Andy Thibault's Blog, page 21
January 28, 2016
Via @GoIntegrated: Fix psychologically wounded officers without damaging their careers
Column on Police Shootings and Police Violence
By ALAN SCHISSEL
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Integrated Security Services
Like you, I – along with many of my professional colleagues in the law enforcement community – am struggling for answers to justify this uptick in “bad” police encounters. This is not a new phenomenon, but with more real-time access facilitated by social media, the perception is that some police departments are out of control. Let’s set aside our own personal bias to take a serious look at the daunting responsibility and trust associated with this job. I think it is very important to first recognize that the business of policing others is a messy and often complicated profession. Police officers are typically called upon as a last resort when we as a “civilized” people can no longer use our good judgment, knowledge and self-control to deal with our problems. As a police officer, you are often running into very hostile conditions with limited information while others are running away. Officers assigned to major urban police departments respond to 6-8 hours of daily 911 calls and that does not include self-initiated vehicle stops and pick-up assignments. This occurs 24/7, 365 days a year. I offer this illustration not as an excuse but a suggestion on what may be contributing to reckless police decisions.
What’s different now? Before I retired from the New York City Police Department, I spent almost 12 years policing the streets of New York. Upon my separation with the NYPD, I spent the next eight years as a member of the Police Self Support Group (PSSG). This was a group that tended to the psychological needs and suffering of active and retired officers. What I learned about my colleagues and myself was that police officers aren’t like everybody else. On the outside we are fierce soldiers, while on the inside we are fragile and often desensitized by our experience. Quasi-sanctioned by the NYPD, the PSSG was the final frontier for many officers suffering through survivor’s trauma and guilt. Unfortunately, while the group saved many lives, many of those eight years were punctuated by officers taking their own lives.
Cognitive Bias & Dissonance
I haven’t studied this recent trend of police violence from a scientific perspective, but I do consider myself a bit of a social psychologist in the many roles I play as my company’s CEO. My first inclination would be to point to two specific and contributing causes: cognitive bias and cognitive dissonance. I find the concept of cognitive bias—introduced by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman—an interesting psychological process, which seems to resonate in all of these violent encounters with the police. Cognitive bias refers to a systematic pattern of deviation from the norm or rationality in judgment and may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, and an illogical interpretation of reality, which includes a rational perception of fear and threat. A cognitive bias is a genuine deficiency or limitation in our thinking: a flaw in judgment that arises from errors of memory, in-group attribution, and miscalculations. Cognitive dissonance is mental stress caused by conflicting or contradictory beliefs or values. “I became a police officer to do good and protect others; however, I’ve come to find out it’s a thankless job, and no one really cares.”
A recent example of this flaw in judgment is best illustrated by the death of Linwood “Ray” Lambert in South Boston, Virginia. To summarize, the South Boston police, as a result of Mr. Lambert speaking and acting incoherently, removed him from a hotel room where he was residing. Officers made it clear that although restrained with handcuffs, he was not under arrest and was merely being taken to the hospital to meet with a mental healthcare worker. It was at the hospital emergency intake area that Mr. Lambert escalated the situation by kicking out the glass on the patrol vehicle and fleeing. This, along with running into and breaking a glass window belonging to the hospital, caused the officers to discharge their Tasers at Mr. Lambert in an effort to bring him under their control. What should have happened next was clear to everyone except for these officers and most likely caused Mr. Lambert’s death. Rather than seek out the emergency medical and mental healthcare at the hospital as common sense would dictate and as required by regulations, Lambert was placed in the patrol vehicle, tased again and hauled off to jail.
Police Training & Culture
We all have innate tribal tendencies; however, police officers, like military personnel, are indoctrinated into a culture that fosters a distrust for outsiders and any source that makes them feel uncomfortable or insecure. This helps officers forge tighter bonds as a group but causes suspicion, fear and even disdain for outsiders. Ultimately, this group bias leads police officers to overestimate their abilities and values at the expense of people and cultures that are foreign and not within the police culture. Police training and culture is based on rules, procedures and the ability to program officers into fixed patterns of behavior and replace independent thinking with a more functional, uniform identity. It is the belief of most police agencies that this form of conditioning establishes chain of command authority, uniformity and supports the mission of that department. Training methods are based upon repetition and response tactics. Similar to the systematic patterns of thoughts programmed into you by your parents and teachers as you grow into your adolescence, police conditioning becomes deeply embedded into an officer’s mind and subconscious by the psychological mechanisms of identification recognition. This conditioning automatically kicks in since their minds, like the rest of us, are always in constant motion. Over time, this in depth conditioning, which police officers no longer have control over, masks an officer’s judgment and his or her ability to alter or make the appropriate decisions based on new situations.
Why not reboot our police?
When a bad police shooting occurs, there’s often a rush to judgment and a knee jerk reaction by police agencies across the country to create new procedures and re-training initiatives to try to fix these problems. History has proven that these are only short-term public relations fixes, which do not benefit the officer or the public. Because the concept of re-programing or re-conditioning sounds like a cult-like fix, police departments avoid talking about the benefits of the process. Rebooting the brain is a real solution that could help mitigate, if not eliminate a similar or worse occurrence. To repair the deeper dimensions associated with good judgment, fairness and compassion, officers must be taken through a series of exercises to restore balance and perspective on their mission and the people they serve. Through the re-conditioning process, officers would get to confront and understand their current conditioned state and discover how to replace this conditioned bias with a more reason-based mental state of existence. The exact process we will save for another day. When officers are challenged to confront their negative, fixed mental patterns and reboot their brain, new energy is created followed by awareness and a restored level of sensitivity. During re-conditioning, conditioned mental patterns gradually lose their power and begin to vanish. As a result, the inner workings of the mind that might have appeared conflicted to the officer become increasingly transparent and more relaxed.
Treating the overly conditioned brain to more of the same conditioning by re-training and rewriting policy is no longer the politically correct or otherwise right solution. The mental health of an officer is as important as the tactical training and physical conditioning they receive. If we are going to restore the confidence of the public and build better police/community relations, police executives, city and state officials must allow officers to be more vulnerable by creating mental health mandates and programs that support and fix psychologically wounded officers without damaging their careers.
Integrated Security Services
About Alan Schissel
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Cool Justice Editor’s Note: By way of disclosure, Cool Justice is an occasional denizen of Integrated’s Hartford office and once in a while even does a little work …
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January 16, 2016
#CT Poet #JonAndersen Puts Curse on Gov #RickSnyder for Poisoning Children of #Flint, Michigan
Excerpt:
The Barbarism of Rick Snyder:
a Statement and Curse
… I am willing to believe in an afterlife
in which you are pardoned upon
the millionth time you convulse to vomit
but can’t; an afterlife in which you stare
frustrated, uncomprehendingly
at spreadsheet calculations of your wealth
now gone; an afterlife in which you …
Complete poem, story & links via Detroit Metro Times / CounterPunch
2007 Connecticut Review Interview w/ Jon Andersen
Jon Andersen is a community college professor of English. He can be reached at stompsing@yahoo.com
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January 6, 2016
January 2, 2016
. @MiddletownPress Features Robin Cullen’s service with Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Jailed 8 years for drunken driving, Middlefield woman earns MADD’s top honors
By Kathleen Schassler, The Middletown Press
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
MIDDLEFIELD >> Nearly 20 years ago, Robin Cullen drunkenly crashed her car in a fatal accident that claimed the life of her girlfriend and passenger.
Since that fateful day, a lot — both good and bad — has happened to Cullen. She served an eight-year prison sentence, began working with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, become a trauma counselor, and built a small contracting business as painter. Cullen says it’s remarkable she received top honors from MADD for her dedicated work at the nonprofit’s Community Champions recognition ceremony in November.
“Coming from my circumstances, and especially at the time of the crash, I would never have imagined it would have turned out this way,” said Cullen Wednesday.
“We congratulate her heartily,” said a post on the Judy Dworin Performance Project website, where Cullen serves on the advisory board. “We can’t think of a person more deserving of this recognition.” MADD honored Cullen for her high-profile contributions, both as a volunteer and a 10-year employee, and presented her with the Hilda Davis Achievement Award, named after the founding member of the first MADD chapter in the state.
Complete article
Wally Lamb Facebook post: A richly deserved honor for my once-upon-a-time York Prison student, Robin Cullen, who has done such exemplary work on behalf of MADD, incarcerated women, and women reentering society. Robin's is a Happy New Year story of redemption, hope, and mercy. Great article, Robin. Congrats!
Cool Justice Editor's Note: Cullen was a featured panelist at a Hartford Public Library forum on life after prison in November 2015 Complete coverge, library forum
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December 5, 2015
Detectives help students hone crime-scene reporting techniques in presentation, Q&A
Story focus & structure, ledes & explanatory paragraphs, narrative storytelling, profile writing among topics covered at St. Francis – St. Hedwig School, Naugatuck, CT, 12-4-15.
Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad Detectives Matt Greenstein [above] and Brian Connolly report students were sharp and on point asking detailed questions about 90-minute truck chase, fire and shooting.
School website
About the District
Major Crime Squad:
The primary responsibility of the District Major Crime Squad is to conduct all major investigations that occur within the District, and to identify, collect, and preserve all items containing evidentiary value.
The Major Crime Squad assists all Troops and local Police Departments with case investigations within the District by providing technical assistance.
Major Crime Squad personnel respond, upon request, to assist all local Police Departments within the District with crime scene processing expertise. Major Crime Squad personnel routinely work in conjunction with State and Federal law enforcement agencies
Crime scene video
Cool Justice Editor’s Note: Students reported on this incident after questioning detectives – who, for purposes of this exercise – acted as police spokesmen. Before viewing the video, students discussed judgments they would have to make regarding which facts were most important. The program was developed by school principal John Salatto, English teacher Sue Guarino and Andy Thibault in cooperation with the Connecticut State Police. Special thanks to Sgt. Ralph Soda and Lt. Col. Warren Hyatt.
Detective Brian Connolly responds to questions.
Detective Matt Greenstein lists facts elicited from questions.
As deadline for writing first draft approaches, Detectives Brian Connolly also asks questions of the student reporters including the judgments they were making regarding the focus of their stories.
Unanswered question: Who had more fun, detectives or students?Tweet
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November 24, 2015
Mini Reunion #CouldntKeepItToMyself @HPLCT #SecondChance – Broadcast on Demand @CTNetworkTV
Bonnie Foreshaw, Wally Lamb, Tracie Bernardi at Hartford Public Library 11-18-15
Background: Connecticut Gets & Gives A #SecondChance
CT-N On Demand / Hartford Public Library Forum: Ready for Freedom? Life After Prison in Connecticut
Photos, bios, background
Official announcement via Hartford Public Library
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November 5, 2015
. @HPLCT Announces: READY FOR FREEDOM? Nov. 18 DISCUSSION, LIFE > PRISON IN CT
CONTACT:
Matthew K. Poland
Chief Executive Officer
860-695-6303
mpoland@hplct.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
READY FOR FREEDOM? HARTFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY TO HOST DISCUSSION
ON LIFE AFTER PRISON IN CONNECTICUT
Hartford, Connecticut (November 3, 2015)—On November 18 at 6:00PM, Hartford Public Library will present “Ready for Freedom? Life after Prison in Connecticut”, an exploration of the challenges that incarcerated individuals face upon their release from prison and the resources available to prepare them for life “on the outside”. A panel discussion will feature formerly incarcerated individuals, Connecticut prison system and judicial officials, and representatives of organizations that assist with the transition to life after incarceration.
Veteran investigative journalist Andy Thibault will serve as moderator and panel participants will include Scott Semple, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction, Deborah Rogala, Program Operations Director at Community Partners in Action, Robert J. Devlin, Jr., Chief Connecticut Criminal Court Judge, and Bonnie Jean Foreshaw, incarcerated for 27 ½ years and granted clemency in 2013 after appeals and a review of her case initiated by the persistence of Thibault.
In July of this year, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law the “Second Chance Society” bill, designed to help reduce the state's prison population and “ensure nonviolent offenders are successfully reintegrated into society”. Malloy explained that "the cycle our system currently encourages is one of permanent punishment that hurts too many families and communities. When we should have been focusing on permanent reform, we focused on permanent punishment. For too long, we built modern jails instead of modern schools”.
“The Ready for Freedom discussion will mirror the themes of the Library’s ONE BOOK ONE HARTFORD selection this year, James Baldwin’s novel ‘IF Beale Street Could Talk’, in which a young man’s incarceration deeply affects two families,” said Hartford Public Library chief executive officer Matt Poland. And, of course, Governor Malloy’s “Second Chance Society” presents a practical way forward for many and hope for life after prison”. Other participants will include Gary Roberge, Director of Adult Probation and Bail Services, State of Connecticut, the Rev. Jeff Grant, Director of the Progressive Prison Project, and Robin Cullen, of Color Outside the Lines, an organization that facilitates groups in prisons and community outreach programs.
Copies of Andy Thibault’s latest publication, More Cool Justice, will be available for purchase.
ABOUT HARTFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY
As a finalist for the 2014 National Medal from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, Hartford Public Library has been recognized as national leader in redefining the urban public library in the 21st century as an innovative and stimulating place where people can learn and discover, explore their passions and find a rich array of resources that contribute to a full life. Hartford Public Library provides free resources that inspire reading, guide learning, and encourage individual exploration. Serving the residents of Hartford and beyond at its nine branches and Downtown location, Hartford Public Library receives more than 860,000 visits per year from adults, children and families seeking early literacy opportunities, work skills training, civic engagement, arts enrichment, and so much more. Please visit www.hplct.org
BIOS, PHOTOS, BACKGROUND
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November 2, 2015
November 1, 2015
Javier Flores big fight upcoming in DC; trained several years ago in Middletown, CT
“My dream is to give my kids the best, for them to have a good father, and to be recognized in boxing as one of the best in Puerto Rican boxing history. I want my kids to be proud of me as a fighter for his family.”
Undefeated Welterweight Javier Flores takes on Jamie Herrera Nov. 5, 2015
for the WBC United States Welterweight Championship
Story via 15Rounds.com
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2012 report, Flores on the way up
Cool Justice: The Quiet Man, Javier ‘El Chino’ Flores, Lives to Fight
Friday, November 2, 2012
By Andy Thibault
tntcomm82@cs.com
@cooljustice on Twitter
Several boxers lose their focus and pause at the sound of Javier “El Chino” Flores popping the mitts off his trainer, “Iceman” John Scully.
He’s hitting faster and harder. The fierce economy of his punch generates loud pops. They snap, crackle and boom. They detonate. Flores gets the leverage. His straight lefts and uppercuts target the solar plexus and the nose as Scully feints and moves laterally, forward and backward, positioning the padded gloves as targets for his pupil.
“I know I don’t want to get hit with a punch like that,” said Scully, who also trained the reigning Ring Magazine and WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson and is himself a former light heavyweight contender.
Flores, 26, grew up poor in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. While training at the Lions Den in Middletown, he lives with his manager, Jose Colon, in Manchester. Undefeated professionally as a welterweight – 146 pounds – the 5’ 9” southpaw has scored seven knockouts. He won about half his 70-some amateur bouts by knockout.
“My dream,” Flores said, “is to give my kids the best, for them to have a good father, and to be recognized in boxing as one of the best in Puerto Rican boxing history. I want my kids to be proud of me as a fighter for his family.”
Dominic Sansone, 19, a student at the Torrington campus of the University of Connecticut, is a frequent sparring partner of Flores. This is a calling that even seasoned pros flee to avoid.
“He’s got a lot of power, definitely,” said Sansone, who is about the same height and weighs 165 pounds. “I took a straight body shot and I dropped to catch my breath. He’s dropped two other guys that way.”
A big-time promoter, Gary Shaw, recently signed Flores to a contract. This means that as long as he racks up victories, Flores is on a path that could lead to the fulfillment of his dream. Of course the odds for this happening are not very good, even for someone with the talent and backing of Flores.
“I never say a guy’s gonna become a world champion because I know what the world is like,” Scully said. “But, Javier could be … he is a huge competitor.
“When he lands his shots,” Scully continued, “they feel it. And they don’t like it. He’s really humble, ridiculously humble. It’s hard to believe how powerful he is. He listens. Some guys pick and choose what they listen to. He listens to everything.”
Scully started training Flores in September, right after Dawson lost a super middleweight championship bout to Andre Ward. His goals for Flores in 2013 include fighting at least four times and appearing as a main event on ESPN. Flores said he’s ready to fight seven or eight times next year.
“His demeanor,” Scully said, “reminds me of Sammy Vega [a former 7-time national amateur champion from Hartford]. People thought Sammy was too nice to box, how could he ever hurt anyone?”
In between bouts, Flores goes back home to Puerto Rico to be with his son, Javier Jr., 5, and his daughter, Yaneiriz, 3. He started boxing as an amateur at age 13, then took a few years off.
“When I found out I was going to be a father, I decided to return and everything went well,” Flores said. “With the love I get from the public, I knew this was for me.”
He admires two boxers in particular: “I like Felix Trinidad for his humbleness and his punch. I like Mike Tyson for his heart and his rage.”
POSTSCRIPT: As part of the HBO Boxing After Dark triple-header on Saturday, Oct. 27, Javier Flores went toe-to-toe with Alberto “Baby Dynamite” Herrera of Riverside, CA in a challenging eight-round slugfest, winning a majority decision and improving his record to 8-0. The event was held at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, N.Y. It’s possible Flores will fight one more time before year’s end.
Andy Thibault is a contributing editor for Journal Register Co.’s Connecticut publications and the author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life. He formerly served as a commissioner for Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission. Reach Thibault by email at tntcomm82@cs.com. Follow him on Twitter @cooljustice.
2012 Flores column won SPJ honorable mention
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October 28, 2015
All-Star Lineup For Upcoming #SecondChance Event; Working Title: ‘Ready for Freedom … ?’
Cool Justice Editor’s Note:(HARTFORD, CT) – [On July 9, 2015] Governor Dannel P. Malloy joined lawmakers, state officials and advocates for a bill signing ceremony to commemorate the final passage into law of the "Second Chance Society" legislation the Governor introduced earlier this year. The package of initiatives is designed to continue the progress being made in reducing the state's dropping crime rate, which is at a 48-year low, as well as ensuring nonviolent offenders are successfully reintegrated into society and become productive workers in Connecticut's economy. Official
Announcement, Poster
To Follow
Event is scheduled Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 6-7:30 p.m., Hartford, CT
Among the panelists and participants:
Commissioner Scott Semple joined the Connecticut Department of Correction as a front line Correction Officer in 1988 at the high security Cheshire Correctional Institution. Semple entered into the field of correctional training in 1996 and subsequently he was promoted to the rank of Correctional Captain at the agency’s training academy.
In 1999, Semple was assigned to the Department’s Office of Public Information where he served as an agency spokesperson. During the course of this assignment, he was promoted to the rank of Major in the year 2000, and went on to serve as the Legislative Liaison for the Department.
In 2004, Semple was assigned to the Garner Correctional Institution where he played a critical role in establishing the agency's first consolidated environment for male offenders with significant mental health needs. In 2009 he was appointed Warden of the Garner Correctional Institution.
In November of 2013, then Commissioner James E. Dzurenda appointed Semple as the Deputy Commissioner of Operations and Rehabilitative Services. Less than one year later, with the retirement of Commissioner Dzurenda in August of 2014, Scott Semple was chosen to serve as the Interim Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Correction. Governor Dannel Malloy appointed Semple as commissioner in January 2015.
In April 2015, Commissioner Semple dedicated the State’s first Reintegration Center. The Cybulski Community Reintegration Center at the Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution is designed to prepare inmates for reintegration upon release and to reduce recidivism. It is a part of Gov. Malloy’s Second Chance Society initiative.
Judge Robert J. Devlin, Jr. is a lifelong resident of Connecticut and an honors graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. After law school, Judge Devlin worked in private practice for three years and then as a public defender for about a year. For the next eight years, he served as an assistant state’s attorney under then-State’s Attorney Arnold Markle in New Haven. In late 1987 he was appointed as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice in its Organized Crime Strike Force. In 1992 he was recognized by the U.S. Attorney General as one of the outstanding federal prosecutors in America for his work as a member of the prosecution team that secured convictions of the hierarchy of the New England mob. In 1992 Devlin was appointed a Superior Court judge by Governor Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. He has served as a criminal court judge in the judicial districts of New Haven, New London, Fairfield, Hartford and Stamford. He has also served on several Judicial Branch committees, including the Committee of Judicial Ethics, the Criminal Jury Charge Committee and the Judicial-Media Committee, of which he is co-chair. He is also a member of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission.
Devlin is currently assigned as presiding judge of criminal matters in Bridgeport. The criminal section of the Greater Bridgeport Bar Association selected him as its 2008 Judge of the Year. In 2010 he was named Chief Administrative Judge for the Criminal Division of the Superior Court and continues to serve in that position. He has presided over several notable trials including State v. Beth Carpenter, State v. Russell Peeler, State v. Dominic Badaracco and State v. Christopher DiMeo.
Devlin also is an adjunct instructor at Naugatuck Valley Community College. He was the recipient of the 2010 Faculty Senate Adjunct Award and has authored a textbook for his NVCC litigation class. In addition, he teaches courses in the Criminal Justice program.
Bonnie Foreshaw is co-author of “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself – Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters,” and “I’ll Fly Away – Further Testimonies from the Woman of York Prison.” Foreshaw had been jailed for more than 27 years on jacked-up charges of first degree murder of a person she had never met. A buried memo by Superior Court Judge Jon Blue – written when he was a public defender – delineated the basis for a proper charge of manslaughter in the accidental shooting. After the memo was published and brought to the attention of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, Foreshaw was granted clemency and released on Nov. 15, 2013. She has since spoken at programs hosted by Gateway Community College in New Haven and the Oliver Wolcott Library in Litchfield. Foreshaw is writing a memoir about her experience, including sexual assault, moldy buildings and other elements of prison life in Connecticut.
Deb Rogala is Program Operations Director for Community Partners in Action (CPA). I was an intern from Central Connecticut State University in 1994 and I was a senior when I came in contact with the Resettlement Program. I met Sister Nancy, who has been a tremendous mentor to me. After that internship I was hooked. I knew immediately that I wanted to work with this population and I wanted to work with an agency that has such a wealth of history. We have been around since 1875 and that to me is pretty amazing.
The Resettlement program works with individual that are discharging from Niantic (York Correctional Institution), 6 months prior to release and then 6 months in the community. I have been with the program for fourteen years now because I absolutely love what I do. I really believe that CPA and Resettlement are making a difference in so many people's lives. I'm awed by the strength of the women we work with. I come to work every day and I love what I do. I am amazed by the work that we do. For me it’s easy, you either go to work and love what you do or you hate what you do. I chose to stay with CPA because I believe in our mission, I believe that people can change if given the opportunity and given the resources.
The greatest rewards for me are watching individual successes. Whether it be watching an individual graduate her GED or watching/witnessing someone graduate from college or driving a U-Haul filled with furniture and help someone move into their first apartment or helping someone move into one of our transitional houses. There are so many rewards to the job. Yes there are absolute challenges and I think that is the piece where I've grown the most and learned about myself through coworkers, staff, supervisors and mentors. I have grown tremendously over these fourteen years, both emotionally and spiritually. I'm a different person. I see the world different. I see the issues of society differently. I'm really blessed to be part of such a great organization.
Robin Cullen is a consultant and artist. She is a trained group facilitator in curricula written by Dr. Stephanie Covington: Beyond Trauma, Beyond Anger and Violence, A Women’s Way Through the Twelve Steps, Helping Women Recover and Healing Trauma.
Robin was a member of the therapeutic writing group formed by Wally Lamb at York Correctional Institution. Her essay was published in Couldn’t Keep It To Myself (2003). She continues with related work as a guest performer and board member for the Judy Dworin Performance Project (JDPP).
Since 1989 JDPP has been harnessing the arts as a powerful catalyst for creative expression through performance, community building, and positive change. Robin is certified through Amherst Writers and Artists to teach therapeutic writing. Ms. Cullen worked with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, (MADD) for more than ten years.
Now, owner of Color Outside The Lines, she facilitates groups in prisons and community out reach programs and is an especially passionate and informed lecturer on the subject of Reentry. Robin is also a remodeling contractor. Uplifting, transforming, and repurposing - people, places, and things!
Gary Roberge is the Director of Adult Probation and Bail Services for the State of Connecticut – Judicial Branch’s Court Support Services Division as well as the Commissioner of Interstate Compact for Connecticut. He has over 27 years of criminal justice experience within the Branch. Prior to obtaining supervisory and managerial positions, his career began with the Office of the Chief Bail Commissioner as a line officer providing direct service to the courts. Roberge has spent the past 16 years working within the Connecticut Judicial Branch’s Court Support Services Division managing and now directing adult probation and bail field operations. He directs over 700 line and supervisory probation and pretrial staff who supervise over 41,000 probationers and 16,000 pretrial release cases.
Roberge is also a member of the Interstate Compact Executive Committee and is the Chair of the Interstate Compact Technology Committee. He is also the Co-chair of the Sex Offender Assessment and Management Sub-committee for the Connecticut Sentencing Commission.
Roberge received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Eastern Connecticut State University and Master of Public Administration Degree from the University of Hartford. He is also an adjunct professor in the Central Connecticut State University Criminology Department.
Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, White-Collar Minister, Activist, Social Ethicist, Author, Speaker: Jeff is the Minister/Director of the Progressive Prison Project/Innocent Spouse & Children Project, Greenwich CT & Nationwide, the first ministries in the U.S. created to provide confidential religious/spiritual support and consulting to people with white-collar and other nonviolent incarceration issues and their families - before, during and upon reentry from prison.
After serving almost fourteen months in a Federal prison for a white-collar crime, Jeff was awarded a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, with a focus in Christian Social Ethics. Jeff sits on a number of Boards serving ex-offender communities, including Family ReEntry, Community Partners in Action, Healing Communities Network, and the Editorial Board of the book, The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration has Hijacked the American Dream.
Jeff was the recipient of the Elizabeth Bush Award for Volunteerism and the Bridgeport Reentry Collaborative Advocate of the Year Award '13, '14 & '15. JustLeadershipUSA recognized Jeff as one of “Fifteen Leaders in Criminal Justice" at its launch in NYC. He has been the subject of articles in national media including Forbes, Absolute Return/HedgeFund Intelligence, Fairfield County Business Journal, New York Magazine, Weston Magazine Group, and others. Jeff is also the editor of the important and widely read blog, prisonist.org, at which he authors, edits and curates content around national and international criminal justice advocacy/ministry themes.
Moderator: Andy Thibault, author, ‘more COOL JUSTICE’
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