The Health Disparities Roundtable is an annual event that aims to explore pressing issues in health and racial equity research, policy, and practice. Local and national speakers are invited to share their ideas in addressing strategies for prevention and improvement. 

Incarceration: A Public Health Issue

April 6th, 2018

Currently 2.3 million adults and 48,000 youth incarcerated in the US. A disproportionate share of those individuals are African Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic minority groups. Our keynote speakers identified strategies to prevent individuals from entering the juvenile and criminal justice systems and examined what can be done to reduce the impact of incarceration on the health of family members.

Link to view the recording of the 2018 Health Disparities Round Table

Key Note Speakers

Shay Bilchik, J.D., is the Director and Founder of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. The center’s purpose is to focus the nation’s public cross-systems agency leaders on the key components of a strong juvenile justice reform agenda.

Lee Buckley, M.A., is the Chief Operating Officer at Ujamaa PLACE, a local organization whose focus is to empower African-American men through various wrap around programs. They support African-American young men in navigating inequality, poverty, and the criminal justice system. Prior to Ujamaa Place, Lee was the Community Reentry Coordinator at the State of Minnesota Department of Corrections and served as the Special Advisor on Faith and Community Service Initiatives under Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Nekima Levy-Pounds, J.D., is a renowned civil rights attorney, activist, and racial justice expert on public policy and the juvenile and criminal justice systems. She formerly served as a law professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School for thirteen years, as president of the Minneapolis NAACP, and as an adviser to Black Lives Matter Minneapolis.

Moderated by:
Rebecca J. Shlafer, Ph.D., MPH

Sponsored By

The Health Disparities Roundtable was made possible by funding from:

The School of Public Health: Dean’s Office; Health Equity Work Group; Midwest Center for Lifelong Learning in Public Health (MCLPH); Center for Leadership Education in Maternal and Child Public Health; Program in Health Disparities Research, Medical School; The Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Law School; Department of Sociology; and the Region V Public Health Training Center.