Speakers from Panel 1 of the HF Guggenheim Symposium discuss the drug war Photo by Lisa Riordan Seville

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy led a blue-ribbon list of speakers from the White House, leading police departments, think tanks, and universities for two days of discussions and briefings at  the 7th Annual Harry Frank. Guggenheim foundation Symposium on Crime in America, on Feb. 6th and 7th, 2012 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Twenty journalists from around the nation joined participants from the criminal justice community to explore his year's topic,""The Problem That Won't Go Away: How Drugs, Race and Mass Incarceration Have Distorted American Justice (and What To Do About It)." There were six public panels, with 27 speakers. For an agenda of the conference, see HERE.  

The journalism fellows (see list here) proposed reporting projects centered around the conference theme.

In addition to the main theme, the Symposium examined some of the newest and most innovative developments in the areas of prisoner re-entry and early release, and recent US and New Jersey Supreme Court rulings on eyewitness identification.

 Symposium highlights: Risco Mention-Lewis, Assistant District Attorney from Nassau County, and Shelia Rule, founder of Think Outside the Cell Foundation, addressed : "After Prison What? Breaking the Mold on Prisoner Reentry."  Some of the nation's leading corrections chiefs, including Matthew Cate, Secretary of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,  and New York State Corrections chief  Brian Fischer came together for a candid conversation about the state of the nation's prison systems and the impact of early release legislation.

William Black, a former top government regulator, discussed the notorious lack of prosecutions and convictions on fraud and white collar crime arising from the economic crisis. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and leading civil rights attorney Connie Rice spoke about the challenge of tackling juvenile gangs and violence. 

Dr. Khalil Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Benjamin Tucker, deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy provided a perspective on America's long-running "war on drugs."

On this page you will be able to download podcasts of the panels and keynote addresses, explore some of the research material provided to participants at the Symposium, and see articles written by this year's Reporting Fellows as well as conference coverage.  It will be updated as new material becomes available.

Please check  it out regularly!