Juneteenth Week Panel: Nothing to Lose but Our Chains: Addressing Mass Incarceration and Wrongful Convictions in the Black Community

Speakers

• Noelle Faye
• Richard McLemore II
• Anthony Niedwiecki, JD

  Moderator

• Deanna Burns, MBA, MM Associate Director of Intellectual Property Institute & Patent Law-Mitchell Hamline School of Law

1 Standard CLE Credit Pending: Panel speakers will share diverse perspectives and experiences from working within and / or from being impacted by the carceral system in Minnesota. Speakers will discuss more broadly the function of the carceral system, how it disproportionately impacts Black communities, and what is currently being done to address and mitigate harm implicated by the system at large. Additionally, Mitchell Hamline President and Dean, Anthony Niedwiecki, will share more about the law school’s latest efforts to expand access to legal education to those currently incarcerated. 

Noelle Faye

Ms. Noelle Faye is a 34-year-old justice-impacted Navy veteran from Detroit, Michigan. Born while her mother was incarcerated, she began her life in prison and was placed into Detroit's foster care system. After a fatal car accident in 2016, Ms. Faye served three years at MCF Shakopee, and once released, an alarming lack of trauma-informed care from the community became the foundation for her future mission and vision in philanthropy. As an emerging voice in the community, her mission has become one of collaborating, creating partnerships, and speaking out about the struggle to find basic care and stability of justice-impacted women of color. As a community advocate, she has secured and successfully completed a Legal Fellowship at Mitchell Hamline's School of Law and a writing Fellowship with Brennan Center for Justice, sharing her experiences of various institutional settings such as the military, behavioral health institutions, and prisons...and leading published work within the framework of reducing recidivism in all institutional settings. She is currently involved in partnerships within the community for various projects, including Voices of Racial Justice, Until We Are All Free, Wonderlust Productions, and Voices of Hope. Her lived experience provides opportunities for training and education about the difficulties of navigating the justice system as a single black mother with a history of mental health instability, housing insecurity, and she bravely shares about what healthy support looks like from within the community, who is involved in the care and protection of our most vulnerable citizens.

Richard McLemore II

Richard is the Executive Director for 1 Day at a Time, a non-profit which helps families secure and maintain equitable and affordable housing in Minnesota. He is also a master trainer for fellow Mental Health practitioners at various State and County Correctional Institutions throughout the nation, facilitating balanced and equitable approaches in dealing with their population of offenders. Richard formerly served as the Director of Housing & Employment at Ujamaa Place; an organization focused on supporting young black men who have been involved in the criminal justice system. He serves on multiple executive boards, including the historic Dispute Resolution Center, located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Richard is a Summa Cum Laude graduate from Metropolitan State University, with a Focus in Psychology and a minor in Computer Science. And he spends his leisure time jumping out of perfectly good airplanes at 13,000 feet.

REGISTER HERE