Book Launch: Ernest Drucker's A Plague of Prisons

Speaker

Ernest Drucker is a scholar in residence and senior research associate at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, professor emeritus of family and social medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Drucker directed a drug addiction treatment and AIDS research program in the poorest neighborhoods of the South Bronx from 1970 to 1990. He is the editor in chief of the international Harm Reduction Journal, a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Global Health, and a former Soros Justice Fellow. His latest book, released in August 2011, is called A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America.

Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the leading organization in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs. A native of New York City, Nadelmann studied at Harvard University and the London School of Economics, earning both his JD and PhD before teaching politics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1987 to 1994, where his speaking and writings on drug policy—in publications ranging from Science and Foreign Affairs to American Heritage and National Review attracted international attention. He also authored the book, Cops Across Borders, the first scholarly study of the internationalization of U.S. criminal law enforcement. In 2000 the Drug Policy Alliance emerged as an advocate for drug policies worldwide grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. More information can be found at www.drugpolicy.org.

Jill Harris is the Acting Deputy Director for the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance. In that capacity she helps oversee the day-to-day operations of DPA, and manages external relationships with national and state-based allies. Before joining DPA, Harris worked as a political campaign manager and was the early vote director on behalf of now President Barack Obama in Ohio. She also spent 13 years as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in New York City, including two years as the attorney in charge of the Manhattan Criminal Defense Division, the country’s largest public defender office.

Judge Robert W. Sweet is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He joined the court in 1978 after being nominated by President Jimmy Carter.  Judge Sweet has been a vocal opponent of the drug war, in the past calling the US approach to drug control "expensive, ineffective and harmful.” He is also a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and serves on its advisory board.