Incarceration and Release: Educational, Legal, Psychosocial, Spiritual and Policy Considerations from a Social Work Perspective

Conference Information:

Incarceration and Release: Educational, Legal, Psychosocial, Spiritual and Policy Considerations from a Social Work Perspective. 

Date: April 27, 2018

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

NASW Member Fee: $40 | Non-Member Fee: $80

Location: Nassau Community College
College Center Building - Multipurpose Room
Phone: 516.572.7501
http://www.ncc.edu/

Maps and Directions:
GPS: Please search for Nassau Community College Public Safety 

Parking is available in Lot 4B. To be led directly to Parking Lot 4B, please enter via NCC Public Safety via Earle Ovington Blvd. 

• Campus Map - PDF 
• Map and Directions - Website

This event is NYSED approved for 4.0 continuing education contact hours for licensed social workers, licensed mental health counselors, and licensed marriage and family therapists. 

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Agenda:

Workshop 1

Engaging Returning Citizens: A Social Work Perspective for Successful Re-integration of Formerly Incarcerated Black Men - Educational, Psycho-Social, Spiritual and Policy Considerations

Presenter: Mika’il DeVeaux Ph.D., M.Phil.; M.A.; M.P.S.

Research conducted by the presenter suggests that social workers need to apply social work's person-in-environment perspective to social work practice with justice-involved Black men. The person-in-environment perspective provides an alternative approach when used to develop social work policies, procedures, and service deliver that couples attending to the person while encouraging community organizing, advocacy and activism as part of intervention strategies. Finally, the presentation will draw attention to social workers’ ethical responsibilities to the broader society detailed in the Social Workers’ Code of Ethics rooted in social work's historical relationship with justice matters.

Workshop 2
Understanding Our Role: Social Workers in the Prison System and Reentry Services

Presenters: Samantha Howell, Esq., Alexa Giardiano, MSW Student, and Elena Kilcullen J.D/MSW Student

Following a brief overview of incarceration in New York State, the presenters will address the challenges to reentry faced by incarcerated New Yorkers, including risks to recidivism, laws that affect pre-conviction opportunities, and limitations on post-release efforts to reintegrate. The presenters will then explore the ways for social workers to be engaged, including within and throughout the legal system, to affect recidivism and reentry.

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Presenters:

Mika’il DeVeaux Ph.D., M.Phil.; M.A.; M.P.S.

Professor DeVeaux is a lecturer at Nassau Community College (SUNY). He is the co/founder and Executive Director of Citizens Against Recidivism, Inc., directs Citizens’ Muslim Re-entry Initiative, and is a certified anger management facilitator. Dr. DeVeaux is also the founder and principal at DeVeaux Association, a consulting firm that provides evaluation, monitoring, and other services for nonprofits.

Dr. DeVeaux has over three decades of experience working with men and women impacted by the criminal justice system. His research interests include hyper-incarceration's impact on the African America community, Black male incarceration, community reintegration of Black male incarcerates, incarceration policy, and class/racial inequality. His most recent research relates to the components of success post-prison as defined by formerly incarcerated Black men who have lived productive lives in their communities.

Professor DeVeaux has published papers in the Harvard Civil-Rights Civil Liberties Law Review, Journal of Law and Criminal Justice, New Directions in Evaluation: A Publication of the American Evaluation Association, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Crescent International, Journal of Social Issues (co-authored), and others.

He is the recipient of several fellowships related to his doctoral studies in social welfare including Anne Nora Dissertation Award (2016-2017), Dean K. Harrison Fellowship, CUNY Graduate Center (2015 – 2016), Doctoral Student Research Grant, CUNY Graduate Center (2014-2015), Dean K. Harrison Fellowship, CUNY Graduate Center (2011 – 2013), Advance Research College Student Fellowship, CUNY Graduate Center (2012), University Fellowship, CUNY Graduate Center (2011 – 2016), Sunshine Scholarship (2011-2016), and the recipient of a Soros Justice Fellowship (2006 – 2007) for advocacy that focused on policy and program development within the Muslim community around justice involvement and re-entry issues. His dissertation was an honorable mention for the 2018 Society for Social Work and Research Outstanding Social Work Dissertation Award. He has also received recognition from public officials for his advocacy around issues related to incarceration, re-entry and civic engagement.

Samantha Howell, Esq.,
Executive Director, National Association of Social Workers - New York State Chapter  

Samantha Howell is the Executive Director of the New York State Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-NYS), a professional organization for social workers. NASW-NYS is the second largest chapter of in the country. She graduated from Whitman College with a B.A. in Political Sociology and obtained her J.D. from Albany Law School in 2010. She is admitted to practice in New York State and the Southern District Federal Court of New York.

Ms. Howell has worked in public interest for more than a decade and in the pro bono arena since her law school days. Prior to joining NASW-NYS, she was the Director of Pro Bono & Outreach at Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, where she developed and managed the nation’s only pro bono program tasked, exclusively, to working on civil issues for incarcerated New Yorkers. She co-founded The Center for Community Insight, which provides poverty simulations and training/consulting services, and serves as a program facilitator and on the Board of Directors. Ms. Howell has presented at numerous Equal Justice Conferences on the development and management of pro bono programs, prisoners’ rights and cultural competency. She has also presented on substantive and procedural law related to prisoners, cultural competency and ethics on numerous occasions.

Ms. Howell is a member of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), NYSBA’s President’s Committee on Access to Justice, NYSBA’s Student Loan Assistance for Public Interest committee, the National Association for Pro Bono Professionals, the NYS Pro Bono Coordinators Network, the Capital Region Pro Bono Committee, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Capital Region Immigration Collaborative. Ms. Howell also serves on the New York Civil Liberties – Capital Region Chapter’s board and legal committee.

Ms. Howell was awarded the Supervising Attorney award at Albany Law School’s 2014 Pro Bono Awards Ceremony and was recently named the 2017 Public Citizen of the Year by the New York State Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. 

Alexa Giardino
MSW Intern, Prisoners' Legal Services, Albany, NY 

Alexa Giardino is a student at the University at Albany School of Social Welfare, an intern at Prisoners’ Legal Services, and a Residence Counselor at Rehabilitation Support Services. As an intern, Alexa is working to help individuals who are going to be deported obtain resources abroad. As a Residence Counselor, she supports individuals with mental illness and substance or alcohol abuse in breaking down their barriers to recovery. Alexa is passionate about working in the juvenile justice system and finding new ways to rehabilitate these individuals.

Alexa received her Bachelor’s degree from SUNY New Paltz in Sociology with a Concentration in Human Services in May 2016. She was involved in many organizations as a student there including the Social Justice Coalition, Oasis/ Haven peer crisis counseling, New Paltz Walk Against Rape (NPWAR), and was the chapter leader of Project HEAL. Alexa lived in Dublin, Ireland, for four months, where she created the Big Buddy program at the Computer Clubhouse. She was also a student at Brookwood Secure Center for Juveniles, as a part of SUNY New Paltz’s Inside Out course. Alexa Giardino continues to be involved while a student at SUNY Albany. She helped organize a Water is Life Rally alongside her classmates, as well as lobbied and protested for Raise the Age in New York. In Albany, Alexa has worked with disadvantaged youth in order to help them gain education and employment. She is passionate about the work she has done and plans to continue supporting and fighting for social justice and equity, especially for both juvenile and adult prisoners’ rights.

Elena Kilcullen
MSW Intern, Prisoners' Legal Services, Albany, NY 

Elena Kilcullen is a dual degree MSW/JD student at Albany Law School and University at Albany’s School of Social Welfare. She currently is a social work intern at Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York in Albany creating a network of resources for their clients upon reentry. Elena graduated cum laude with her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Disaster Studies from SUNY New Paltz. During her undergraduate education, she was the Assistant Coordinator of Haven, a peer crisis counseling center for students who had experienced sexual assault. Elena was a project coordinator at NYPIRG, the New York Public Interest Research Group specializing in hunger and homelessness as well as environmental protection. Elena has coordinated and participated in several national action days such as The People’s Climate March of 2014, The Million Man March of 2015 and 2017, and The Women’s March of 2017 and 2018.

During her time as a law student, Elena spent her summer vacation of 2016 on the luxurious Rikers Island working with the Legal Aid Society of New York City’s Special Litigation Legal Reform Unit assisting staff attorneys on an ongoing class action suit against the Department of Corrections and the City of New York on behalf of women inmates who were sexually abused by corrections officers. During her time as a social work student, Elena interned at a local elementary school in Albany County serving children with various mental health, intellectual, and behavioral needs.