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Justice Lessons
JUSTICE LESSONS: System-Affected Scholars and the Future of Criminal Justice Transformation Book Launch & Panel Discussion
Date: May 8, 2025
Time: 4:30 - 7:30 pm
Place: MLG 110, University of Washington Tacoma
Details
Since the 1990s, the community of scholar-activists who have had contact with the criminal legal system has grown rapidly, solidifying into an international movement. Drawing on in-depth conversations with system-affected academics as well as his own experience with incarceration, Grant E. Tietjen traces the history, positive impacts, and future promise of this movement in his new book. By offering networks of support to system-affected people seeking higher education and using the perspectives afforded them by their lived experiences to push their disciplines forward, the movement effects reciprocal changes between the individual and the entire institution of higher education. Join us for a panel discussion with Dr. Tietjen and other scholars in the field.
Featuring:
- An Introduction by Chancellor Sheila Edwards Lange, Ph.D., UW Tacoma
- Grant Tietjen, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, SSWCJ, UW Tacoma
- Chris Beasley, Ph.D., Associate Professor, SIAS, UW Tacoma
- Danny Murillo, M.A., Associate Director, Underground Scholars Initiative, University of California, Berkeley
- Jennifer Ortiz, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Criminology & Justice Studies, The College of New Jersey
- Omari Amili, M.A., Director of Husky Post Prison Pathways, UW Tacoma
Sponsored by: Husky Post Prison Pathways, The School of Social Work and Criminal Justice, Office of the Chancellor, and the Violence Prevention and Transformation Research Collaborative.
Featured Speakers
Grant Tietjen
Grant E. Tietjen, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Criminal Justice Program at the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington – Tacoma (UWT). Dr. Tietjen earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL) in 2013. He has written, researched, and lectured on convict criminology, mass incarceration, class inequality, criminological theory, and pathways to correctional/postcorrectional education. He has published in multiple peer reviewed journals, book chapters, and academic encyclopedias; with multiple works in progress. Dr. Tietjen works closely with multiple System Affected Academic organizations, including Huskies Post Prison Pathways (HP3) at UWT and the Division Convict Criminology (DCC) in the American Society of Criminology (ASC). HP3 is a support program for formerly-incarcerated students. As part of UWT HP3, he is a member of the Steering Committee for this growing initiative.
Chris Beasley
Chris Beasley is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington Tacoma. He studies transitions from prison to college, which led to the development of the Husky Post-Prison pathways initiative, advises the Formerly Incarcerated Student Association, and builds post-prison community across the UW system. His scholarly work emphasizes the possibilities incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people imagine for ourselves, influences on these possibilities, and how they alter life courses. He has also spoken extensively about the role of people with lived expertise in the creation of social change and ways to realize this potential. He is invested in this scholarship because of his own transition from prisoner to social change agent and scholar. He began organizing and supporting formerly incarcerated college students as a graduate student in the 2010’s and co-founded the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network in 2014--an organization that now has over 1000 members across 44 states and 10 countries. In addition to his scholarship, he currently focuses on investing in student leaders while creating systems and structures in which they can realize their potential. He also serves as Board Director for both the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network and From Prison Cells to Ph.D. as well as an advisor for the EJP Prison to Gown initiative. He is a co-founder of the Rise Up Conference to Liberate Higher Education During and After Prison, which he continues to serve on the planning team for.
Danny Murillo
Danny Murillo is the Associate Director and Co-Founder of Berkeley Underground Scholars at UC Berkeley. He leads three programs that support leadership and professional development for incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and system-impacted students in California’s Community College. Danny has been featured in major media outlets including GQ Magazine, NPR, and 60 Minutes with Oprah, and is a recipient of the John W. Gardner Public Service Fellowship, Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship, and Global Freedom Fellowship.
Jennifer Ortiz
Jennifer M. Ortiz, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Criminology at The College of New Jersey who completed her doctorate at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her research explores structural violence within the criminal legal system with a focus on reentry post-incarceration and gang membership. Ortiz is editor of the recently published Critical & Intersectional Gang Studies and currently serves as Division Chair for the ASC Division of Convict Criminology and Book Review Editor for the Critical Criminology Journal.
Omari Amili
Omari Amili is a nationally recognized advocate for higher education in prison and post-prison education. After overcoming incarceration and the barriers that followed, Omari earned four college degrees and now serves as the Director of Husky Post Prison Pathways (HP3) at the University of Washington Tacoma. His memoir, Transforming Society’s Failure: From Felonies to College Degrees, has inspired countless individuals to persist through adversity and pursue academic success. Omari’s work focuses on dismantling stigma, expanding educational access for system-impacted people, and leading transformative, equity-centered initiatives that promote second chances and community healing.
