“Dismantling the System: What Juvenile Decarceration can Teach us About Undoing Mass Incarceration”

Keynote address by Vincent Schiraldi, Senior Research Fellow, Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard University

Using the Juvenile Justice System as a starting point, Schiraldi will uncover why the number of young people locked up has declined by more than 50% since the beginning of this millennium while adult incarceration has only flattened out. Through this exploration, Schiraldi will share some of the key elements and actions needed to decrease mass incarceration in America, and the significant role that citizens are playing to dismantle the system.

Vincent Schiraldi is a Senior Research Fellow directing the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. Schiraldi has served as founder of Justice Policy Institute, director of juvenile corrections in Washington, D.C., and Commissioner of the NYC Department of Probation. Most recently, Schiraldi served as Senior Advisor to the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. For Schiraldi, making communities safer and reducing crime means improving fairness in the system and developing opportunities in poor communities. He pioneered efforts at community-based alternatives to incarceration with the YouthLink initiative in D.C., and in NYC with the NeON network and the Close to Home program.