Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author is Keynote Speaker At Rutgers Center on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice Conference

Pulitzer Prize winning author James Forman Jr., a professor at Yale School of Law, will be the keynote speaker at a two-day conference on youth development and juvenile justice, being held at Rutgers University–Newark on June 7-8, 2018.

Forman, whose book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, will speak at 9:30 a.m. Friday, June 8, in Room 70 of the Center for Law and Justice at 123 Washington St. in Newark. The title of his talk is the same as his award-winning book.

Forman leads an impressive list of speakers at the conference, which is sponsored by the Rutgers Center on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice. On Thursday at 4:30 p.m., Eli Hager, a staff writer who specializes in juvenile justice for The Marshall Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that focuses on the criminal justice system, will be speaking on “The Dark Side of Juvenile Justice Reform.” His talk takes place at the University Club on the second floor of the Paul Robeson Campus Center.

Following Hager’s talk is a panel discussion at 5:30 p.m. that includes professors and youth advocates.

Friday’s daylong program starts at 9:15 a.m. with a welcome before Forman’s talk and includes a 10:30 a.m. panel discussion by scholars, youth advocates, and Newark leaders along with a showcase of community programs at 11:30 a.m. At 2 p.m., following lunch, is an afternoon lecture, titled “Adolescence Incarcerated: Healing the Wounds of the School-to-Prison Pipeline: by Kelsey M. Jones, a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Following Jones’ talk is a panel discussion at 3 p.m. with faculty representing education, social work, psychology, sociology and law. Professor Paul Boxer, director of the Center on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, will give closing remarks at 4 p.m.

This is the center’s third annual conference and highlights the critical issue of racial disparities in the juvenile justice system from a variety of perspectives spanning journalistic coverage of juvenile justice reform efforts, legal and political historical perspectives on race and crime, and social science research on youth experiences with the juvenile justice system.

Spots are still available for registration, which costs $30 in advance at $40 the day of the event. Advance registration closes on June 4. Light refreshments will be provided on June 7 and a continental breakfast and box lunch will be provided on June 8. Parking vouchers for discounted parking are available and must be requested at the time of registration. CLE credits are available through the Rutgers School of Social Work and the Rutgers School of Law.

Any questions, please reach out to Center Director Paul Boxer at: pboxer@rutgers.edu

About the Center on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

The Rutgers University-Newark Center on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice is a collaborative center based on a strong foundation of existing community partnerships and faculty research and aimed at making Rutgers-Newark the premier academic hub in the nation for engaged scholarship on youth violence and juvenile justice with both local and national impact.

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About Rutgers University-Newark

Rutgers University - Newark is a diverse, urban, public research university that is an anchor institution in New Jersey’s cultural capital.  Nearly 13,000 students are currently enrolled at its 38-acre campus in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs offered through the Newark College of Arts and Sciences, University College, the Graduate School-Newark, Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, the Rutgers Law School, the School of Criminal Justice, and the School of Public Affairs and Administration.

At a historical moment when our cities, our state, our nation, and our world desperately need higher education to fulfill its promise as an engine of discovery, innovation, and social mobility. Rutgers University – Newark is exceptionally well positioned to fulfill that promise. It has a remarkable legacy of producing high-impact scholarship that is connected to the great questions and challenges of the world. It has the right mix of disciplines and first-rate interdisciplinary centers and institutes to take on those questions and challenges.  It is in and of a city and region where its work on local challenges undertaken with partners from many sectors resonates powerfully throughout our urbanizing world.  Most importantly, Rutgers University – Newark brings an incredible diversity of people to this work—students, faculty, staff, and community partners—making it more innovative, more creative, more engaging, and more relevant for our time and the times ahead.  For more information please visit www.newark.rutgers.edu.

Program Sponsors:

Rutgers-Newark Office of the Chancellor
Rutgers-Newark Office of University-Community Partnerships
Rutgers-Newark College of Arts & Sciences
Rutgers School of Social Work
State of New Jersey - Juvenile Justice Commission
Rutgers-Newark Department of Psychology
Rutgers Law School
Rutgers Institute for Professional Education 
Northeast Juvenile Defender Center