The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

2 0 0 5 S o r o s J u s t i c e F e l l o w s

Soros Justice Advocacy Fellows

Kenavon Carter ACLU of Texas Austin Texas
Mr. Carter, a lawyer and community organizer, will launch a project that will reduce racial profiling by law enforcement agencies in Texas. The goals of the project are to enforce Texas’s Racial Profiling Statute through public education, grassroots mobilization, and selective litigation targeting law enforcement agencies that engage in racial profiling or otherwise fail to abide by the racial profiling statute. Mr. Carter will graduate in May from the University of Texas School of Law. He has worked at a number of social justice organizations including the Center for Constitutional Rights, Texas Civil Rights Project and ACLU.

Kristi Couvillon Texas Defender Service Austin, Texas
Ms. Couvillon, a lawyer and social worker, will conduct a multi-state, multi-faceted effort to implement the American Bar Association Guidelines regarding defense representation in death penalty cases in several southern states. The goals of the project are to improve the quality and availability of competent legal representation for indigent defendants through public education, coalition building, and communications strategies. Ms. Couvillon will graduate in May from the University of Texas School of Law.

Shaena Fazal John Howard Association Chicago, IL
Ms. Fazal, a lawyer and advocate, will launch a project that addresses the needs of long-term prisoners by developing policies and incentives to reduce their sentences, standards and incentives for transferring them to lower security facilities and re-introducing jobs, education and mental health programs to this ‘forgotten’ contingent of incarcerated people. Ms. Fazal will achieve this through research, litigation and coalition building. She is a former appellate defender in Chicago, IL and has worked for several legal services and anti-death penalty groups.

Norris Henderson Innocence Project New Orleans, LA
Mr. Henderson, an organizer and advocate, will launch a project that seeks to remove barriers that prevent formerly incarcerated people from participating fully in the economic, social and political life of the community. Through community engagement, public and policymaker education, and coalition building, Mr. Henderson will advocate on behalf of and empower this important constituency to demand access to the their political rights as citizens. Mr. Henderson has become a celebrated local leader in New Orleans after spending 18 years in prison.

Dana Kaplan Center for Constitutional Rights New York, NY
Ms. Kaplan, an organizer and activist, will launch a project that addresses the expansion of local jails which has accelerated considerably even as prison growth has slowed. Through dissemination of research and provision of technical assistance related to organizing and policy, Ms. Kaplan will highlight the role of jail construction in the continued incarceration of low-income and immigrant communities and provide a mechanism for challenging this expansion in New York specifically and assist similar efforts nationally. Ms. Kaplan has been involved in criminal justice reform work for a number of years and has worked or consulted for groups including the Prison Moratorium Project and National Resource Center on Prisons and Communities. She will graduate with a Masters in American Studies in May.

Alexander Ndaula National Immigration Project Boston, MA
Mr. Ndaula, an organizer and advocate, will provide support to immigrants who are detained in the rural South, assist detainees and their families in investigating, documenting and combating abuses perpetrated by guards and develop alliances with others working on immigration detention and deportation issues and raise public awareness about the plight of immigrants in the criminal justice system. Mr. Ndaula spent three years in immigration detention and has worked tirelessly during his own incarceration and since to advocate on behalf of detainees and their families.

Vivian Nixon First Episcopal AME Church Queens, NY
Ms. Nixon, an advocate, will launch a project to educate members of African-American churches in five states about the disproportionate number of people of color in prison and the need for community supports and policy change. The project will develop tools to educate and empower faith-based communities in assisting people returning from prison and advocate for policy change. Ms. Nixon has worked for several prison reform organizations, most recently as the executive director of the College and Community Fellowship at CUNY Graduate Center. She is a former prisoner and long-time activist for social change.

Emmett Soloman Texas Criminal Justice Coalition Huntsville, TX
Mr. Soloman, a minister and former prison chaplain, will develop a network of religious leaders and lay volunteers who can educate the public, policymakers and the media on the need to promote alternatives to incarceration. His project will focus primarily on mainstream and conservative religious leaders. Mr. Soloman was a prison chaplain in the Texas Department of Corrections for thirty years and was most recently the director of Restorative Justice Ministries Network of Texas.

Soros Justice Senior Fellows

Michelle Alexander Stanford Law School Palo Alto, CA
Ms. Alexander, a Stanford University Law professor and former director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project, will write a book arguing that the war on drugs and mass incarceration is “The New Jim Crow”. The book will inspire a new public dialogue about the role of the criminal justice system in our society and challenge the civil rights community and public-at-large to understand mass incarceration as the defining racial justice issue of our time.

Michele Deitch Center for Criminal Justice Initiatives Austin, TX
Ms. Deitch, a consultant for the Center for Criminal Justice Initiatives and University of Texas law professor, will research, promote the need for and develop independent prison oversight mechanisms in the U.S. that are in keeping with international human rights standards and practices. Her research and writing will raise visibility of this issue and lay the groundwork for implementation of oversight mechanisms in specific jurisdictions in the U.S.

Jeffrey Fagan Columbia University Law School New York, NY
Mr. Fagan, a Columbia Law and Public Health professor, will critically examine new research evidence or “propaganda” on the deterrent effects of capital punishment. His analysis will identify the potentially fatal technical and conceptual mistakes made by public policy researchers and clarify how such claims have skewed the public’s perception and understanding of the death penalty. Mr. Fagan will write articles for popular publications and policy journals and policy briefs for legislators, policy makers and the media.

Gregory Hooks Washington State University Pullman, WA
Mr. Hooks, a sociologist at Washington State University, will launch a multi-faceted effort to expand and disseminate his research that debunks the widely held assumption that prisons provide economic benefits to struggling rural economies. Through scholarly articles and dissemination of findings among community groups, policymakers and activists, Mr. Hooks’ groundbreaking work will advance efforts to curtail prison expansion and provide alternative economic development strategies that promote education and community revitalization.

Ababukr Karim The Eisenhower Foundation Washington D.C.
Mr. Karim, a community economic development expert, will spearhead the replication of a model re-entry program in the District of Columbia to serve and be run by formerly incarcerated people. Mr. Karim will implement a set of innovative reintegration strategies that guarantee support and sustainability for former prisoners and the community in which they return.

Harmon Wray Vanderbilt Divinity School Nashville, TN
Mr. Wray, a minister and advocate, will open a dialogue with leaders of national and Southern regional faith communities to enlist their partnership in developing and implementing an alternative model for what faithful, responsible, and progressive ministry would look like in the context of crime and the criminal justice system.

Soros Justice Media Fellows

Fredric Dannen Austin, TX
Mr. Dannen, a published author and writer for The New Yorker, will complete research and writing of a book about an innocent person who was executed in Texas in 1997. Mr. Dannen has been investigating this case for seven years and when published, it will be the first book to prove that a wrongful execution has taken place in America during the past quarter century and on the watch of then Governor George W. Bush and his general counsel, Alberto Gonzalez.

Dan Hunt and Janet Baus Monson, MA
Mr. Hunt and Ms. Baus, both filmmakers will complete and distribute their groundbreaking documentary, “Cruel and Unusual” which tells the stories of five trangender women serving time in state and federal prisoners for men. The film examines the severe and pervasive punishment they endure in prison, their unique needs, and the suffering that our most marginalized citizens face as they seek to actualize themselves.

Joe Loya Oakland, CA
Mr. Loya, an acclaimed writer and author of “The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell”, will write a memoir about his re-entry into society after leaving federal prison in California. Mr. Loya is a contributing editor for the Pacific News Service and his essays and commentaries have appeared in newspapers across the U.S.

Annie Sundberg and Rickie Stern New York, NY Ms. Sundberg and Ms. Stern will complete and distribute “The Trials of Darryl Hunt”, a feature documentary about a brutal rape and murder case and a wrongfully convicted man who spent nearly twenty years on prison for a crime he did not commit.