John Jay College Conference to Explore “An Imprisoned Mind: the Mentally Ill and the Criminal Justice System”

New York, NY, April 10, 2015 – Stephen and Renetta Torres, who lost their son Christopher in a police shooting; and Dr. Jim DeGroot, medical director of the Georgia Department of Corrections, head the list of speakers at a workshop for journalists and editors on the mentally ill in the criminal justice system at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City on Monday, May 4 and Tuesday, May 5, 2015.

They will be joined by some of the nation’s foremost experts from the corrections, academic and advocacy communities, including:  Anne MacLeod, Program Director, Houston Crisis Intervention; Robert Trestman, Executive Director, University of Connecticut Health Center Correctional Care; Jeremy Shocket, Chief, Trial Bureau, Bronx District Attorney; and Laura Usher, National Alliance on Mental Illness.   

Twenty- five U.S. journalists from print, online and broadcast outlets have also been awarded Reporting Fellowships to attend the workshops and to participate in a year-long reporting project around this topic. The unique health and criminal justice journalism fellowships, now in their second year, are organized by John Jay’s Center on Media, Crime and Justice (CMCJ), and supported by the Langeloth Foundation. The Fellows were selected from a wide pool of applicants based on editors’ recommendations, and will receive financial assistance or stipends that enable them to attend the conference and related events.

“Mental health continues to be an under-explored topic in coverage of the nation’s corrections crisis,” said Stephen Handelman, director of the CMCJ, which organizes the symposium. “Our first year’s program contributed to groundbreaking journalism around the country, and we’re looking forward to the work this year’s class of Fellows will produce.” 

The Fellows’ proposed projects range from exploring alternatives to treating the mentally ill behind bars to investigating how police and courts interact with individuals in their local communities. The Langeloth Foundation did not participate in the fellow selection process. A full list of the journalism Fellows is below.

The 2015 Fellows are listed below. 

2015 John Jay/Langeloth Reporting Fellows 

(in Alphabetical Order)