Study Group: Practitioners in American Democracy

Date: 

Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 4:30pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

124 Mt. Auburn St. - Suite 100N, Room 106

Join Miles Rapoport, Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center, for the seventh session of a spring semester study group with practitioners in the field of democratic governance. Study group participants will hear from advocates, organizers, elected officials, and policy innovators, and have the opportunity to discuss the latest strategies and leading organizations promoting democratic institutions and norms. Study group sessions are open to all Harvard ID holders. Refreshments will be provided.    

Special Guest: Marc Mauer, Executive Director, The Sentencing Project  

Marc MauerMarc Mauer is one of the country’s leading experts on sentencing policy, race and the criminal justice system.  He has directed programs on criminal justice policy reform for 30 years, and is the author of some of the most widely-cited reports and publications in the field.  The Atlantic magazine has described him as a scholar who has “reframed how Americans view crime, race, and poverty in the public sphere.” His 1995 report on racial disparity and the criminal justice system led the New York Times to editorialize that the report “should set off alarm bells from the White House to city halls – and help reverse the notion that we can incarcerate our way out of fundamental social problems.”


The Sentencing Project has been one of the key organizations in the fight for criminal justice reform and combatting racism in the criminal justice system.  They have, for years, led the effort nationally to dramatically change the laws on disenfranchisement of citizens on the basis of a felony conviction.  Over six million people—particularly in communities of color—are denied their fundamental right to vote.  The Sentencing Project’s reports, statistical analysis, and strong support of grass roots efforts for reform all around the nation have helped take this critical issue from the margins to an important place in the public debate.