more now, is vocational training and skills. the shorter term stackable skills that are aligned with what the labor market demands are in the local communities where we run our program. for most of the individuals with whom we are working, they have the equivalent of seventh and

eighth grade education. they want to get to that college education, post secondary education, but they are not ready at that particular moment. so, to kind of transition over to some of the policy changes that really -- >> give us one or two headlines. >> definitely. i would say what fred referenced earlier, the number of occupational licensing barriers that exist. i mean there's something close to like on average every state has 150 of these and some well over 200 or 300. there's story after story of individuals who have come through our program where they are motivated, you know, beyond belief in terms of wanting to get back into the work force. they run into these walls where you can't become a barber. what does your felony conviction have to do with that? the second thing is take a look at some of the way our current funding programs at the federal and state level could be much more effective in directing

resources towards fully incarcerated people. i'll stop there, but a lot more to say. >> there's a connection between that and what teri was talking about. for folk who is aren't necessarily ready to jump into a more traditional college environment. so, turn it over to you, deanna. you are at the federal level but have deep experience doing much of this work locally in cincinnati. talk to us a little bit about what do you see for opportunity at the federal level in funding and policy. you are leading and helping to lead the interagency group focused on this. what would you say are the big opportunities building from what nick said, this is a moment in time. >> working on a federal level

with bureau justice, coming from the community, you have expectations and you get to the federal level and you see where the levers are. one of the benefits is the federal intraagency. that is all the federal departments coming together to look at the policy that is are impeding within their organization. so, of course, the department of education, department of labor, usda, small business association. each agency is taking a look to say, how can our agency contribute to some of the things to increase the probability of individuals being successful? opportunities i'm finding overseeing the second chance portfolio is the solicitations are focused toward correctional facilities, behind the wall. how do we change our solicitations to have greater impact from behind the wall to outside the wall? so, one of the opportunities we are taking advantage of in 2017

is strategically wrighting what we want correctional facilities to do, no longer opening it up to tell us how we could do the reduction. still have the plan but these are some of the elements we want to see in place. we want to see people leave prison with a state id. we want to see people leave the role of medicaid. there's a waiver for food stamp eligibility. we want people enrolled in food stamps when they leave prison and not have to wait on the outside. there's another rule where individuals who get social security disability. you could be eligible and approve 90 days before release. we need to implement those. using the grant funding opportunities to be able to impact some of that change that we want to see that doesn't cost to do is actually collaboration and having states replicate what the government is doing as well. >> excellent, exlegitimate. a lot of what we heard in the

first panel and what we know to be true, we are focused on education and training, the housing issue, food issue and so forth is a huge barrier to becoming stable. so, leveraging at the discretionary level at the federal level is important. i want to turn, we talked about this in the last panel and of course class work is about lifting folks out of poverty, but also making sure we have an explicit racial justice equity lens. so, we'll start with you, vivian. when we talk about universal policies, sometimes we miss the importance of drilling down and talking about specific individuals, especially folks of color. so, you are working with women who, african-american and latino women who are disproportionately living in poverty who have

increased consequences of criminal records. so, how does the intersection of race and gender play into your work and how do you see it affecting families and communities? >> how much time do i have? >> well, we agreed on two to three minutes. >> so, i just, for context about how i look at this issue. you know, these are hard conversations to have. having conversations about race in america is hard because on the one hand, we have done so much. we have made so much progress. we have so much more inclusion, but in many ways, we are still a very segregated society. we are segregated by neighborhoods. sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. despite the progress we made, i think there's a way that we have

been conditioned to view what's expected of people of color. so, just remember, people of color are historically -- their role in this country was to provide a low cost work force. over the years, that has taken different forms, right? from slavery all the way through reconstruction and through industrialization, which, when thatd a problem, a gap in employment for the population that fed into ghettos and prisons. we still talk about people coming out of prison because they are people of color in terms of what we need for them to do is work. everybody making that connection? it impacts the way we do work

because we teach women not only to refocus their value as human beings from their own center, not from what is expected of them from our society. one of the questions we ask women that come to us is before you got in trouble, however you got in trouble, whether you were wrongfully convicted or not, before that happened, what did you want for yourself? not here is the program and here is what you have to learn to do. it's what do you want? what do you want to do? what does a fulfilling life like look to you. that is not the way we have dealt with people of color in this country. we also believe in political engagement. we have a whole advocacy component to our work. we engage our students to work to restore the real act. we engaged our students to get the state university of new york take the question of their admissions application. that is a very empowering experience. now you have women of color

learning. hey, i can actually impact what happened to me and my family. i can be engaged in a way that i'm not just fighting for my every day life on the street but i am fighting for justice for all of my people. that's a hugely empowering framework to do this type of work. >> okay. all right. now, will, i want you to add because ceos framework in policies and communities, lifting up is in line to what vivian is saying. >> definitely. i think there's two points i would like to inject into this conversation. i mean, one, i joined ceo in january. my position didn't exist before then. they definitely engaged in the policy arena at different times, but when the board of directors approved a new five-year plan at the end of last year, they

created this position because while ceo will always remain a direct services organization and working within communities, regardless of how much regrow and how much the other nonprofits that work in the same space we do to grow, our ability to actually, you know, change this, you know, problem and just eradicate it is limited. we can't reach everybody. there's going to need to be significant policy shifts on a huge level to reverse all of what, you know, a lot of what vivian is talking about. that's really where a lot of what i do now is thinking about how do we use ceos program as a platform to better inform more effective policy change and systems change at the federal, state, local level? i think, where i spent a lot of time working with, you know, government officials and looking at how the work force can be much more effective, you know, i

think pennsylvania is a great example of when they develop their state plan, they had agency heads from, you know, department of labor, department of human services and department of corrections was there at the table. one of the biggest things that's allowed us to be more effective and grow within that state is the state actually required local work force boards to use 5% to 10% of funding to run transitional jobs programs. it's proven transitional jobs programs can be a bridge to get people connected into the work force. then, that's just the starting point. it can be how they continue to build from there. but, that took leadership. but, you know, i think the other thing that really, you know, just to kind of speak more to what vivian is saying here, you know, a big reason that i came to ceo and have been involved in this work is this coming february, it will be ten years since i was convicted of a

felony. when i sit down and talk about my trajectory to that plea hearing and what happened in the ten years since then compared to the participants we work with and even a few days ago in chicago talking to somebody that's in a similar re-entry program that we do, their paths are so different than what i experienced in so many ways. a lot of that is because of the fact i was blessed to be born in a different zip code. i could go on from there. but, you know, somebody, i have heard this on a couple occasions and somebody said it again a few days ago in chicago, where i was. you are almost better off being guilty and rich than innocent and poor in this country. i mean, we have to do something about that. it's not -- i mean it's an obligation that every one of us should wake up every day

determined. so, my own personal story, and there's many others out there, but it's that difference in what those journeys are. it's not what we want this country to be about. >> thank you will for sharing your story. we have the data to show, grow in this door and you are a person of color, you get this treatment. you go in there door and you are not and benefiting from white privilege. we all need to work together. i want to turn to you, teri, and talk about intersectionalty in a different way. i know your work, much of your re-entry work talks about young adults and how important it is to focus on young adults, especially communities of young people of color to make sure they are on the right career path as they are coming home as well. >> in pennsylvania, we have a very large youth offender population within our adult

institutions. ten of our institutions are designated for those that are under 21 but tried as adults and convicted as adults. in these institutions, all of our staff members are certified within the department of ed and we offer all types of education from the beginning level and ell, esl up through any of these vocational training programs once they have reached their goal of either a g.e.d. or in pennsylvania we have a secondary diploma program. we worked with the department of education and we work with the individuals. we get their transcripts from school, the high school where they have been. a lot of programs are certified with the department of ed and we do a combination of those they earned plus ours and get them a commonwealth secondary diploma program. it is recognized in pennsylvania

as being the equivalent of a high school diploma or g.e.d. it is important for the youth to get that piece of credential first. we work a lot with the education guidance counselors looking attica rear aptitude tests to form pathways for them. find out what they want to do with with their lives much like vivian is saying, not we are telling them what they have to do with their lives, but what they want to do and getting them into the correct vocational program training. we sha we are working and using the pell grant. we are using the post secondary courses. this is giving them a taste of what it would be like to do some of these class es on the outsid. traditionally in pennsylvania, not transferred inmates from institution to institution for different programs and we are looking at pulling that back and tweaking that a little bit. when they obtain a diploma or

g.e.d., it's a program not in the prison they are in, we are transferring for vocational programming to get them what they need when they are out there. >> thanks, terri. i'll turn it over to you now to talk about how can we, you know, tap into how the federal government can be more intentional about applying rational equity lens, thinking about gender and also thinking about the important age and developmental needs that terri mentioned, given that they have so many of their incarcerated population as youthful young people serving adult sentences. >> first i want to say thank you for acknowledging that because a lot of times on the federal level with the grant funding, we create policies as if everybody on the playing field is equal. we are not deliberately seeing

youthful offenders between the ages of 18-24, here are funding to help support what those individual needs are of those individuals in that age group. or either saying that communities that are black and brown communities are having a greater impact and these are the thing that is are lacking that put them at a deficit before going into the prison system let alone coming out. so, a lot of times, if we create our solicitations or policies as if everyone is starting at the same starting poun ining point, going to keep coming to this place of having to readjust. until we get courageous and deliberate about specific funding opportunities or specific things that need to assist this population so they can have equity in education. they can have equity in the job market. i have to say through this leadership, we are getting

there. we have to move a little harder. i think innovation, visionary, having individuals at the table who have the courage to say, you know, we are doing this, we are doing great work. now it's time to be deliberate to have a greater impact in what we are doing. basically, the taxpayers are getting a bang for the dollar. we are supposed to be good stewards of money. again, in my position, just taking it a little step further to say how do we help youthful offenders? how do we help individuals of black and brown communities? how do we help win? a lot of times we do a cookie cutter approach, even from a policy level. >> that's a really good point. i'm going to turn it over to an open question before audience questions. you know, a lot of people talk about there's a rising tide, the universal policies work for

targeted populations. we all grapple with that. what i'm hearing from all of you here is, that's not the case and we really have to think about, you know, placing the -- how do we support investments and policies that support social capital and communities grappling with all these issues, but ensuring that state and federal investments and policies, you know, are nested around all of that. so, i'm going to turn it over to open question to everyone. so, we talked about challenges. we have already hit on solutions. this is a solution center crowd here. we have talked about some of the silos. so, if each of you could leave us with one, maybe two changes that will bolster a more collaborative or comprehensive solution that is will improve the re-entry point in time of education and employment

outcomes. >> yeah. i will be very brief. so, you know, you mentioned the way you think about the rising tide lifting our boats. except if the boat has holes in them. so, i think one of the things we can do is find out where the holes are and plug them and understand the interconnectiveness with criminal justice policy, health policy, education policy, housing policy, all of these labor force policies. they are all very interconnected and the federal council was a brilliant idea because it helps those different components talk to each other. the one thing that i would like to see done at the federal level is for there to be more flexibility in the solicitations for innovation, for things that are working on the local level to be able to be scaled up.

so, one way to do that is to replicate programs like ceo that has multiple sites across the country. another way to do that is find out what's really working and teach other organizations that won't have to lose their own identity, but learn to do what we do within your organization. you don't have to be a clone of us but we can give you ideas. anybody who wants to work with re-entering college students. there are very specific things we do that are not commonly done in the re-entry sphere. there are many ways to implement good practices going forwards. some of it at the policy level, some at the technical assistance level. it's not separate from all the other social policies. it's not separate from poverty. it's not separate from health care or education.

criminal justice is infused in every area of our society and we need to treat it as such. >> okay. terri? >> one of the disconnects with our system is we can provide all the services and training and everything to our offenders while they are in there, but when they transition out and go into the community correction centers, half way houses, there's always a disconnect. we never knew what they were doing. no communication in between. we have now started to work closer with the bureau community corrections and we are ensuring that everything that our inmates got when they were with us, certifications, diplomas, anything like that, our systems are now talking to each other and we are providing that information. we have open communication where they can call me if i'm sitting there. i will provide them with anything i have. we are starting to make that connection where we can work, continue to provide help and services to the inmate upon

release and helping them make that next step beyond the community corrections center out into the actual world and living on their own. it did require and still requires more policy change on our side but it is something that we need to improve a little more but it's starting to improve. >> excellent. will? >> i think two things. one, as we think about how to write, change policy at any level is keep the humanity of the problem front facing in front of us. you know, there's a mantra in ceo that's not just unique to us, but it's sort of the idea that there's the right program for the right person at the right time. we are all unique individuals. your point, government can be hugely impactful, but it's often times a very blunt instrument. we need to constantly come back to what individuals need. then, i think secondly, to reiterate what vivian said is,

you know, like the second chance act. i think it's done a lot of great things. it provided funding for a lot of programs across the country. you know, the reauthorization is before congress right now. going a step further and when we find programs that we know work and there's evidence to back that up, be more intentional about providing a pool of funding to help them scale and really replicate across the country instead of just, you know, thinking about we want to keep trying new ideas. we need to do that, but grow the ones we know work. >> deanna? >> for me, it's really simple. if we are making policies about individual lives, the individual lives we are talking about need to be at the table. we can't make decisions and policies without having formally incarcerated individuals without telling us what is impacting their lives. another look at this that none

of us at the table could look at because we have not experienced a walk through what they have walked through. for me, i'm also pushing on the advisory committees. we are going to make a decision about the lives of individuals who have experienced this, the people who experienced it need to be at the table. >> great. great. we have a number of questions we'll be able to get to a few of them. but, we heard a lot of themes that were reinforced here. you know, supporting innovation, rolling back what we know hasn't worked, you know, over the last several decades, even more than that, as you talked to us about vivian. centering the voices and the folks who are mostly impacted who have been impacted into our work. not just the program at work, but the policy work and really thinking about the role of and interactions with state and

federal and local policy and programs. so, turn it over to some of the questions here. how do we ensure that government at all levels, state and federal, are working together to achieve progress and a common agenda? you are one example of that with the interagency council. but, who wants to take this? >> i can jump real quick. i'll go back to the pennsylvania example. i mean terri is sitting here, but i think a lot of the progress ceo has been able to make within that state, right now, we are just operating in philadelphia but we are going to be a new program site opening up within the next few months in pittsburgh, then we hope to replicate even further. there is real leadership at a

number of different levels in that state administration. i think that's allowed programs and funding to be, you know, pulled together in some innovative ways. a large part of what's allowing us to open the site in pittsburgh is we are being able to take funding from the federal snap employment training program and pairing it up with wioa funding. the states are allowed considerable latitude in how they administer the programs. i think the more that we can have sort of the, you know, uncommon allies together in a room where they don't necessarily think they should or could be working together. but when you, everybody gets in that room, you see the overlap and how you can intergrate and work together is where the magic can happen. >> that's a perfect example of what you were saying, criminal justice policy intersects with with every piece. talking work force, talking

about, you know, you know, food policy and here we are talking about justice. it's a perfect example. terri, do you have anything else to add about working together with the state with some of your counter parts? >> as will was saying, our secretary and executive deputy secretary are extremely supportive of the re-entree effort that is occur. it's not the traditional way d.o.c. worked in the past. working with the other agencies and branches, all of them combined together have come together and pulled a lot of really good initiatives and programs, which are starting to affect the funding that's coming in for us. >> okay. so, this is an interesting question. so, anyone can feel free to take this. what are your reactions or solutions to research that shows box efforts are actually

increasing discrimination against african-american workers or we can open it up more broadly, how can we make the ban efforts in the work force sector as well as in, you know, the higher education sector more effective? >> yeah, i want to flush that out why that conversation is happening. people are saying that because employers are being encouraged to not ask about criminal history at the front end of an application process, they are finding ways through written applications or e-mail applications to decipher the ethnicity of the applicant. if they can easily decipher in their minds the ethnicity of an applicant, they will make assumptions about their criminal history so people aren't even

getting a foot in the door. i'm not sure of the validity of the concept. but, i don't think that's a reason to put the box back. >> yes. so, more importantly, how can we make the efforts more effective to connect to your work? >> they need to connect to actual state and local policy that disallows the discrimination against people who have criminal records. and, you know, employees need to be held accountable for diversity in their work spaces. employers cannot start throwing out all applications for black people, they just cant. eventually the work force is going to be so void of diversity, they are going to get themselves in trouble. so, i don't think it's a big -- as big of a problem as people are imagining it is. i think enforcement, having

back-up laws like the laws we have in y new york state, artic 23a of tymen law that prevents employers from blanket discrimination. >> anybody else? >> i think, i agree with miss vivian that individuals who are fearful of change and who want, who are not for ban the box are the ones speaking on this. i have to say that when you allow an applicant, everybody to be equal coming through the door, whether it's evaluating or knowledge skills and abilities in a competitive work force. the person who makes it to the interview, the offer, is the best candidate for the job. now, if they have a felony conviction, that's when you have to look at the eeoc guidelines of what the conviction has to do with the job, in relation to the job. i share that to say because even on this job, me coming to this position when president obama banned the box. i was convicted of a felony in

1998. i made it through the federal government based on knowledge, skills and ability of what i ran through a position through a competitive process in a federal government and once my felony came up, my felony had nothing to do with the job i was getting ready to perform. when it was said and done, individuals are looking for the best candidate to carry out the job. i happened to bring extra skills that made it pretty good. so, i want to say that with fair policies behind ban the box, it created employment law that is do not allow individuals to have that blanket policy. like miss vivian said, it all will be exposed. i hadn't to this point until more research comes out to prove it. >> will, anything to add with connections to wioa and the pipelines you are building and how philadelphia is one of those

ban the box cities? are you thinking about connecting those particular policies and opportunities? >> no, we think about this all the time at ceo. you know, it's a little before i came, but in new york city, we are getting -- we are celebrating the one-year anniversary of the fair chance act. that went a step further in terms of not just government positions, but all positions. you know, it was kind of presented a conundrum of ceo because the name recognition of our organization in new york city is just so, you know, in there, that when we are calling up employers where they are looking for employees and we are starting to match up our participants, most employers know we are working with folks that have some type of criminal history. we are almost, by the fact we are getting on the phone, crossing over what the law

intended to not happen in the first place. what i would say is, you know, i think, you know, there's a lot of great resources out there that looked at the two most recent studies and that part of the conversation. we need to really look beyond just the box. what this is, i really appreciate the fact this spurred this much conversation about this issue, you know, kind of to what some of our previous speakers said about this. this is a unique moment where there's a lot of attention on this. for us, what we are more focused on is how can we work with employers, big and small across the country and right now, we work mostly with smaller businesses. to think about how are you changing your own hiring policies and practices to better reflect a more inclusive, you know, hiring procedure? you know, going just beyond that first step at the door, yes it's

critically important. it's just rethinking, you know, that stigma that is associated with the felony conviction from the very, very most basic, you know, thinking. >> okay. i think we have time for one more question. i'll direct it to you, terri and have everyone else jump in. so, in addition to the work you are doing with the work force boards, credentially and pathways, do you also connect folks to substance abuse or drug treatment or recovery services? we know that that is an issue that much of society, especially formally incarcerated individuals and thinking about mental health needs. >> all of our correctional institutions have a multitude of different type of treatment programs in there. many of the inmates are required to attend aa or na.

anger management, different programs like that. those run side by side in conjunction with with our with education programs. we work very well within the institutions where they can be dismissed from class for an hour to attend a certain group or program they have to attend, and then they come back to school and vice versa. they have ample need to a lot of the mental health. they are identified and we have a lot of mental health programs. a lot of our employees actually go through mental health first aid training and cit, critical incident training to learn how to deal with the different items and things that may happen if we have students in the classrooms that have mental health issues. but each of our institutions does have the availability for all types of treatment programs as well as education programs, and we work side by side in conjunction.

and those programs do continue on the outside, should they be released to the community corrections centers or bureau halfway houses, different things like that. >> through the department of corrections or through another agency that you're coordinating with? >> most of ours are through the department of corrections. we have a couple contracted within the state but most of department of corrections run and the employees are -- >> anything to add about how your work intersects with supporting individuals who have these needs? and if not, deanna if you want to add. >> i would say definitely. while we're very much focused on employment services, those retention specialists oftentimes are trying -- are partnering with other non-profits that can, you know, connect into housing or other kinds of medical services and whatnot. one of the things we really want to be able to do is just be a

part of the much broader wholistic solution because at the end of the day, it's not just one thing. it's a whole multitude of things that when pulled together in a very coordinated way is where we can ultimately see people succeed to the best of beyond their ability. >> and i was going to say through our funding sources there is what we call mandatory requirements. and part of the mandatory requirements is that if you're applying for funding to do re-entry efforts there must be a conviction to nontraditional providers providing houses, substance abuse so we're providing that continuity of care behind the wall into the community again. that say mandatory requirement. >> when you say nontraditional providers, can you explain that a little. >> you're talking about correctional facilities and states agencies, we can connect to other state agencies or bigger agencies. but a lot of times in communities, it's the smaller

non-profits, it's the mom and pop shops that sometimes are providing services that individuals don't want to -- traditionally aren't aware of. but individuals are getting the services they need. mentoring is one. formerly incarcerated individuals working with other individuals coming home is a nontraditional service that has not been recognized by federal government or state agencies. so we're encouraging some of that on the ground level to happen. >> and you kicked us off with this series of questions and answers about -- talking about the interconnectedness of criminal justice policy with other forms of social policy, including housing and education and workforce and now we're landing on mental health. so what are some last words you have to say before we close out the panel? >> definitely connect with the best providers of those services in the local community.

so what we don't provide substance abuse treatment at our location. we don't have a housing specialist. we don't have medical treatment but we did a lot of work to find out who was the best provider of that service with this in our local community and developed partnerships with them and built into our student tracking system, our data system, so that the referral is not just, here's a phone number. good luck. our referrals are, it goes into our system. we make the phone call. we make the connection. we follow it to make sure the meeting happened, and a reminder pops up on the counselor's screen, and we have trained all of our direct service counselors in trauma informed care so that we can recognize when somebody may be having an issue, a mental health issue or substance abuse issue. we've scoped out potential domestic violence situations and intervened because we traynor staff to look for those things. i really believe in small

community based solutions where people can develop positive relationships where they are both giving and receiving something rather than -- and that's harder work to do. and it's more expensive work to do. but as deanna referred to -- diana referred to, it works. there are church basements all across the country having aa meetings every night, and people are staying sober. so we need to support that work. it's valuable, and it means a lot. the last thing i want to reflect everybody before you leave this room on diana's courage and will's courage and something that i've learned in 16 years i've been doing this work. you are all sitting in this audience, and you're listening to experts talk about the work that they're doing to solve this problem of the connections between criminal justice involvement and poverty and

other things. and unless i tell you that i spent 3 1/2 years in a new york state prison, you would not know that. and i say that as the last thought to get you to understand that people who have felony convictions don't come out of prison with horns on their head. we're just people. and many of us are trying to have a positive impact on our society. and we just really thank the federal government for really opening the door for that to happen in this administration. >> okay. so with that, i want to -- join me in thanking our panel. [ applause ] you will now hear from class executive director olivia golden in a few minute who will tell you more about our work. we definitely don't see this event as a one-off. this is the second part of a

series. but we definitely are going to delve deeper into these intersections because our mission is all about lifting folks out of poverty and really thinking about the implications that poverty and all of these things have on not just poor people but communities of color. so once again, let's thank this great panel. [ applause ] we have a special welcome page at c-span.org to help you follow the supreme court. go to c-span.org and select supreme court near the right-hand top of the page. once on the supreme court page you'll see four of the most

recent oral arguments heard this term. click on the view all link to see all the oral arguments covered by c-span. in addition, you can find recent appearances by many of the supreme court justices or watch "justices in their own words" including one on one interviews with justices kagan, thomas, and ginsburg. there's also a calendar for this term. a list of all current justices with links to quickly see all their appearances on c-span. as well as many other supreme court videos available on demand. follow the supreme court at c-span.org. we're asking students to participate in this year's student cam video documentary competition by telling us what is the most urgent issue for our next president donald trump and the incoming congress to address in 2017. our competition is open to all middle school and high school students grades 6 through 12. students can work alone or in a group of up to three to produce

a 5 to 7-minute documentary on the issue selected. a grand prize of $5,000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. $100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded and shared between 150 students and 53 teachers. this year's deadline is january 20th, 2017. that's inauguration day. for more information about the competition go to our website, studentcam.org. with donald trump elected as the next u.s. president, melania trump becomes our nation's second foreign-born first lady since louisa catherine adams. learn more about the influence of american's presidential spouses from c-span's book "first ladies." the book is a look into the personal lives and influence of every presidential spouse in american history. it's a companion to c-span's biography tv series and features interviews with 54 of the nation's leading first lady

historians, biographies and archival photographs from each their lives. "first ladies" published by public affairs is available wherever you buy books. and now available in paperback. british prime minister theresa may delivered works at the lord mayor's banquet. prime minister may talked about britain's global leadership following the brexit vote and acknowledged the u.s. presidential election. this was her first time speaking before the banquet since becoming prime minister back in july. [ applause ] >> your grace, my lord chancellor, your excellencies, my lords, alderman,