Social Justice Mondays Series
Monday, September 18, 2006 in Bannan 135 from Noon to 1 p.m. Pizza will be provided.
"Seeking Justice for Women in Prisons"
CYNTHIA CHANDLER
Co-Founder & Acting Director of Justice Now
Cynthia Chandler is the co-founder and Acting Director of Justice Now, an innovative legal and human rights organization that partners with women in prison and local communities to create a safe, compassionate world without prisons. Since 2000, Justice Now has won the early release of 22 people dying in prison, annually provided legal services and health information to over 1,000 women in prison who otherwise would have no assistance, developed a Human Rights Documentation Program that is the first to train people in prison to document abuses they experience, and partnered with women in side and coalitions outside prison to divert public funds away from imprisonment and into education and services.
Before co-founding Justice Now, Cynthia received an echoing green fellowship to found and direct Women’s Positive Legal Action Network, one of the first organizations in the United States dedicated to advocating on behalf of HIV+ women in prison. Her work included developing alternative sentencing plans for HIV+ women facing criminal sentencing. Over the years Cynthia has been active with numerous prisoner rights organizations, including being a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national campaign against the prison industrial complex.
Facilitator: Ellen Kreitzberg