The Path Forward: Incarcerated America

New York Public Library President Anthony Marx brings together criminal-justice-reform advocates from the right and left to discuss the complex of issues that our nation confronts when it comes to incarceration, particularly those faced by American youth. 

FEATURING

• Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet, NAACP Image Award–winning memoirist, and lawyer


• Pat Nolan, Director of the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform

Americans comprise about 5 percent of the world’s population but more than 20 percent of its prison population. The United States also leads the planet in its levels of incarcerated youth. And while the overall rate of youth incarceration in this country has declined more than 50 percent in the 21st century, the rate of Black youths put in prison has increased by 22 percent—of all young people in prison, 69 percent of them are people of color.

Anthony Marx asks Reginald Dwayne Betts and Pat Nolan how the tragedies of American incarceration continue to be sustained and what action is needed in order to correct them.

Betts, who spent nine years of his youth in prison for a carjacking conviction, recently earned his JD and PhD from Yale Law School—and was last year working as a public defender in New Haven, trying to “to do something to halt the herding of young black people behind bars.” Pat Nolan, a former member of the California State Assembly, spent over two years in federal prison on racketeering charges, and has since emerged as “the conservative spearheading criminal-justice reform.”

The Path Forward is a series convened by Anthony Marx that seeks the wisdom and counsel of voices from different backgrounds and views on some of our most complicated sociopolitical issues. These frank and challenging discussions are aimed at bringing greater understanding and insight into some of the most pressing questions of contemporary American life.

FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED
For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form one hour before the program.

PRESS 
Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Ayofemi Kirby at ayofemikirby@nypl.org.