This academic year, we plan to highlight guest speakers' personal experiences working and engaging in activism in justice-related causes. Justice takes many forms and exists in many arenas, both in and outside of the formal criminal justice system. This program within the Criminal Justice Series explores traditional and alternative forms of justice, using personal experiences to illuminate how efforts to improve justice are carried out.

We are pleased to announce that Paul Wright, the Founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center will be our next guest speaker for our Activism in Action event on Tuesday, February 22nd! Paul also edits Prison Legal News, the longest-running independent prisoner rights publication in US history. He spent 17 years in prison and during that time and since has successfully litigated many censorship and public records cases against prisons in the United States.

The Human Rights Defense Center publishes Prison Legal News monthly, distributes approximately 50 works related to criminal justice and the law, and is active in prisoner rights litigation. The Center has organized a number of projects, including campaigns to reduce the cost of phone calls made by prisoners to their families and friends and to stop the financial exploitation of inmates. It has efforts related to tracking news on the private prison industry and to exploring the intersections between environmental justice and criminal justice. The Human Rights Defense Center began as a single newsletter with all volunteers and has evolved into a national 501[c][3] organization with 18 employees, four of whom are attorneys. The Center headquarters are in Florida, and there are offices in Nashville, Seattle, and Washington D.C. We hope that you will join us to hear Paul speak about the important work of the Human Rights Defense Center!