A Snap-shot of our outreach
Participating in Reentry Discussions, Valparaiso, IN
Presenting for NAICU, D.C.
Presenting for the CJJA in Phoenix
Presenting at Valparaiso University
Presenting at Eastern University of Illinois
Presenting for the CJJA in Nashville
Miles @ Valparaiso University, Jan. 2022
Re-entry @ Valparaiso
Valparaiso University hosted a day of events surrounding re-entry in and around the community. Miles was asked to attend the event and participate on a panel discussing the efficiency of current re-entry practices. The keynote was given by the renowned Rev. Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries. The speakers were matched by an impressive interactive exhibit created by Amanda D. Zelechoski, JD, PhD, ABPP, a professor of Psychology. The exhibit explored the different types of trauma according to the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) model.
Respectively, Michael Griffin, Fr. David Tyson, and Miles Folsom, February 2022
NAICU in DC:
College Education in Prison
Miles spoke in Washington, D.C. for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). NAICU originally invited only Rev. David Tyson, President of Holy Cross College, but after careful conversation with Michael Griffin, Provost of Holy Cross College, and Miles, the three decided to give a triptych speech.
“Restorative Justice and the Role of Faith” is the title of the talk they gave. Fr. Tyson opens with a discussion of the presenters followed by a description of the Moreau College Initiative (MCI), a college in prison program created in a collaboration between Notre Dame and HCC. He introduces the topic of mercy and restoration in contra position to what he calls the modern day era of “retribution”.
Michael Griffin picks up the theme of mercy and penance. His book, The Politics of Penance, grants him a special background from which to view these topics. Mr. Griffin introduces the MCI trail to give the audience perspective on the program. He discusses the need to change the view our society has regarding what the right relationship is between a prisoner and society.
Miles follows up by relating his experience in the MCI program. He argues that the greatest punishment is the hardest punishment, and that the hardest thing he ever did was decide to change his life through education. His example pulls the needle through Fr. Tyson and Mr. Griffin’s sentiments on the meeting place of mercy and justice. It suggests that college education in prison should be a choice that all inmates have if they so wish to attempt its rigor. Miles explains that, in the case of a prisoner gaining an education, recidivism nosedives when someone obtains a college education. This makes it a smart investment, from the eyes of a citizen, for the sake of curing our society of criminality and all its concomitant costs.
Miles & Colt, Jan. 2022
CJJA in Phoenix
A winter trip to Phoenix is never a bad thing. Colt and Miles were asked to speak for the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators (CJJA). The topic was ‘reentry’. Rather than simply showing up with a list of problems, they pondered their incarceral experiences to generate both the problems that need mending as well as the possible ways such mending could be done.
They proposed their own new reentry program tailored to young adults. As they defined the term, a young adult can be a person between the ages of 16-25. These are the children who are getting in trouble as juvenile offenders but who are then waived into adult court. They get out of adult prison after a number of years, like Colt and Miles did, and it is taken for granted that they possess a whole toolkit of life skills that a normal citizen would have.
Colt and Miles recognize the need to fortify this sector of our prison population through more effective rehabilitation. Their understanding of this class of people is so in tune because of the shared experiences that cause them to empathize with that group.
They pitched an entirely new reentry system for this class of prisoner. They argued that by better preparing these young adults for their reentry—using legitimate job skills and life planning—we can significantly cut down on the recidivism rate.
The program is specific not only for how it cares for its participants, and for what it expects out of them, but it is also specific because it seeks to create a new field in the justice system: juvenile offenders—young adult offenders—adult offenders.
Miles and Colt envision a world of corrections that separates young adults from the other two populations in order to more accurately address their specific needs.
Most juveniles waived to adult court are released before they turn 25, so we see little need, except in extenuating circumstances, to house young adults within adult prison facilities if the rest of their lives will not be spent there.
There are a number of ways this project is planned to grow and instantiate itself.
The Harre-Union Building, Valparaiso University
Inspirational Speech @ Valparaiso
Miles was asked to speak for a Sociology course at Valparaiso University. His perspective on the criminal justice field and insight into ‘the disease that is criminality.’ The number of attendees soon grew too large for the scheduled room, so something wonderful occurred. Miles’s event was submitted for accreditation by the school so his talk could be open to the entire student body. He was honored to speak in the Harre-Union building in front of a packed crowd of students, scholars, and citizens.
This speech was recorded. When available, the video will be linked here in the description.
Eastern University in Southern Illinois
Incarceration in the Family @ Eastern University in Southern Illinois
Colt and Miles were asked to speak to a classroom of students at Eastern. The course was about ‘Incarceration in the Family’ and how aging impacted these relationships. Because Colt and Miles were both incarcerated as juveniles, and had to grow into men behind bars, they have a keen understanding of the familial trauma that can accompany incarceration. At Eastern, their incarceral experience allowed Colt and Miles to relate their own struggles and coping mechanisms to a full classroom. Some of the students were seeking careers in social worker, but others were just students who knew the pain of losing a loved one to incarceration and wished to understand the cycle of trauma better.
Colt and Miles were invited by a professor, and dear friend of theirs, Dr. Jacquelyn B. Frank, HSCL. Dr. Frank has been researching different aspects of incarceration for over ten years (including aging in prison, teenagers incarcerated as adults, chronic disease self-management, and hospice care in prison).
It was a successful lecture with a robust Q&A. This partnership has even sparked plans of a more strategic move into education for Invested Youth.
Colt & Miles, August 2021
The CJJA in Nashville
This was the first time that Colt and Miles were invited to speak at the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators (CJJA). Due to the pandemic, the entire conference was to be via zoom. As the conference grew closer, however, it was requested that they attend in-person. Covid restrictions were being pulled back, and CJJA decided to have their biannual business meeting in-person, in Nashville, Tennessee.
When the majority of the room was filled, the doors were shut and we were introduced by the CJJA Director, Mike Dempsey.
Within a minute Colt and Miles were on a roll. People turned around in their seats and locked on to them. They held their attention for the full 40 minute presentation.
Colt and Miles spoke on the need to make the 'juvenile waiver to adult court process' more robust by implementing mandatory processes, such as psychological evaluations, applications to long term juvenile facilities, and even reconfiguring the type of counsel a juvenile received when facing waiver to adult court. This is a strictly logical argument that is then followed up with an empathetic one stressing why these things are so important. They drop into anecdotal evidence describing how corrosive adult prisons are to teenagers. They speak from experience when detailing what a young adult in prison faces, overcomes in prison, and what many others fall to so regularly.
The big take away from this conference was the mentor-ship Colt and Miles received on how to proceed with their new careers. Invested Youth is working to turn the ideas contained within this lecture into a general piece of legislation that any State could rubber stamp.