September 26, 2018

Media contact: [email protected]

Series Kicks-Off Friday, September 28thand runs through Wednesday, October 24th

WHO
The Marshall Project in partnership with Participant Media, The New Yorker, and Condé Nast Entertainment (CNÉ)

FEATURED GUESTS
Andrea Young, Executive Director, ACLU of Georgia
Dr. Yusef Salaam, We Are Witnesses series subject prison reform advocate and member of the Central Park 5
David Windecher, Founder, RED
Jonathan Barry-Blocker, Staff Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center
Carroll Bogert, President, The Marshall Project,
QUOTE
“People with arrest and conviction records are routinely blocked from voting, getting jobs, housing and educational opportunities by federal, state, and local legal restrictions,” stated Andrea Young, Executive Director, of the ACLU of Georgia. “African Americans, are 40 percent more likely than white Americans to be denied a job due to their criminal records. For these reasons and more, the ACLU of Georgia is committed to ending mass incarceration and we welcome this important conversation.
WHAT
We are Witnesses: Life Beyond Lock Up - A Conversation on Restoring Human Rights Post-Incarceration
The fall conversation series kicks off this Friday, September 28th at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta with speaking remarks by Andrea Young, Executive Director of the ACLU of Georgia and lifelong civil rights activist.
A screening of select episodes of the series will precede a panel discussion moderated by David Windecher, Founder, RED (Rehabilitation Enables Dreams) and featuring Carroll Bogert, President of The Marshall Project, Jonathan Barry-Blocker, Staff Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center and Alabama Voting Rights Project, and featured We Are Witnesses film subject and Atlanta resident, Dr. Yusef Salaam, a prison reform advocate and member of the Central Park 5.
WHERE
Museum of Civil and Human Rights
100 Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard
Atlanta, GA 30313
WHEN
September 28, 2018
6:00 pm- 8:30 pm
WHY
The award-winning short film series We are Witnesses, created by The Marshall Project in partnership with Participant Media, The New Yorker, and Condé Nast Entertainment (CNÉ) is launching a series of screenings and public panel conversations featuring people who have had firsthand experience with the criminal justice system—the formerly incarcerated, crime victims, officers of the court, and more.
ABOUT THE MARSHALL PROJECT
The Marshall Project (www.themarshallproject.org) is a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal-justice system. We have interviewed President Obama and are the youngest news organization to ever win a Pulitzer. Since our launch in November 2014, we have partnered with close to one hundred media organizations and reached an audience of millions.
We are motivated by the belief that, for too many years, the media sensationalized crime coverage while paying too little attention to the expansion of the criminal justice system and the rise of mass incarceration. We aim to redirect public attention to a broad array of issues that include policing strategies, sentencing practices, alternatives to incarceration, the treatment of juvenile offenders, recidivism, and more.
To achieve this, our repertoire includes deep investigative projects, narratives and profiles that put a human face on criminal justice, and explanatory and contextual pieces, along with guest commentary and voices from inside the system. In all of our work, we strive to educate and enlarge the audience of people who care about the state of criminal justice.
Additional Screenings
October 3, 2018, 6:30 pm -8:30pm, New York, NY
We Are Witnesses: Stories from the American Criminal Legal System
NYU Law School’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law
Featured Guests
Deborah Popowski, Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Neil Barsky, Chairman and Founder, The Marshall Project, Vincent Southerland, Executive Director of NYU Law's Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, Amanda David, Assistant federal defender, the Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., Ismael Nazario, We Are Witnesses series subject, and formerly incarcerated prison reform advocate and Analyst, The Fortune Society, Francis Greenburger, We Are Witnesses series subject President & Founder, Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice
October 4, 2018 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm Boston, MA
Power of Narrative: Telling True Stories in Turbulent Times
Boston University’s College of Communication Auditorium
Featured Guests: Dick Lehr, Professor of Journalism, Boston University, Carroll Bogert, President, The Marshall Project, and Tyrell Muhammad, We Are Witnesses series subject, Project Associate, Correctional Association of New York, Alicia Barrazza and Doug Van Zandt, We Are Witnesses series subject and prison reform advocates.
Event Registration: RSVP to [email protected]
October 15, 2018 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm, Queens, NY
Queens Library Presents We are Witnesses by The Marshall Project
Featured Guests: Dennis Walcott, President and CEO, Queens Library, Nili Ness Queens Library correctional services librarian, Ed Gavagan, We Are Witnesses series subject and founder of Design Starts Here and crime victim, Susan Jackson, We Are Witnesses series subject and parent of murdered son, John Gleeson, We Are Witnesses series subject, Judge, Eastern District of New York, and Lawrence Bartley, The Marshall Project Communications Associate.
Event Registration: TBA
October 24: The Wing, New York, NY
Justice & Gender: Women in the Criminal Justice System
Featured Guests: Jenny Carchman, Producer and Director, We are Witnesses, Ayana Thomas, We Are Witnesses series subject and formerly incarcerated mother, Carroll Bogert, President of The Marshall Project
Event Registration: TBA
###