Let’s build a future we are proud of. Join us at Justice and the Next 250 in Alabama.
Let’s build a future we are proud of in Alabama.
Alabama Appleseed is thrilled to host Justice and the Next 250 In Alabama, a free event launching conversations about the future of criminal justice and public safety in Alabama. Appleseed is hosting this event in partnership with Sidewalk Film and The Just Trust, as part of their Justice and the Next 250 campaign.
This campaign asks us to consider how we build a future that works better for everyone, to look forward with hope and innovation. To that end, Appleseed has secured four Alabama innovators in criminal justice to be part of the conversation:
- Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett, who has overseen a historic decline in crime in Birmingham
- Bessemer District Attorney Lynneice Washington, who created the state’s first Conviction Integrity Unit
- Circuit Judge Brooke Reid, a pioneering judge overseeing Mental Health Court in Montgomery
- Cheryl Maddox, director of Chilton County Community Corrections, which diverts hundreds of people away from prison into community-based treatment.
Night One, Oct. 7, will feature our panel and a sneak preview of the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary, Crime & Punishment in America. Night Two, Oct. 8, will feature a screening of an award-winning documentary Leaving Angola, which examines extreme sentencing, redemption and reentry. The film’s star will join us afterward. It’s all free, thanks to the Just Trust.
The Just Trust developed this campaign to ask the critical question about safety and justice – what are we building next?
As the Just Trust shares on the campaign website: “For decades, the criminal justice reform field has done the essential work of documenting harm, exposing failure, and naming injustice. That work changed public awareness, shifted policy debates, and built a shared understanding that the system must do a far better job of delivering on both safety and justice. Because of that work, we are no longer in a moment of discovery.
We know what is broken. We know the impact of that brokenness.
And we know that the status quo does not deliver safety, accountability, or dignity. The things literally everyone wants.”
As part of this campaign, Appleseed will ask Alabama innovators to share what they are building. Maybe those innovators include you. Come join us!
Here is registration information. You are welcome to join on either night or both nights! And please register to secure a spot.
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