NPEP Director Jennifer Lackey opened the event, which was co-sponsored by One Book One Northwestern.
“This roundtable series aims to open space for conversation on these critical topics and to bridge research, legal work, policy and community activism in addressing them,” Lackey said.
Maya Schenwar, editor in chief of Truthout, a publication focused on social justice issues, opened her talk by discussing the one-year anniversary of the death of her sister, who had been incarcerated.
Her sister, Keeley, was on probation when she died of an overdose. She had been forced into an abstinence-based drug program, which left her vulnerable, Schenwar said. Keeley died while hiding from the police, Schenwar said, because “that’s what you do so often when you are a criminalized drug user.”