2006-2007: ‘Removal, Incarceration, Reentry’
      Fellows to gather in L.A.
      at IJJ follow-up conference

After meeting with crime and punishment experts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, eight IJJ Fellows will gather in February at the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism to discuss their in-depth reporting projects.

The Criminal Justice Fellows will be joined by their editors or news directors Feb. 13-17 at the Los Angeles conference, “The Politics and Consequences of America’s Removal, Incarceration and Reentry Policies.”

In addition to the project discussions, conference sessions will explore such topics as prison overcrowding, prison and parole reform, and obstacles to implementing reentry programs.

Last fall, the Fellows participated in the first phase of the fellowship conference and other activities launching the new Center on the Media, Crime and Justice at City University of New York’s John Jay College. The new center is a partnership of IJJ, John Jay College, Criminal Justice Journalists and the new CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

The criminal justice fellowship conference is led by IJJ Senior Fellow Joe Domanick, an award-winning journalist and author whose latest book is “Cruel Justice: Three Strikes and the Politics of Crime in America’s Golden State.”

Three of the journalists selected as IJJ Criminal Justice Fellows work in newspapers, three in public radio and two in an online news operation.
The Fellows are:

• Dan Gunderson, bureau chief for Minnesota Public Radio.
• Gilman Halsted, reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio.
• Colleen Mensching, staff writer for the Redlands (Calif.) Daily Facts.
• Hilda Muñoz, staff writer for The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.
• Julia Reynolds, staff writer for the Monterey County (Calif.) Herald.
• Harriet Ryan, senior special correspondent for CourtTVnews.com in New York City.
• Frank Stoltze, reporter for KPCC 89.3 FM in Los Angeles.
• Harry Swartz-Turfle, senior producer for CourtTVnews.com in New York City.

During the New York conference sessions Nov. 27-Dec. 2, scholars and other experts discussed the effects of incarceration and prisoner reentry practices on communities, the politics of crime-and-punishment policies, the influence of tougher laws and the impact of U.S. incarceration policies on public health, families and society.

The Fellows also attended John Jay College’s Harry F. Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America, a program that is part of the new Center on the Media, Crime and Justice.

Created with Ford Foundation funding, the Institute for Justice and Journalism was established at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication in 2000 to strengthen journalism about issues involving justice and injustice.

IJJ is directed by Steve Montiel, a former reporter and president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Activities of the Center on the Media, Crime and Justice are supported by funding from the Open Society Institute, The Ford Foundation and Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation.