Resentencing, rehabilitation, and reentry programs hold the key to welcoming back those who have paid their debt to society while keeping our communities safe.
Join us for the 2024 Barnett Chair Second Chance Summit for wide-ranging discussions exploring how innovative legislation, programs, and outside-the-box thinking are propelling the movement for criminal justice reform. This full-day symposium features voices from across the criminal justice system including members of the judiciary, public defenders, prosecutors, victims’ advocates and community organizers. Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods JD '96 will give the keynote address with a reception to follow.
Schedule and Speaker List
Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00am
Welcome Remarks
9:30 - 10:00am
Professor Lara Bazelon
Assemblymember Phil Ting
Panel 1 - Rehabilitation & Reentry: Community + Public Safety Perspectives
10:00-11:15 a.m.
As the CA legislature has expanded opportunities for incarcerated Californians to leave prison, the need for effective rehabilitation, robust reentry services, and meaningful support for crime survivors has never been more urgent. This panel includes perspectives from law enforcement, the California Department of Correction & Rehabilitation, crime survivors, and restorative justice practitioners on the successes and failures of the prison system to provide rehabilitation and reentry support, and what meaningful public safety and community healing can look like.
Moderator:
- Tom Nosewicz, Committee on Revision of the Penal Code
Panelists:
- LaNaisha Edwards, Alliance for Safety and Justice
- District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, San Francisco District Attorney's Office
- Jennifer Shaffer, California Board of Parole Hearings
- Dara Yin, API Rise
Panel 2 - Judges on Discretionary Resentencing: What Might Make a Judge Consider Giving Somebody a Second Chance?
11:30-12:45 p.m.
This panel features California superior court judges with extensive experience presiding over post-conviction and resentencing cases. They will share insights on the factors that might make a judge consider giving someone a second chance, what advocates can do to support the court in evaluating a potential resentencing case, and the challenges courts are facing as judges apply new legislation to the high volume of cases presented to them.
Moderator:
Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell (Ret)
Panelists:
- Judge Brendan Conroy, Superior Court of San Francisco County
- Judge Daniel Lowenthal, Superior Court of Los Angeles County
- Judge Lisa Rodriguez, San Diego Superior Court
- Judge Thomas E. Stevens, Superior Court, County of Alameda
Lunch Lecture - Faces of Change: A Clinical Model of Advocacy at Resentencing Hearings
1:00 - 2:30pm
- Tony Huynh, Post Conviction Justice Project Client
- Heidi Rummel, University of Southern California Gould School of Law
- Danielle Wilkins, University of Southern California Gould School of Law
- Dara Yin, API Rise
Panel 3 - Discretionary Resentencing: Implementation & Collaboration, Challenges & Opportunities
2:45-4:00 p.m.
With new pathways for incarcerated Californians to go back to court to challenge their conviction or sentence come new challenges for implementing these new laws. During this panel, we will hear from prosecutors and defense advocates about how they have approached various resentencing efforts, including how they have collaborated with other key stakeholders in the criminal legal system to identify eligible candidates and to streamline efforts to get back into court.
Moderator:
Kate Chatfield '06, Office of California State Senator Nancy Skinner
Panelists:
- David Angel, Office of the District Attorney, County of Santa Clara
- Rebecca Brackman, Contra Costa Public Defenders
- Kaitlyn McCarthy, County of San Diego, Office of the Public Defender
- Michael Romano, Stanford Law School
Keynote Address - The Past, Present and Future of Mass Incarceration
4:00 - 4:30pm
Chief Alameda Public Defender Brendon Woods' keynote will discuss how mass incarceration has historically and disproportionately harmed communities of color and how it continues to impact community safety today. He will also discuss how criminal justice reform legislation in California has played out on the ground and the roles we all play--lawyers, judges, legislators, law students, voters--in either re-enforcing or dismantling systems of oppression.
- Public Defender Brendon Woods '96, Chief Public Defender, Alameda County Public Defenders
MCLE Credits:
Earn up to 5.5 hours of CLE credit.*
Questions? Email Kenji Quijano or call (415) 422-5896.
*This activity has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 5.5 credit hours. The University of San Francisco School of Law is an approved provider of MCLE and certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved educational activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.