The Aspen Institute

In collaboration with the Aspen Criminal Justice Reform Initiative
Featuring Anna Deavere Smith, actress, playwright, and founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University, and Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation in conversation with Reverend Vivian Nixon, executive director of College & Community Fellowship and an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow. The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic saw jails, prisons, and detention centers become hotbeds for the virus and criminal justice reform advocates are working tirelessly for the release of young people, older and vulnerable adults, and undocumented migrants. But what happens when many of the formerly incarcerated are returning to communities that are also disproportionately affected by the virus? Perhaps this unique time gives us the opportunity to truly reimagine and transform the criminal justice system in the context of larger, associative complexities happening in communities of concentrated inequality and racial segregation. Remarks by Andrew Plepler, Global head of Environmental, Social & Governance at Bank of America and Dan Porterfield, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute.