Back in the summer of 2017 I took a ride in the car and distributed 52 copies of my book In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform to various colleges and universities, big and small. Twenty-five copies went to northern New Jersey, and 27 went to Westchester County and New York City. I visited departments of criminal justice, law, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, psychology, social work, and a few libraries. This may explain some of the current growing public discussion on mental illness and criminal justice reform.
Of those 52 people I developed a relationship with one that has lasted over the years since 2013: The Prisoner Re-entry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City which is part of the City University of New York – CUNY for short. Ann Jacobs was Director, now Executive Director, of the Institute when I met her. It so happens that PRI just changed its name in April 2020 to the Institute for Justice and Opportunity. The reason for it is that “PRI” no longer accurately describes the scope of their work. From the April 27 email notification that I received:
“The words "justice" and "opportunity" are intentionally aspirational. They declare the purpose that animates all of our work — our direct service to over 1,000 people a year, our technical assistance and training programs, and our policy advocacy. We do not adopt the word "justice" lightly. We recognize that the criminal legal system often falls very short of providing justice for all. So, just as we are rebranding ourselves, we think it is time to rebrand justice. We put "justice" in our new name because we are working toward creating equitable access to authentic justice and opportunity.”
From the Project Overview to the report Mapping the City University of New York: The University's Commitment to Students Impacted by the Criminal Legal System released April 29, 2020: “The foundational goal of this project is to understand how CUNY can better support the success of students who have experienced contact with the criminal legal system.”
Nevertheless, I asked Ann how the mentally ill fit into their plans as the latter always seems to get the short end of the stick. She emailed back, “David: You asked a very thought-provoking question. The answer is partially the point you make in your last sentence [i.e., “or do you want to get this rolling and include them later?” - DG] --we started where we did to gain some visibility for our population and to develop relationships across campuses and with CUNY Central. Our plan is to build on that foundation in a number of directions, which will include addressing issues like mental health and homelessness. I appreciate your observation.”
CUNY takes pride in not asking about the incarceration history of its applicants. Maybe that is why we get along so well.