Chicago Appleseed at NACM 2016 presenting on Criminal Justice Reform


At this year’s National Association of Case Management (NACM) conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (July 10-14) Ali Abid, Senior Criminal Justice Policy Analyst at Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and Peter Coolsen, Court Administrator for the Criminal Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County are presenting “Administering the Courts in a Time of Criminal Justice Reform.”

The presentation explores concepts of mass incarceration, sentencing reform, racial disparity and community re-investment from the perspective of administration of the courts. In addition, participants will be engaged in a dialogue about the responsibilities of court administrators in a time of criminal justice reform.

With its focus on racial disparity and an audience of court administrators throughout the country, this presentation is an incredibly timely and powerful platform from which to expand the conversation on systemic reform. It is Chicago Appleseed’s hope that the presentation and resulting conversations build upon existing reform momentum and push court administrators to more explicitly address racial disparities and increase their focus on decarceration initiatives.

Update: Due to the popularity of the presentation, Ali Abid and Peter Coolsen have been asked to offer the presentation twice, on Monday July 11th as well as Tuesday July 12th. Please go to the NACM 2016 website for information about live streaming the event. The presentation materials are available here.

This presentation is based upon an article by Ali Abid and Peter Coolsen due to be published in Fall of 2016 by the American Bar Association.