Justice Think Tank

The Colby College Justice Think Tank was founded in January 2023 with 12 scholars from across all 5 Maine prisons selected through a competitive application process. The National Alliance for Higher Education in Prison provided stipends for the Fellows to compensate them for their work. The Justice Think Tank Fellows conducted a research of their own design over the course of 2023, supported by Colby faculty and staff ‘walkalongs’ who helped with document access, interview arrangements, and general support. The selected topic for 2023 was on the restorative alternatives that Maine could develop to keep emerging adults out of the criminal legal system, that could reform the Maine Criminal Code to be more restorative and less punitive, and that could support a more restorative pathway to reentry from prison. Their research has resulted in two public presentations, one at the National Alliance for Higher Education in Prison in Atlanta and the second at the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College. The Think Tank will be producing white papers detailing their research and recommendations that will be posted here in January.

The Colby College Justice Think Tank is offering their first presentation, From the Inside Out: Systemic Political Transformation in Action, on Thursday November 9, at the National Conference on Higher Education in Prison! If you’re at the conference, please join them: 12:30 – 2 in the Grand Ballroom.