THE 2018 FRANK P. ZEIDLER MEMORIAL LECTURE

October 8th panel to discuss what happens to misdemeanor defendants in Milwaukee, with author of acclaimed study

A top flight panel including Milwaukee County District Atty. John Chisholm and Circuit Court Judge Carl Ashley, a former public defender, will comment on the situation of misdemeanor defendants in the legal system in Milwaukee, in response to Yale professor Issa Kohler-Hausman’s presentation on her acclaimed book “Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing.” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes hailed “Misdemeanorland” as “the must-read criminal justice book of 2018."

This free program on October 8 at 6:30pm in MSOE’s Todd Wehr Auditorium, 1047 N. Broadway, MKE 53202 is the 2018 Frank P. Zeidler Memorial lecture, named after Milwaukee’s last socialist mayor. It is sponsored by the Milwaukee Turners’ Confronting Mass Incarceration initiative, Boswell Book Company and the Zeidler Memorial Lecture Committee, and the public is invited.

A Milwaukee native, Kohler-Hausmann is a law professor Yale Law School with a secondary appointment in sociology. She is noted for her pioneering work on misdemeanor arrests and parole in New York.

Joining her on the panel will be the Honorable Carl Ashley, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge and a former assistant state public defender; Terri Strodthoff, founder and executive director of the Alma Center; and John T. Chisholm, Milwaukee County District Attorney. Defense attorney Craig Mastantuono, who helped obtain the recent release of Baron Walker after 22 years in prison and six parole denials as featured in the film “Milwaukee 53206,” will moderate.

For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/events/533453217113286/ , email cmi@milwaukeeturners.org, or call 414 276-9050..

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Feel free to contact me re any questions, and more detailed information is below,

Art Heitzer, artheitzer@gmail.com

414-273-1040, ex. 12; fax 414-273-4859

THE 2018 FRANK P. ZEIDLER MEMORIAL LECTURE : “Misdemeanorland” and Wisconsin's (In)Justice System: Easy in . . . Ever out?

Based on this highly acclaimed study of the experiences of misdemeanor defendants in New York City, an authoritative panel will apply this to the experience of people caught up in the Milwaukee County legal system based on misdemeanor (minor criminal) charges, including: Circuit Court Judge Carl Ashley; District Attorney John Chisholm; Terri Strodthoff, founder of the Alma Center; and defense attorney Craig Mastantouno (moderator), who recently assisted Baron Walker featured in the film “53206” to finally be released after 22 years in prison and six parole denials.

“Misdemeanorland is going to be the must-read criminal justice book of 2018.”– Chris Hayes of MSNBC

“Somewhere between stop-and-frisk and mass incarceration stands the misdemeanor court, where millions of Americans spend months waiting to answer for the low-level arrests that are now part of life in poor communities of color. Issa Kohler-Hausmann takes readers on a tour of Misdemeanorland, where justice is overwhelmed by massive caseloads and a grinding bureaucracy that takes little notice of the ordinary lives disrupted and sometimes upended by the powers of arrest and incarceration”--Bruce Western, Harvard University

“In this capacious book, criminal defense attorney, sociologist, and legal scholar Issa Kohler-Hausmann takes us inside New York City's lower criminal courts. She shows that, instead of deciding guilt and innocence and meting out appropriate sentences, misdemeanor courts largely manage people through record keeping and procedural hassle. As a result, people accused of minor crimes come to experience the justice system as arbitrary and dysfunctional. Novel and deeply researched, Misdemeanorland is a major contribution from a brilliant mind.”--Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of “Evicted”

Monday, October 8, 2018, 6:30pm - 8pm

MSOE’s Todd Wehr Auditorium, 1047 N. Broadway, MKE 53202