Nation’s criminal justice system topic of lecture series

Princeton University student group to kick off series with talk by New York Times correspondent.

   The Princeton Justice Project, a Princeton University student social justice advocacy group, will kick off a lecture series on the U.S. criminal justice system with a discussion led by New York Times correspondent Fox Butterfield at 8 p.m. March 1 in Robertson Hall.
   The Princeton Justice Project’s two-month lecture series is titled "An Unjust Sentence?" It will focus on the hidden problems with the U.S. criminal justice system.
   "Our goal is to educate the public about these issues and to search for alternatives to incarceration that has led to the ‘warehousing’ of a disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics," said conference coordinator Spencer Compton.
   Other lectures scheduled as part of the series include:
   • March 10: At 4:30 p.m., four inmates from the New Jersey Department of Corrections will recount their experiences in prison;
   • March 26: At 10 a.m., Ethan Nadlemann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance, and Angelyn Frazer of Families Against Mandatory Minimums will discuss why drug sentencing and mandatory minimums are problematic for today’s justice system;
   • April 11: At 4:30 p.m., Princeton Professor Cornell West, along with David Cole, Georgetown University law professor and author of "No Equal Justice," and Princeton professors Devah Pager and Bruce Western, will speak about the problems of racial discrimination in criminal sentencing policy, incarceration and societal re-entry;
   • April 18: At 7:30 p.m., Chris Kosseff, director of mental health for New Jersey state prisons, and Nancy Wolff, director of the Center for Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice Research, will join area lawyers and psychologists to speak about the problems of mental health in the criminal justice system;
   • April 27: At 4:30 p.m., the series will conclude with a panel discussion on sentencing alternatives, including restorative justice, mental health and drug courts.
   All lectures will be held in Bowl 1 of Princeton’s Robertson Hall. All programs are free and open to the public.