Upcoming Events

The Square One Project of the Columbia University Justice Lab is pleased to announce open registration for the final convening of The Roundtable on the Future of Justice Policy: “The Values of the Justice System: Implications for Justice Policy and Practice” starting April 16th. One of the themes that has emerged over the course of the Square One Project, and that we see emerging in our broader societal and cultural conversation, is that a different future for justice policy must be guided by a clear articulation of the values it should be built upon and uphold. We invite you to join us in asking, “What are the values that should guide our efforts to create safety and reduce harm?”

Join Square One and our partners at the Raphah Institute for a discussion on the root causes of trauma and ways to address individual and collective harm. During this conversation, panelists will discuss “learned helplessness”––a concept commonly used in developmental psychology but here will be applied as a framework to understand trauma and victimization in the context of the criminal legal system. The discussion will also address how restorative justice––voluntary, person- and harm-centered approaches––can be used to respond to individual-level trauma and harm, and cover whether restorative justice principles can also be applied to promote community-wide reckoning. Guest speakers will examine the complexities of victimhood and harm and discuss the intersectionality of restorative justice and historical reckoning.

A livestreamed session of the Square One Roundtable on the Future of Justice Policy. Over the course of several weeks, the Square One Project and the participants of the Roundtable on the Future of Justice Policy reimagined a social contract that serves, empowers, and strengthens the safety and well-being of all. The event featured the voices of advocates, researchers, practitioners, faith leaders, and many more from around the country, and considered the relationships between social rights, political rights, and justice reform in the age of COVID-19 and social mobilization for change. Finally, participants considered aspirations not only for changes to the justice system - but to adjacent institutions and policy domains, including healthcare, housing, education, anti-poverty policy, and the electoral system.

In recent years, “criminal justice reform” has gained support across the political spectrum. But reform has usually meant small tweaks to the current system’s structure and practice: shortening some sentences, diverting some people out of jail, providing some types of treatment. These hardly make a dent in our overwhelming levels of mass incarceration — and they don’t address the poverty, violence, and historic structural racism that drive our towering criminal justice system. During the 2020 Democratic Convention, Bruce Western, Emily Wang, Sukyi McMahon, Matthew Desmond, Danielle Allen, and Vivian Nixon joined The Raben Group and the Square One Project to consider what reimagining justice looks like in real life. 

Join us for a virtual town hall to discuss the future of safety in this moment of reckoning with anti-Black racism and state-sanctioned violence. In recent weeks, millions of people have mobilized across the United States and in over 60 countries to protest the police killings of Black people - including Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and more - and demand justice and community-led safety for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. We are experiencing an unprecedented social and political uprising that has set the stage for a new national normal, as organizers call for billions of dollars to be redirected from law enforcement toward housing, health care, education, and employment. As the nation considers new ways to create safety and prevent harm, how do we ensure that change in policy results in real change on the ground? How do we challenge the false choice between “more police” and “public safety?” How do we create equity and accountability in all our systems of governance? And what does this mean for the future of our democracy? Join us for a discussion that centers Black lives and spurs new ideas on true community safety and the health and wellbeing of our democracy.

Join Vincent Schiraldi in conversation with Vivian Nixon, Greg Davis, Abdulkadir Ali, and Karl Racine about his new paper from the Square One Executive Session on the Future of Justice Policy: Can we eliminate the youth prison? (And what should we replace it with?).

A town hall bringing together national leaders to discuss how changes like “emergency” prison and jail reductions during COVID-19 must go beyond this moment in time to become the start of a permanent change. Join us as our panel of advocates, health and justice experts, and researchers put this moment into historical context, discuss the new social contract for health and safety emerging across the country, and consider how to usher in a new and lasting era of safety and justice. Hosted by the Square One Project.

Square One and the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights held the third Roundtable on the Future of Justice Policy in Detroit in October 2019, examining violence in the United States.

As we approach the 25th anniversary of the federal 1994 Crime Bill, The Vera Institute of Justice joined the Square One Project to consider the visionary work, big ideas, and fundamental values that will guide the next 25 years of justice policy.

The second Roundtable on the Future of Justice Policy on criminalization, punitive excess, and the courts took place in Oakland, California, in March of 2019 in partnership with Merritt College's Administration of Justice and African-American Studies departments.