Poverty vs Justice: A Moral Issue for Our Criminal Justice System

The Kelly Miller Smith Foundation, in collaboration with the Kelly Miller Smith Institute on Black Church Studies at the Vanderbilt Divinity School and CEO Action for Racial Equity will host the 2nd Annual Kelly Miller Smith Symposium to be held virtually on Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. CT. The theme is “Poverty vs Justice: A Moral Issue for Our Criminal Justice System.” We are called to understand and right the wrongs that make it more likely for Black and Latino souls to be corralled to and stuck in the criminal justice system with overwhelming difficulty escaping its clutches.

Mr. Bill Underwood, a career-making music executive, who was incarcerated for more than 30 years in 1990 for his first and only felony drug offense because it carried a mandated sentence under the newly enacted federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1987. Mr. Underwood will share his story in a conversation with Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, who is a passionate leader, social activist, eloquent orator, educator, and pastor of the Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, TX. Their riveting discussion will be followed by a panel of community and corporate leaders who will discuss and share insights on the myriad of ways our justice system criminalizes the poor. They will share the work currently being done and provide opportunities and ways for each of us to be part of the solution and use our voice and collective power to demand change. We are advancing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s prescient call to action in recognition that, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The criminal justice system in the United States is broken in many places; namely, the egregious inequities in laws, over-policing, pretrial treatment (including cash bail), conviction rates, sentencing policies, and incarceration and post incarceration practices that disproportionately harm people of color and those with limited economic means. From the cost of public defenders, attorneys, bail amounts, and the myriad of charges (e.g., excessive telephone usage costs) levied against the accounts of incarcerated persons, there are many for profit companies, leaders and politicians who profit from the system. In a nation where justice is said to be blind – free from discrimination and favoritism– there are financial, political, racial, systemic, and habitual factors that sustain our criminal justice system in many ways that are far from blind. “Orange being the new black is not a new phenomenon because a disproportionate number of people of color and people experiencing poverty have and continue to don prison orange, which limits their opportunities and those of generations to come.”

This symposium will bring together individual community members, and faith-based, civic, and corporate organizations who recognize the moral imperative to help bring about a fairer justice system. Together, we will share inspiration, practical ideas, and resources that can immediately be put into action to bring equity, fairness, and true blindness to America’s justice system.

Thursday, October 28, 2021, 1:00 - 3:00 pm CT

Symposium Schedule

1:00 pm | Welcome

1:10 pm | Conversation: Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III and William "Bill" Underwood

2:05 pm | Panel

Dawn Harrington | Executive Director, Free Heart

Priya Sarathy Jones | National Policy & Campaigns Director, Fines and Fees Justice System

Tehra Coles | Policy Counsel, Civil Rights Corps

Felicia Williams, moderator | Former CFO, Macy's Inc. and Fellow for CEO Action for Racial Equity

Sponsors

Kelly Miller Smith Family Foundation, Kelly Miller Smith Institute on Black Church Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School, First Baptist Church Capitol Hill, CEO Action for Racial Equity and Vanderbilt University Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion