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White Collar Week with Jeff Grant, Podcast Ep. 22, Guest: The Goddess, Babz Rawls Ivy

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White Collar Week with Jeff Grant

It’s the Isolation that Destroys Us. The Solution is in Community.

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Podcast Ep. 22, Guest: The Goddess, Babz Rawls Ivy

Today on the podcast we have my dear friend, The Goddess, Babz Rawls Ivy. Many of you know Babz as she is my co-host on our radio show and podcast, Criminal Justice Insider. We are in our fourth season of Criminal Justice Insider, still the only regularly scheduled criminal justice radio program in Connecticut, although we have many national justice-related guests, as well.

Trigger alert: in this episode, we go deep into Babz’s story of childhood abuse and trafficking. We also discuss Babz’s incredible life since, from attending Barber-Scotia College, a historically Black college in the South, voter registration with Andrew Young and Rev. Jesse Jackson, earning a Master of Public Administration at Baruch College in New York City, rape crisis counseling, and then as an Alderman in New Haven, where she ran afoul with the law. After serving time in Danbury Federal Prison, Babz went on to be lifted up and serve as Editor of the Inner City News in New Haven, radio show host of her talk show, LoveBabz LoveTalk, and board member of many arts and justice non-profits in New Haven, CT.

So coming up, The Goddess. Babz Rawls Ivy. On White Collar Week. We hope you will join us. – Jeff

Babz is a member of our White Collar Support Group that meets online on Zoom on Monday evenings.

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If you have a friend, family member, colleague or client with a white collar justice issue, please forward this post; they can reach us anytime – day or night! Our contact info: http://prisonist.org/contact-us.

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Guests on this Episode:

Babz Rawls Ivy

Babz Ivy Rawls, brilliant, charismatic, tireless, multi-talented, fixture of the New Haven and Connecticut community. A few of her roles include being a mother and interviewer of everyone from politicians to formerly incarcerated people to practitioners to academics about prison industrial complex issues on the Criminal Justice Insider radio show. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Inner-City News, “a 29-year Black-owned print publication working to hold the stories and images of local and global Black people sacred.” Babz embodies the triumph made in spite of experiencing challenges faced by many other formerly incarcerated women. She uses her vibrant voice to inform and influence people about her causes and her community.

Contact Information:

203-645-9278
mediababz@gmail.com

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You can find all episodes of our podcast “White Collar Week with Jeff Grant” on our website prisonist.org, our Facebook page, Podbean, YouTube (video), SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Information About our White Collar Support Group…

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Info on SBA PPP & EIDL Loan Fraud:

Entrepreneur’s #4 Most Viewed Article of 2020: I Went to Prison for SBA Loan Fraud – 7 Things to Know When Taking COVID-19 Relief Money: by Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div.. Link to article here.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Steal Money from the Feds? First, Meet Jeff Grant, an Ex-Con who Committed Loan Fraud, by Erin Arvedlund: Link to article here.

Hannah Smolinski YouTube: Thinking About PPP Fraud?: Hannah Interviews Jeff Grant About Going to Prison for SBA Loan Fraud. Link to article and YouTube video here.

CFO Dive: After Serving Time, Fraudster Cautions Against PPP, Other Emergency Loans, by Robert Freedman. Link to article here.

Fraud Stories Podcast with Mark Lurie: SBA/PPP Loan Fraud with Guest: Jeff Grant. Link to podcast here.

Forbes: As Law Enforcement Pursues SBA Loan Fraud, Jeff Grant Talks Redemption, by Kelly Phillips Erb. Link to article here.

Taxgirl Podcast: Jeff Grant talks Desperation and Loans in a Time of Crisis with Kelly Phillips Erb on Her Podcast. Link to article and podcast here.

Business Talk with Jim Campbell: Jeff Grant Talks with Jim About Going to Prison for SBA Loan Fraud and What to Know When Taking Coronavirus Relief Money, Biz Talk Radio Network, Broadcast from 1490 AM WGCH Greenwich, CT. Listen on YouTube here.

Babz Rawls Ivy Show: Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant Talk SBA / PPP Loan Fraud and 7 Things to Know Before You Take Coronavirus Relief Money, WNHH 103.5 FM New Haven. Watch on YouTube here.

White Collar Week with Jeff Grant, Podcast Episode 09: Small Business Edition, with Guest Kelly Phillips Erb. Link here.

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Louis Reed/Babz Rawls Ivy PSA:

Some very kind words from my dear friends Louis L. Reed and Babz Rawls Ivy in this brief PSA. Thank you Louis and Babz! – Jeff

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All Episodes:

Link here to Podcast Ep. 21: All Things SBA, PPP & EIDL, with Guest: Hannah Smolinski, CPA, Virtual CFO

Link here to Podcast Ep. 20: Reinventing Yourself After Prison, with Guests: Glenn E. Martin & Richard Bronson

Link here to Podcast Ep. 19: Insider Trading Charges Dismissed, with Guest: Richard Lee

Link here to Podcast Ep. 18: Is Your Life a Movie? The Producers, with Guests: Lydia B. Smith, Bethany Jones & Will Nix

Link here to Podcast Ep. 17: #TruthHeals, Systemic Abuse & Institutional Reform with Guest: Vanessa Osage, feat. Guest Co-Host Chloe Coppola

Link here to Podcast Ep. 16: Politicians, Prison & Penitence, with Guest: Bridgeport, CT Mayor Joseph Ganim

Link here to Podcast Ep. 15: A Brave Talk About Suicide, with Guests Bob Flanagan, Elizabeth Kelley, & Meredith Atwood

Link here to Podcast Ep. 14: Recovery & Neighborhood, with Guest: TNP’s Tom Scott

Link here to Podcast Ep. 13: Everything but Bridgegate, with Guest: Bill Baroni

Link here to Podcast Ep. 12: The Truth Tellers, with Guests: Holli Coulman & Larry Levine

Link here to Podcast Ep. 11: Blank Canvas, with Guest: Craig Stanland

Link here to Podcast Ep. 10: The Ministers, with Guests: Father Joe Ciccone & Father Rix Thorsell

Link here to Podcast Ep. 09: Small Business Edition, with Guest: Taxgirl Kelly Phillips Erb

Link here to Podcast Ep. 08: The Academics, with Guests: Cathryn Lavery, Jessica Henry, Jay Kennedy & Erin Harbinson

Link here to Podcast Ep. 07: White Collar Wives. with Guests: Lynn Springer, Cassie Monaco & Julie Bennett. Special Guest: Skylar Cluett

Link here to Podcast Ep. 06: Madoff Talks, with Guest: Jim Campbell

Link here to Podcast Ep. 05: Trauma and Healing when Mom goes to Prison, with Guests: Jacqueline Polverari and Her Daughters, Alexa & Maria

Link here to Podcast Ep. 04: One-on-One with Tipper X, with Guest: Tom Hardin

Link here to Podcast Ep. 03: Compassionate Lawyering, with Guests: Chris Poulos, Corey Brinson, Bob Herbst & George Hritz

Link here to Podcast Ep. 02: Substance Abuse & Recovery During COVID-19, with Guests: Trevor Shevin & Joshua Cagney

Link here to Podcast Ep. 01: An Evening with Our White Collar Support Group, with Guests: 16 Members of Our White Collar Support Group

Link here to Podcast Ep. 00: White Collar Week with Jeff Grant: What is White Collar Week?

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Jeff Grant

What is the White Collar Justice Community?

Welcome to White Collar Week with Jeff Grant, a podcast serving the white collar justice community. It’s the isolation that destroys us. The solution is in community.

If you are interested in this podcast, then you are probably already a member of the white collar justice community – even if you don’t quite know it yet.  Our community is certainly made up of people being prosecuted, or who have already been prosecuted, for white collar crimes. But it is also made up of the spouses, children and families of those prosecuted for white collar crimes – these are the first victims of white collar crime. And the community also consists of the other victims, both direct and indirect, and those in the wider white collar ecosystem like friends, colleagues, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, law enforcement, academics, researchers. Investigators, mitigation experts, corrections officers, parole & probation officers, reentry professionals, mental health care professionals, drug and alcohol counselors – and ministers, chaplains and advocates for criminal and social justice reform. The list goes on and on…

Our mission is to introduce you to other members of the white collar justice community, to hear their very personal stories, and hopefully gain a broader perspective of what this is really all about. Maybe this will inspire some deeper thoughts and introspection? Maybe it will inspire some empathy and compassion for people you might otherwise resent or dismiss? And maybe it will help lift us all out of our own isolation and into community, so we can learn to live again in the sunshine of the spirit.

Along the way, I’ll share with you some of the things I’ve learned in my own journey from successful lawyer, to prescription opioid addict, white collar crime, suicide attempt, disbarment, destruction of my marriage, and the almost 14 months I served in a Federal prison. And also my recovery, love story I share with my wife Lynn Springer, after prison earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, pastoring in an inner city church in Bridgeport CT, and then co-founding with Lynn in Greenwich CT, Progressive Prison Ministries, the world’s first ministry serving the white collar justice community. It’s been quite a ride, but I firmly believe that the best is yet to come.

So I invite you to come along with me as we experience something new, and bold, and different – a podcast that serves the entire white collar justice community. I hope you will join me.

Blessings, לשלום

Jeff

Rev. Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div. (he, him, his) 
Co-founder, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., Greenwich CT & Nationwide
Co-host, The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast
Host, White Collar Week
Mailing: P.O. Box 1, Woodbury, CT 06798
Website: prisonist.org
Email: jgrant@prisonist.org
Office: 203-405-6249
Donations (501c3): http://bit.ly/donate35T9kMZ
Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jeff-grant-woodbury-ct/731344
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revjeffgrant
not a prison coach, not a prison consultant

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Thank you for listening to White Collar Week.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast if you loved it – it helps others suffering in silence find us if they need us!

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Follow White Collar Week on Social:

Web: https://prisonist.org/white-collar-week

Facebook: https://facebook.com/whitecollarweek

Twitter: https://twitter.com/whitecollarweek

Instagram: https://instagram.com/whitecollarweek

LinkedIn: https://linkedin/whitecollarweek

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Follow Jeff Grant on Social:

Web: https://prisonist.org

Facebook: https://Facebook.com/revjeffgrant

Twitter: https://twitter.com/revjeffgrant

Instagram: https://instagram.com/revjeffgrant

LinkedIn: https://linkedin/revjeffgrant

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Want to be a guest on the Show? Have a connection you’d like to make?

Email us! info@prisonist.org

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Credits:

Host: Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div.

Production: Chloe Coppola

Audio Engineering: George Antonios: https://georgeantonios.com

Video Engineering: Todd Nixon

Art Direction: Greyskye Marketing, LLC: https://greyskye.com

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It’s the Isolation that Destroys Us. The Solution is in Community.

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is the world’s first ministry supporting the white collar justice community. Founded by husband and wife, Jeff Grant and Lynn Springer in Greenwich CT in 2012, we incorporated as a nonprofit in Connecticut in 2014, and received 501(c)(3) status in 2015.  Jeff has over three decades of experience in crisis management, business, law (former), reentry, recovery (clean & sober 17+ years), and executive and religious leadership. As Jeff was incarcerated for a white-collar crime he committed in 2001, he and Lynn have a first-hand perspective on the trials and tribulations that white-collar families have to endure as they navigate the criminal justice system and life beyond.

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is nonsectarian, serving those of all faiths, or no faith whatsoever. To date we have helped over three hundred fifty (350) individuals, and their families, to accept responsibility for their actions and to acknowledge the pain they have caused to others.  In accordance with our commitment to restorative justice, we counsel our members to make amends as a first step in changing their lives and moving towards a new spiritual way of living centered on hope, care, compassion, tolerance, empathy and service to others. Our team has grown to over ten people, most with advanced degrees, all of whom are currently volunteering their time and resources.

Progressive Prison Ministries’ goal is to provide spiritual solutions and emotional support to those who are feeling alone, isolated, and hopeless. We have found that these individuals are suffering from a void but are stuck, and don’t know what to do about it. Our objective is to help them find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what may seem like insurmountable problems. Many of those we counsel are in a place where their previous lives have come to an end due to their transgressions. In many cases their legal problems have led to divorce, estrangement from their children, families, friends and support communities, and loss of a career. The toll this takes on individuals and families is emotionally devastating. White-collar crimes are often precipitated by other issues in the offenders’ lives such as alcohol or drug abuse, and/or a physical or mental illness that lead to financial issues that overwhelms their ability to be present for themselves and their families and cause poor decision making. We recognize that life often presents us with such circumstances, sometimes which lead us to make mistakes in violation of the law.

All conversations and communications between our ordained ministry, and licensed clinical relationships, and those we serve fall under state privilege laws. This is one reason that attorneys often allow and encourage their clients to maintain relationships with us while in active prosecution or litigation situations.

If you, a friend, family member, colleague or client are suffering from a white collar criminal justice issue or are experiencing some other traumatic or life-altering event, and would like to find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what seems like insurmountable problems, please contact us to schedule an initial call or appointment.

Copyright 2021, All Rights Reserved, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.

 

The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant: Guest Cathryn Lavery, Ph.D., Chair of the Iona College Criminal Justice Dept., Fri., Nov. 15, 2019

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On Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, 9 am ET, Cathryn Lavery, Ph.D., Chair & Graduate Coordinator for the Iona College Criminal Justice Department, was our guest on the Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant – The Voice of CT Criminal Justice. Live on WNHH 103.5 FM New Haven, rebroadcast at 5 pm. Live-streamed and podcast everywhere, see below. Sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven – Now More Than Ever.

Listen on SoundCloud:

Watch on YouTube:

 

Dr. Cathryn Lavery grew up in Pelham and after graduating from Pelham High School went on to Clark University in Worcester MA. After graduating with a degree in Sociology, she worked at Planned Parenthood where she counseled AIDS/HIV patients and at Worcester County Jail where she began working as a liaison with city probation and inmate re-entry. Returning to NY, she continued counseling work and began received training on sexual victimization and trauma. In addition, she worked began counseling female clients from half way houses, jails and area prisons. It was here she began to see significant issues with mental health and inmates. After returning to NY she began her Master of Science in Criminal Justice where she was the first women to graduate from the program. She later applied to The Graduate Center/City University of NY and received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice with a specialization in Forensic Psychology and Ethics. Within months of beginning her doctorate she was in the classroom and worked in various departments at John Jay College for the 8 years. Her interest in students’ welfare and success began initially with her research that focused on sexual violence on campuses. After John Jay, she went to Sacred Heart University and found her way back to NY and Iona where she has served as Chair & Graduate Coordinator for the Criminal Justice Department.

Among many accolades, including being the first woman and educator to be honored at the Detective Barney Ferguson Legacy May Day Annual Award in 2019, She has been awarded with The Master Teacher Award, The Catherine McCabe Award for Excellence in Teaching, Faculty Speaker of the Year, Adjunct Award for Westchester Community College and the Jean Claude Lovinsky Award for Service to Students. Dr. Lavery has served on the New Rochelle Community Policing Board and has published in areas including community based corrections, sexual assault and violent crime. Her recent research projects include animal therapy programs on Riker’s Island, Social Media and violent crime and Sexual assault and Intimate partner violence. She is a Board Affiliate member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists, and a member of The International Association of Correctional and Forensic Psychologists, The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Society of Criminologists. Dr. Lavery serves as a consultant and trainer on issues involving leadership, sexual harassment and strategic planning with criminal justice reform. This fall, Dr. Lavery will be appearing in a podcast/documentary film by NYPD, profiling a cold case homicide.
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The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy and Jeff Grant is broadcast live at 9 am ET on the first and third Friday of each month Sept. through June, from the WNHH 103.5 FM studios in New Haven. It is rebroadcast on WNHH at 5 pm ET the same day. Podcast and Archive available all the time, everywhere.

Our Facebook Page (best place for information, news, articles, events):
https://www.facebook.com/criminaljusticeinsider

Our website: prisonist.org/criminal-justice-insider
Our Twitter handle: @insidercj
Our Instagram handle: @criminaljusticeinsider

The show is live-streamed & podcast everywhere at:

New Haven Independent: newhavenindependent.org
Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/wnhhradio
YouTube: https://youtube
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wnhhlp
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/wnhhradio
Periscope: https://www.pscp.tv/search?q=wnhh

The show is also archived at:

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/new-haven-independent/sets/criminal-justice-insider
Community Foundation of Greater New Haven website: https://www.cfgnh.org/LeadingOnIssues/IncarcerationandReentry/CriminalJusticeInsiderRadioArchives.aspx

An article about each show is published a few days later in the New Haven Independent (newhavenindependent.org).

Please “like” us on Facebook!
Contact us: jgrant@prisonist.org

Season Three Guests:

Fri., Sept. 6, 2019: Khalil Cumberbatch, Chief Strategist at New Yorkers United for Justice
Fri., Sept. 20, 2019: Aaron T. Kinzel, Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Michigan-Dearborn
Fri., Oct. 4, 2019: Charlie Grady, Outreach Specialist for the FBI CT Community Outreach Program
Fri., Oct. 18, 2019: Michael Kimelman, Former Hedge Funder and Author of Confessions of a Wall Street Insider: A Cautionary Tale of Rats, Feds, and Banksters
Fri., Nov. 1, 2019: Corey Brinson, Former Attorney Convicted for a White Collar Crime who is running for Hartford City Council
Fri., Nov. 15, 2019: Cathryn Lavery, Ph.D., Chair & Graduate Coordinator for the Iona College Criminal Justice Department

Season Two Guests:

Fri., Sept. 9, 2018: Kennard Ray, CT Unlock the Vote and Candidate for CT State Legislator
Fri., Sept. 21, 2018: Louis L. Reed, National Organizer for #Cut50
Fri., Oct. 5, 2018: Sue Gunderman & Beth Hines, CT Reentry Roundtables
Fri., Oct. 19, 2018: Venice Michalsen, Assoc. Professor of Justice Studies, Montclair State University
Fri., Nov. 16, 2018: Andrew Clark, Director of the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, Central Connecticut State University
Fri., Dec. 7, 2018: Glenn E. Martin, Founder/Consultant of GEM Trainers and Past-President and Founder of JustLeadershipUSA
Fri., Dec. 21, 2018: Fernando Muniz, CEO of Community Solutions, Inc., and community leader Rosa Correa.
Fri., Jan. 4, 2019: New Years Retrospective Show Looking Back at Past CJI Guests.
Fri. Jan. 18, 2019: Peter Henning, Law Prof. at Wayne State University and “White Collar Watch” columnist for the NY Times.
Fri., Feb. 1, 2019: Jeffrey Deskovic, CEO of The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation who was Exonerated after Serving 16 Years in Prison
Fri., Feb. 15, 2019: Jeffrey Abramowitz, Executive Director for Reentry Services, JEVS Human Services, Philadelphia.
Fri., Mar. 1, 2019, Rollin Cook, CT Commissioner of Correction
Fri., Mar. 15, 2019: Dieter Tejada, Justice Impacted Criminal Justice Advocate
Fri., Apr. 5, 2019: John Rowland, Former CT Governor
Fri., Apr. 19, 2019: Gregg D. Caruso, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Corning & Co-Director of the Justice Without Retribution Network at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Fri., May 3, 2019: Michael Taylor, CEO of Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center in the Greater New Haven area
Fri., May 17, 2019: Tarra Simmons, Esq., Attorney & Criminal Justice Reform Advocate, Washington State
Fri., June 7, 2019: Louis L. Reed, National Organizer for #Cut50, Part Deux!
Fri., June 21, 2019: Marcus Bullock, CEO of Flikshop

Sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven – Now More Than Ever.

The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant: Guest Corey Brinson, Former Attorney Convicted for a White Collar Crime who is now a Prison and Pardons Consultant Running for Hartford City Council , Fri., Nov. 1, 2019

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On Friday, Nov. 1, 2019, 9 am ET, Corey Brinson, a former attorney convicted for a white collar crime who is now a prison and pardons consultant running for Hartford City Council (and a member of our online White Collar/Nonviolent Support Group), was our guest on Criminal Justice Insider with Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant – The Voice of CT Criminal Justice. Live on WNHH 103.5 FM New Haven, rebroadcast at 5 pm. Live-streamed and podcast everywhere, see below. Sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven – Now More Than Ever.

Listen on SoundCloud:

 

Watch on Facebook Live:

Corey Brinson is the founder and chief executive officer of the Second Chance Firm, LLC. Mr. Brinson works closely with professionals who are the subject of federal prosecution and are expected to surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons for a period of incarceration. Mr. Brinson also works with people with criminal records who are seeking a pardon in the State of Connecticut or with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. Mr. Brinson is also a registered and active lobbyist in Connecticut and advocates for broad, sweeping criminal justice reform.
 
Mr. Brinson brings his unique experiences in the criminal justice system to his prison consulting, pardon, and lobbying work. He has experienced the entire criminal justice system. Specifically, he has tried a murder case to verdict, obtained not guilty verdicts in felony cases, represented white-collar defendants in state and federal criminal court, and has argued for criminal defendants at sentencing hearings in federal court. Additionally, he has obtained and advocated for pardons for clients before the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles.
 
In 2017, Mr. Brinson was convicted in federal court of a white-collar crime related to unlawful banking transactions concerning a client’s multimillion-dollar securities scheme. He served 16 months in a federal prison camp and a halfway house. Mr. Brinson is also a 2018 graduate of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Program, which provides inmates with significantly reduced sentences and improved life skills.
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The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy and Jeff Grant is broadcast live at 9 am ET on the first and third Friday of each month Sept. through June, from the WNHH 103.5 FM studios in New Haven. It is rebroadcast on WNHH at 5 pm ET the same day. Podcast and Archive available all the time, everywhere.
 
Our Facebook Page (best place for information, news, articles, events):
https://www.facebook.com/criminaljusticeinsider
 
Our website: prisonist.org/criminal-justice-insider
Our Twitter handle: @insidercj
Our Instagram handle: @criminaljusticeinsider
 
The show is live-streamed & podcast everywhere at:
 
New Haven Independent: newhavenindependent.org
Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/wnhhradio
YouTube: https://youtube
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wnhhlp
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/wnhhradio
Periscope: https://www.pscp.tv/search?q=wnhh
 
The show is also archived at:
 
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/new-haven-independent/sets/criminal-justice-insider
Community Foundation of Greater New Haven website: https://www.cfgnh.org/LeadingOnIssues/IncarcerationandReentry/CriminalJusticeInsiderRadioArchives.aspx
 
An article about each show is published a few days later in the New Haven Independent (newhavenindependent.org).
 
Please “like” us on Facebook!
Contact us: jgrant@prisonist.org
 
Season Three Guests:
 
Fri., Sept. 6, 2019: Khalil Cumberbatch, Chief Strategist at New Yorkers United for Justice
Fri., Sept. 20, 2019: Aaron T. Kinzel, Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Michigan-Dearborn
Fri., Oct. 4, 2019: Charlie Grady, Outreach Specialist for the FBI CT Community Outreach Program
Fri., Oct. 18, 2019: Michael Kimelman, Former Hedge Funder and Author of Confessions of a Wall Street Insider: A Cautionary Tale of Rats, Feds, and Banksters
Fri., Nov. 1, 2019: Corey Brinson, Former Attorney Convicted for a White Collar Crime who is running for Hartford City Council
 
Season Two Guests:
 
Fri., Sept. 9, 2018: Kennard Ray, CT Unlock the Vote and Candidate for CT State Legislator
Fri., Sept. 21, 2018: Louis L. Reed, National Organizer for #Cut50
Fri., Oct. 5, 2018: Sue Gunderman & Beth Hines, CT Reentry Roundtables
Fri., Oct. 19, 2018: Venice Michalsen, Assoc. Professor of Justice Studies, Montclair State University
Fri., Nov. 16, 2018: Andrew Clark, Director of the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, Central Connecticut State University
Fri., Dec. 7, 2018: Glenn E. Martin, Founder/Consultant of GEM Trainers and Past-President and Founder of JustLeadershipUSA
Fri., Dec. 21, 2018: Fernando Muniz, CEO of Community Solutions, Inc., and community leader Rosa Correa.
Fri., Jan. 4, 2019: New Years Retrospective Show Looking Back at Past CJI Guests.
Fri. Jan. 18, 2019: Peter Henning, Law Prof. at Wayne State University and “White Collar Watch” columnist for the NY Times.
Fri., Feb. 1, 2019: Jeffrey Deskovic, CEO of The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation who was Exonerated after Serving 16 Years in Prison
Fri., Feb. 15, 2019: Jeffrey Abramowitz, Executive Director for Reentry Services, JEVS Human Services, Philadelphia.
Fri., Mar. 1, 2019, Rollin Cook, CT Commissioner of Correction
Fri., Mar. 15, 2019: Dieter Tejada, Justice Impacted Criminal Justice Advocate
Fri., Apr. 5, 2019: John Rowland, Former CT Governor
Fri., Apr. 19, 2019: Gregg D. Caruso, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Corning & Co-Director of the Justice Without Retribution Network at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Fri., May 3, 2019: Michael Taylor, CEO of Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center in the Greater New Haven area
Fri., May 17, 2019: Tarra Simmons, Esq., Attorney & Criminal Justice Reform Advocate, Washington State
Fri., June 7, 2019: Louis L. Reed, National Organizer for #Cut50, Part Deux!
Fri., June 21, 2019: Marcus Bullock, CEO of Flikshop
 
Sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven – Now More Than Ever.

New Haven Independent: The Problem With Punishment

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By Thomas Breen, Reprinted from the New Haven Independent, April 30, 2019

Philosopher Gregg Caruso has one big problem with punishment: It doesn’t work.

In a world where social determinants like poverty, abuse, and malnutrition play a much larger role than individual choices in shaping the course of one’s life, he argued, a criminal justice system bent on punishment over rehabilitation is not just ineffective; it’s needlessly cruel and counterproductive.

Caruso offered those thoughts on his path from free will skepticism to criminal justice reform on the latest episode of WNHH’s “Criminal Justice Insider with Babz Rawls-Ivy and Jeff Grant.”

Watch on Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/wnhhradio/videos/375725919949814/UzpfSTQyMzkwOTEwODAxMDc4Nzo3MjE2MjU5OTgyMzkwOTU

A professor of philosophy at SUNY Corning and the co-director of the Justice Without Retribution Network (JWRN) at the University of Aberdeen, Caruso argues that free will is largely an illusion.

“Who we are, what we do, is ultimately the result of factors beyond our control,” he said. “We’re not really morally responsible in the basic desert sense.”

This academic philosophical conviction, that social determinants that one has no control over play a much larger role in one’s life than whether or not one is a “good” or a “bad” person, inevitably led him to the world of criminal justice reform.

Because, as he sees it, the American criminal justice system is predicated on the preeminence of free will, and on the idea that those who suffer deserve to suffer and those who succeed deserve to succeed.

When one has no control over one’s DNA, the circumstances in which one was born, and one’s psychological predispositions, he said, a punitive rather than a rehabilitative criminal justice system just inflicts further harm on those already struggling, and does nothing to solve root causes that lead to crime in the first place.

“A big part of my view is that criminal behavior is a byproduct of social determinants,” he said, “and those are obviously going to be affected by the political structure, racism, poverty, socioeconomic inequality, housing and healthcare inequality, educational inequality. We have to start realizing that those are determinate factors in many peoples’ lives and are responsible in many ways for the kinds of outcomes we see.

“And if we want to address criminal justice, we really want to start addressing those social determinants.”

Nearly 90 percent of incarcerated women have some history of physical or emotional abuse, he said, and the American legal system has a long track record of disproportionately punishing people of color for offenses that white people commit at equal frequencies.

Instead of locking people in cages without access to adequate education, job training, and health care, he said, the American criminal justice system should follow a “public health quarantine model” that temporarily segregates from society those who have committed crimes and are proven to be a danger to others.

During that quarantine, people should be placed in an environment that resembles the natural and social world they will return to post-incarceration, and they should be provided with the necessary training and health care and resources to help them successfully reintegrate into society once they no longer pose a threat to others.

An overly punitive system simply doesn’t cut down on crime, he said. Roughly 76 percent of formerly incarcerated Americans are re-arrested on new charges within five years of their release.

“The goal,” he said, “should be to rehabilitate and reintegrate.”

 

“Criminal Justice Insider” is sponsored by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

Read previous articles:

New Haven Independent: Rowland: Criminal Justice Reform “Sands Have Shifted”

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By Thomas Breen, Reprinted from the New Haven Independent, April 5, 2019

Former Gov. John Rowland has seen the most right-wing of Republicans and the most left-wing of Democrats converge on at least one issue since the height of his political career two decades ago: criminal justice reform, an issue he has experienced firsthand from all sides.

“The sands have shifted dramatically,” Rowland said Friday on the most recent episode of WNHH’s “Criminal Justice Insider with Babz Rawls-Ivy and Jeff Grant.”

The bipartisan political mindset in the 1990s was to be “tough on crime” with mandatory minimum and three-strikes-and-your-out laws, he noted. Now the rare moments of political consensus today center around laws like the First Step Act, which both the conservative Koch Brothers and the liberal American Civil Liberties Union worked with the Trump Administration on in an effort to reduce federal prison populations and bulk up reentry support services.

“You couldn’t be tough enough on crime back in the day,” Rowland said about the 1990s. But in 2019, not so much.

Rowland, who currently serves as the Northeast development director for the Christian nonprofit Prison Fellowship, is uniquely qualified to comment on how mainstream political common sense has changed over the past four decades. In Connecticut, he’s spent many of those years right in the middle of it.

In 1980 at the age of 23, Rowland became the youngest member of the state House of Representatives. Four years later, he became the youngest U.S. congressman, representing Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District.

In 1994, at just 37 years old, he became the state’s youngest governor. He served in Hartford until 2004, when he resigned amidst a corruption investigation, and served 10 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges related to taking $107,000 in favors from state contractors. It was the first of two convictions and prison sentences.

“The world has changed,” Rowland said as he reflected on how Republicans and Democrats alike in the 1980s and 1990s used the specter of gang violence and drug dealing to lock people up in record numbers.

That mindset led to a skyrocketing in the country’s incarcerated population from around 420,000 in the early 1970s to around 2.3 million today.

He said that evangelical Christian organizations like the one he works for as well as racial justice advocates and civil libertarians have formed a bipartisan coalition focused on reducing mandatory minimums and racial disparities in sentencing, closing prisons, and helping the formerly incarcerated finding housing, work, and meaningful social and spiritual support systems.

“We know how to be tough on crime,” he said. “Now we have to be smart on crime.”

Not Sorry

Rowland was also asked how he thinks now about his two stints in federal prison. The first came in 2005, when he served 10 months after pleading guilty to charges related to taking favors from state contractors; the second came in 2014, when he served 15 months for arranging to be paid to work secretly as a political consultant on two congressional campaigns, in violation of federal campaign finance laws.

Is he sorry?

Following is an exchange Rowland had on Friday’s program with WNHH hosts Babz Rawls-Ivy and Jeff Grant about where he stands now on his convictions and time served.

Rawls-Ivy: When you find yourself about to do this for the second time, what’s your thoughts? How did you feel?

Rowland: You look at the motivation. When this first started to occur a few years ago, my lawyer went down to meet with the prosecutors, and they said, ‘Your guy didn’t do enough time 10 years ago. We’re gonna get him.’ OK. This is going to be a problem. It took them about a year ago to put things together. And then you look back over your shoulder, trying to figure what the motivation was, and you see that the guy that went after you, before you’ve even gotten down the steps of the courthouse, he’s running for governor. Oh, that’s interesting. That explains a lot. He had gone after a couple of Democrats and he needed to beef up his meal ticket. So that’s why he went after me. So you understand the motivation. Once you understand that, one of the things I always council people on before they go away, is to leave bitterness behind. If you go into that facility and you’re bitter and you’re mad and you’re angry, you’re the only one that’s going to suffer from that. …

Rawls-Ivy: Did you have an opportunity to apologize or be sorry? Do you feel sorry for whatever you were charged with? Because I know people want to make you sorry.

Rowland: Let me ask you this, for ‘whatever you’ve been charged with.’ My nickel bet is you can’t even come close to suggesting what i’ve been charged with.

Grant: The second time or the first time?

Rowland: Either time. … The point of saying that is, a lot of times things get trumped up, and there’s motivations and purposes behind it. And the motivations and purposes behind what these guys did to me, you’d be hard pressed to see if anybody ever went to prison for these charges. Or any victims or anybody hurt, or anything else.

Grant: Anybody who goes through the system … in some respects, they know that they’re a political refugee. It’s set up for winners and losers. … This is a conversation that has to happen in order for people to reconcile what’s happened to them. But that doesn’t relieve them necessarily of their responsibility and of their need to show remorse and ask for forgiveness. Where are you in that spectrum?

Rowland: Let me put it this way. If I felt that I did something wrong and I’d ask for forgiveness, I would have done a plea deal. But I went to court and I fought it. I went to appeals. The law firms even came in and did all this stuff pro bono. If they did this stuff pro bono, there must be a reason behind it. They took it to the [state] Supreme Court.

So, if you look at the criminal justice system, it is fragmented, with things that take place in the urban communities, but the political motivations that are now coming out are much worse than they were a million years ago. And I say this because if you think you’re safe, look at what’s happening [to President Trump]. Here he is, the most powerful person on the planet arguably, whether you like him or not, a couple of prosecutors decided that they were going to go after him, and they spent two years. But here’s what’s interesting. Can you pursue another human being, another law abiding citizen, if there’s no evidence that a crime has been committed.

Rawls- Ivy: I’m sorry, what?

Rowland: There was no evidence that he committed any crime. And yet’s he’s been investigated.

Rawls-Ivy: We don’t know that. We don’t have the Mueller report. We have Barr’s interpretation.

Rowland: I’m not going there. If they had something, they would have indicted him. My point is, the motivation to start the investigation, there was no blatant evidence of a crime that had been committed. Leave the politics alone for a second, if prosecutors can go after the president of the United States and torture him and his family and his friends, imagine what they can do with ordinary citizens.

Rawls-Ivy: As the only person of color in this room, I just find that whole statement upside down.

Rowland: It has nothing to do with color. What I’m suggesting is that, when prosecutors decide to pursue somebody, it doesn’t matter who they are.