Penn Calendar Penn A-Z School of Arts and Sciences University of Pennsylvania

Co-sponsored Event - Locking Up Our Own (James Forman, Jr.)

Monday, April 24, 2017 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm

Fitts Auditorium, Golkin Hall Lower Level
3501 Sansom Street (Penn Law)

Cosponsored by: The Penn Law School, The Center for Africana Studies, Penn Political Science, Penn DCC, Penn Social Policy and Practice, The Quattrone Center, and Penn Urban Studies

Moderator: Camille Z. Charles (Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences, Penn)

Commentators: Regina Austin (William A. Schnader Professor of Law, Penn Law); Michael Javen Fortner (CUNY Urban Studies); and Marie Gottschalk (Penn Political Science)


IN RECENT YEARS, AMERICA’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS BECOME the subject of an increasingly urgent debate. Critics have assailed the rise of mass incarceration, emphasizing its disproportionate impact on people of color. As James Forman, Jr., points out, however, the war on crime that began in the 1970s was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers. In his new book, Locking Up Our Ownhe seeks to understand why.

JAMES FORMAN, JR. is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is a graduate of Atlanta’s Roosevelt High School, Brown University, and Yale Law School, and was a law clerk for Judge William Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the United States Supreme Court.