DEATH IN CUSTODY | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Sep 7, 2023 7:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Sep 7, 2023 7:00 pm
14th & V
The Impact of Mass Incarceration is a call home to victims of the criminal justice system who have been taken from their communities and brought back years later to an unrecognizable place without the proper reentry tools. More than 10 million arrests are made each year in the United States with an arrest made every three seconds. Within this statistic, fewer than 5 percent of these are for serious violent crimes (Vera Institute, 2019). Busboys and Poets strives to inform the public of why criminal justice reform is necessary as well as provide resources for those with a criminal record and allies in this fight to end mass incarceration. We also hope to provide victims the proper welcoming back home that they deserve.
DEATH IN CUSTODY | A BUSBOYS AND POETS BOOKS PRESENTATION
Deaths resulting from interactions with the US criminal legal system are a public health emergency, but the scope of this issue is intentionally ignored by the very systems that are supposed to be tracking these fatalities. We don't know how many people die in custody each year, whether in an encounter with police on the street, during transport, or while in jails, prisons, or detention centers. In order to make a real difference and address this human rights problem, researchers and policy makers need reliable data.
In Death in Custody, Roger A. Mitchell Jr., MD, and Jay D. Aronson, PhD, share the stories of individuals who died in custody and chronicle the efforts of activists and journalists to uncover the true scope of deaths in custody. From Ida B. Wells’s enumeration of extrajudicial lynchings more than a century ago to the Washington Post’s current effort to count police shootings, the work of journalists and independent groups has always been more reliable than the state's official reports. Through historical analysis, Mitchell and Aronson demonstrate how government at all levels has intentionally avoided reporting death-in-custody data.
Mitchell and Aronson outline a practical, achievable system for accurately recording and investigating these deaths. They argue for a straightforward public health solution: adding a simple checkbox to the US Standard Death Certificate that would create an objective way of recording whether a death occurred in custody. They also propose the development of national standards for investigating deaths in custody and the creation of independent regional and federal custodial death review panels. These tangible solutions would allow us to see the full scope of the problem and give us the chance to truly address it.
Mitchell and Aronson are joining us on the Busboys stage to help listeners understand the true scope of deaths in custody and learn applicable steps to address this social injustice. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and the authors will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 7:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of DEATH IN CUSTODY will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books.
Roger A. Mitchell Jr., MD, is a professor and chair of pathology at the Howard University College of Medicine. He is a forensic pathologist who previously served as the Chief Medical Examiner and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice of Washington, DC. He is the author of The Price of Freedom: A Son's Journey.
Jay D. Aronson, PhD, is the founder and director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is a professor of science, technology, and society in the Department of History. He is the author of Who Owns the Dead? The Science and Politics of Death at Ground Zero and Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Making of DNA Profiling.
Keith L. Alexander covers crime, specifically D.C. Superior Court cases, for The Washington Post. Alexander has covered dozens of crime stories, including that of Banita Jacks, a Washington woman charged with killing her four daughters, and the murder trial in the death of slain federal intern Chandra Levy. In 2016, Alexander was part of the team of Washington Post reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a year-long investigation into fatal police shootings called "Fatal Force." Before covering crime, Alexander covered the airline industry and business travel for The Post’s financial section, where he also wrote the weekly Business Class column. Alexander was a contributor to the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Virginia Tech campus shootings and a contributor to The Post’s 2006 series and subsequent book, “Being a Black Man.” He has appeared on numerous national and local TV and radio news programs, including the Today show, MSNBC, “CBS Morning News,” “NBC News With Brian Williams,” ESPN, PBS’s “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” and “BET News.” Before joining The Post in early 2001, Alexander also wrote for USA Today, Businessweek magazine and The Dayton Daily News.
On Twitter, IG @keithlalexander
Honors and Awards: Pulitzer Prize, 2016; Polk Awards, 2016; National Association of Black Journalists 4-time, NABJ award winner ; Livingston Awards finalist, 2002; Paul Robeson Award, Howard University School of Communications, 2017
Professional Affiliations: National Association of Black Journalists
