As New York lawmakers consider ending cash bail and mull reforms that disproportionately impact low-income communities, a revealing conversation about the criminalization of poverty will take place with Professor Peter B. Edelman, faculty director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law.
Jennifer Jones Austin, a child and family advocate, is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), an anti-poverty, policy and advocacy organization with 170 member human services agencies and faith partners operating throughout New York City.
Community Co-Sponsors
SPEAKERS
Peter B. Edelman
Peter B. Edelman is a long-time policy maker and scholar focusing on poverty, inequality and Constitutional Law. He is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and poverty law and is faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality.
He has also served in all three branches of government. During President Clinton’s first term he was Counselor to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and then Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. He was a legislative assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and was Issues Director for Senator Edward Kennedy’s Presidential campaign in 1980. Earlier, he was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and before that to Judge Henry J. Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Douglas. He also has been Associate Dean of the Law Center, Director of the New York State Division for Youth, and Vice President of the University of Massachusetts. He is currently chair of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission and the National Center for Youth Law.
Professor Edelman’s latest book, Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America (The New Press), investigates the ways in which people are penalized through the justice system simply for being poor. The title will be released in paperback July 2019.
Jennifer Jones Austin
Jennifer Jones Austin, a child and family advocate, is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), an anti-poverty, policy and advocacy organization with 170 member human services agencies and faith partners operating throughout New York City. Prior to joining FPWA, Jones Austin served as Senior Vice President of the United Way of New York City, Family Services Coordinator for Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Commissioner for the NYC Administration for Children’s Services, Civil Rights Deputy Bureau Chief for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and Vice President for LearnNow/Edison Schools Inc.
Ms. Jones Austin has chaired and served on several influential boards and commissions, including serving as Co-Chair of NYC Mayor de Blasio’s Transition Committee, Chair of the NYC Procurement Policy Board, and Co-Chair of the New York State Supermarket Commission. She currently is a board member of the National Action Network, the New York Blood Center, the NYC Board of Correction, and the Fund for Public Housing.