S25-12 America's Amazing 5-Decade Criminal Justice Journey
Class | FULL (Membership Required)
This class will explore my personal experiences since the 1970s inside the American criminal justice system
as a policy maker, a prosecutor, a sheriff and as a prisoner. How did the United States become the world's leading nation measured by both rate of incarceration and violent crime? Did the war on drugs work? Does the "Department of Corrections" deserve its name? We will revisit the 1988 "Willie Horton Ad"; compare German prisons to Connecticut prisons; discuss whether crime victims have "rights"; discuss why there are so few criminal trials in recent years and consider the future of policing in our state and nation.
Mike Lawlor
Mike Lawlor is a nationally recognized expert on criminal justice reform which was a major focus of his 24 years as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives and as former Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s criminal justice advisor. Lawlor authored the 1999 Red Flag law, the first state in the country to pass this law and now considered a national model for preventing mass shootings. As a member of Governor Malloy’s administration, Prof. Lawlor developed and implemented initiatives including juvenile justice, bail, and drug policy reforms; post Sandy Hook gun control legislation, and repeal of the death penalty, as well as initiatives that addressed racial disparities in the criminal justice system and mass incarceration. He is currently Acting Associate Dean of the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven.