Restoring Hope and Rebuilding Lives
Decarceration and Reentry Clinic Symposium Sheds Light on ‘Advocacy for Those Who Have Been Silenced’
BY HASINI JAYAWARDENA
AUWCL’s Decarceration and Reentry clinic hosted its first symposium on October 6, 2023. The event united various stakeholders, including incarcerated individuals, advocates, lawyers, family members, and supporters. Professor Olinda Moyd, the clinic’s director, led the event.
The symposium featured two expert panels and began with a remarkable spoken word performance by Gene Downing, earning a standing ovation. The luncheon roundtable was a highlight, allowing attendees to hear stories from directly impacted individuals, some of whom had been represented by the clinic.
“Decarceration is the effort to limit the number of people who are detained behind bars, either by limiting who is sent to prison in the first place or creating avenues for release for persons detained there,” Moyd said, in introducing the panel.
Among other topics, panelists examined current incarceration policies and their impact on the DC-Maryland-Virginia region.
“DC has more people who have been in prison for more than a decade than any other state,” said Jon Anderson, chief of the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for DC. “Legislations such as Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, Second Look
(Leſt to right) Moderator Olinda Moyd and panelists Destiny Fullwood ’14, Jon Anderson, Margaret Barry, Lila Meadows, and Warren Seay Jr. (Below) Panelists discussed the impact of current incarceration policies.
Amendment Act, Maryland’s Justice Re-investment Act and Compassionate Release all work to redirect the system towards releasing people from incarceration.”
The symposium also provided a platform for those with firsthand experience with the criminal legal system. In the roundtable moderated by Professor Moyd, Sean Andrews, Willie Hamilton, Donald Bovello, and Johnisha Knight emphasized the significance of second chances and underscored the idea that individuals should not be defined by their past actions.
“I don’t believe in second chances; I believe in chances,” said Hamilton, who was incarcerated for more than 30 years aſter being sent away at 17 years old and released under Maryland’s Justice Reinvestment Act with the help of the clinic. “We have people who have disappeared into cages and are forgotten with no one to hear their voices. That is
why advocacy for those who have been silenced is important.”
Becky Feldman, the director of the Second Look Network at The Sentencing Project, concluded the event by calling for collective action and support for those incarcerated.
“To push the needle for freedom of those incarcerated, we need to show up for court and political hearings and each other,” she said. “We need to keep amplifying each other’s stories.”
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON COLLEGE OF LAW 9
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