Talking Texas Tough

Robert Perkinson received his BA in history from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1994 and his PhD in American studies from Yale University in 2001. His teaching and research interests include: crime and punishment, race and politics, U.S. social and political history, globalization, terrorism, and foreign policy.  His most recent book, Texas Tough: The Rise of a Prison Empire, is a history of American punishment with a focus on the country's most incarcerated and politically influential state, Texas.

In addition to Texas Tough, Perkinson has written in both scholarly and popular forums on a broad range of political, social, and cultural topics. His articles have addressed the rise and fall of convict leasing, the effects of supermax incarceration, American foreign policy since September 11, the legacy of the World Bank in Asia, the aftermath of the U.S. air war in Laos, nationalism in northern Ireland, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and Native American environmental activism.

As a columnist for the Boulder Weekly and other newspapers, he has commented on a wide range of contemporary issues, from affirmative action to gun control to Abu Ghraib. He has lectured at universities from Seoul to Vienna to Luanda and has appeared on numerous radio and television talk shows.  He has served on the board of the faculty union, the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly, and is currently a board member of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i.  

Perkinson currently teaches courses on Crime and Punishment in American History, American Empire, America & the World, World War II in America and Hawai'i, the American West, and Slavery and Unfree Labor.

Nicole D. Porter coordinates The Sentencing Project's state-level communication and legislative campaigns on criminal justice policy. She also manages The Sentencing Project's state and local advocacy efforts on voting rights, reentry and racial disparity.

Porter works closely with advocates at the state and local level in planning their media and advocacy strategies to advance criminal justice reforms.  Porter is the former director of the ACLU's Prison & Jail Accountability Project (PJAP), where she monitored the conditions of confinement in Texas jails and prisons. Porter advocated in the Texas legislature to promote felony enfranchisement reforms, to address prison rape, and improve prison medical care. 

Previously, Porter also worked for the Appleseed Foundation, National Women's Political Caucus, and the American Prospect magazine.  She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a master's degree in public affairs from the LBJ School. Her master's thesis addressed self employment as an economic strategy among formerly incarcerated African Americans. Porter received her bachelor's degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University. She also studied African politics at the University of Ghana, West Africa.

Ana Yáñez-Correa was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States with her mother at the age of twelve.  Since 2005, she has served as executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coaltion (TCJC), where she has successfully fostered relationships among a wide range of coalition partners, criminal justice practitioners, law enforcement groups, civil rights organizations, and other community members, allowing TCJC to promote policies that serve all facets of society . 

She served as chief of staff for a state representative during the 77th State Legislative Session (2001) and focused on criminal justice-related policies.  In 2002, Yáñez-Correa became policy director for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Texas, where she developed and advocated for LULAC's legislative platform during the 78th State Legislative Session - with a special emphasis on criminal justice - as well as during the three special sessions on redistricting, and a special session on school finance. 

Yáñez-Correa was formally honored by the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate for "working toward real solutions to the problems facing the Texas criminal justice system," and has been instrumental in educating key stakeholders about the importance of adopting policies on re-entry, prison diversion, and overall criminal justice efficiency.  She holds a master's degree in public administration and is currently working toward her PhD in policy and planning.

Ann Beeson is a distinguished social justice lawyer and a zealous advocate for the transformative power of culture. She is currently a senior fellow with the Open Society Foundations. Having worked as an executive in law and philanthropy for many years, she is dedicating the next phase of her career to pursuing two of her passions: expanding support for the role that culture plays in social change and building the progressive base in her home state of Texas. She recently moved back to Austin from New York City with her family.

Beeson was the executive director of U.S. Programs at the Open Society Foundations from 2007 to 2011. At the Foundations, she launched programs to strengthen government transparency and address the crisis in journalism, increase the capacity of Muslim, South Asian, and Arab organizations to advocate on their own behalf, and advance achievement for African-American men and boys. 

Ann was previously the national associate legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, where she worked from 1995-2007. She argued twice before the U.S. Supreme Court, litigated numerous cases around the country, and launched groundbreaking programs to stop the erosion of civil liberties in the name of national security and to expand the use of international human rights strategies in the areas of immigrants' rights, women's rights, and racial justice.

In June 2007, Beeson was named one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America by the National Law Journal. Ann was a law clerk for the Honorable Barefoot Sanders, then chief judge for the Northern District of Texas. She holds a law degree from Emory University and a master's degree in ethnomusicology from the University of Texas.

Leonard Noisette is the director of the Criminal Justice Fund for U.S. Programs at the Open Society Foundations. In this role, Noisette leads the foundation's efforts to reduce mass incarceration, end harsh punishment, and eliminate racial disparities and secure a fair and equitable system of justice.

Noisette has spent his entire professional career working in the criminal justice arena. He has worked with the New York City Legal Aid Society, and was a founding member and longtime executive director of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, an innovative public defender office renowned for its leadership in the development of community-based, full service representation of clients.  Through his position there, Noisette was involved in local, statewide and national efforts to address the many deficiencies in the U.S. criminal justice system. 

During the years of the Clinton Administration, Noisette participated in the Justice Department's work to improve indigent defense and defense-prosecution relations.  From 1999-2001, he was a member of the Executive Session on Public Defense, sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. 

Noisette has served on the boards of the New York State Defenders Association and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.  He is an adjunct professor at Fordham and Columbia University Law Schools, and is an active member of numerous bar associations.