The United States leads the world in incarceration. The “War on Drugs” and prioritizing punishment over rehabilitation has led to mass imprisonment, mainly of the nation’s most vulnerable populations: people of color, the economically disadvantaged and undereducated, and those suffering from mental illness. Although these social disparities are striking, the health discrepancies are even more pronounced. What can be done to address this health and human rights crisis?

This conference examined various aspects of human rights and health issues in our prisons. In collaboration with educators, health professionals, and those involved in the criminal justice system—including former inmates, advocates, and law enforcement—the conference sought to clarify the issues, explore possible policy and educational responses, and establish avenues for action.

This conference was open to the public.

Agenda

Wednesday, November 29, 2017, Pre-Conference Event

Armenise Building, D-Amphitheater, 210 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA

6:15pm, 13th Documentary Film Screening and Panel Discussion

• Rahsaan D. Hall, Director, Racial Justice Program, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts
• Elizabeth Hinton, Assistant Professor, Department of History and African American Studies, Harvard University
• Fatimah Loren Muhammad, Director, Trauma Advocacy Initiative, Equal Justice USA
• Patrick Smith, Faculty Member, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, Moderator

​Thursday, November 30, 2017

Tosteson Medical Education Center, 260 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA

8:15 – 9:00am, Registration and Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15am, Welcome and Introduction

• J. Wesley Boyd, Associate Professor in Psychiatry and faculty member in the Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School; staff psychiatrist at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA); and founder and co-director, Human Rights and Asylum Clinic at CHA

9:15 – 10:15am, Keynote: Righting Wrongs: Lessons Learned from One Lost Life

• Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University and Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University

10:15 – 10:30, Break

10:30 – 11:00am, Contract Prisons and Contract Health Care: What Do We Know?

• Marc Stern, Affiliate Assistant Professor, Health Services, University of Washington School of Public Health and Former Health Services Director, Washington State Department of Corrections

11:00 – 11:45am, Life during and after Incarceration: Two Personal Experiences

• George Powell, Author and Screenwriter
• Joli Sparkman, Reentry Coordinator, Bethany House Ministries, Inc.

11:45am – 12:30pm, Where Rights Meet Reality: Prison Health Care

• Joel Thompson, Staff Attorney, Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts and Clinical Instructor, Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, Harvard Law School

12:30 – 1:30pm, Lunch

1:30 – 3:15pm, Women’s Health in Prisons: Achieving Just and Respectful Care for Pregnant Women in Prison

• Shannon Bell, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Boston University School of Medicine
• Mary Baxter, Inaugural Fellow, Right of Return Fellowship Program
• ​Maryanne Bombaugh, Vice President, Massachusetts Medical Society, Chair, Massachusetts Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

3:15 – 3:30pm, Break

3:30 – 5:00pm, Sexuality and Sexual Minorities in Prison: Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Sexual Abuse

• Mik Kinkead, Staff Attorney and Prison Justice Project Director, Sylvia Rivera Law Project
• Stefanie Rivera, Director of Client Services, Sylvia Rivera Law Project
• Kathleen Dennehy, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, and former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections
• Andrea Ritchie, Researcher-in-Residence on Race, Gender, Sexuality and Criminalization, Social Justice Institute, Barnard Center for Research on Women

5:00 – 6:00pm, Reception

Friday, December 1, 2017

7:30 – 8:00am, Registration and Breakfast

8:00 – 9:00am, Psychiatric Care in U.S. Prisons and Jails: Challenges and Opportunities

• Debra Pinals, Professor, University of Michigan School of Medicine

9:00 – 10:00am, Psychopathological Effects of Solitary Confinement

• Stuart Grassian, Psychiatrist – Psychopathological Effects of Solitary Confinement
• Louis J. Kraus, The Woman’s Board Professor of Child Psychiatry; Professor, Department of Psychiatry; Director, Section of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; and Director, Autism Assessment, Research, Treatment & Services (AARTS) Program at Rush Medical College – Juvenile Solitary Confinement: Still Used, Still Wrong, Still Dangerous

10:00 – 10:15am, Break

10:15 – 11:45am, Health Care Workers in Prisons

• Marc Stern, Affiliate Assistant Professor, Health Services, University of Washington School of Public Health and Former Health Services Director, Washington State Department of Corrections
• Homer Venters, Director of Programs, Physicians for Human Rights; Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Population Health and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, NYU
• Deborah Alejandra Popowski, Executive Director, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law

11:45 – 12:45pm, Lunch

12:45 – 2:45pm, Concurrent Sessions

Asylum Seekers in Detention

Tosteson Medical Education Center, Room 328

• Robert P. Marlin, Director, Coordinated Care Program for Political Violence Survivors and Attending Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance; Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

The Social and Spiritual Injustices of Prison

Tosteson Medical Education Center, Room 306

• Mika’il DeVeaux, Assistant Adjunct Professor, Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College (CUNY)
• Kaia Stern, Director, Prison Studies Project, Harvard University

Getting beyond Bars: A Look at Prison Re-Entry

Tosteson Medical Education Center, Room 250

• Jenny Phillips, Producer/Director, Beyond the Wall
• Louie Diaz, substance abuse counselor and re-entry specialist, Middlesex County Sherriff’s Office
• Fred Clay

Children and Adolescents in Juvenile Detention

Tosteson Medical Education Center, Room 209

• Louis J. Kraus, The Woman’s Board Professor of Child Psychiatry; Professor, Department of Psychiatry; Director, Section of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; and Director, Autism Assessment, Research, Treatment & Services (AARTS) Program at Rush Medical College

2:45 – 4:45pm, Final Plenary Discussion: Strategies and Next Steps

Blog Post

• Gali Katznelson, “Reflecting on Behind Bars: Ethics and Human Rights in U.S. Prisons”

Recording

This event was cosponsored by the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School, and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.