Also speaking at the UD event was Corie Priest, a community engagement specialist with Delaware’s Department of Justice.
Drawing on his experience of serving time in prison for trafficking
marijuana, Priest said he works to help connect people in need with
community resources. Many are former inmates who are battling addiction
or mental health issues.
“In prison [after serving two years, he was released in 2009], I
found a lot of smart, funny, talented people,” Priest said, adding that
many just need help with the re-entry process. In his case, he said, he
made the experience of being incarcerated “purposeful” by taking classes
and expanding his awareness of the world.
“We need more people with these experiences to help reform the criminal justice system,” he said.
About I-Poems and re-entry
The event at UD, titled “Prison Re-entry: Conversation, Poetry and
Action,” was sponsored by the Honors College, Department of Sociology
and Criminal Justice and the Lattice Project, a registered student
organization.
Leon, who is deputy dean of the Honors College, is a founding member
of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender-based Violence at
UD. She is an interdisciplinary scholar in penology, law and society
whose research and teaching address sex crime and punishment, sex work
and the prison system; she teaches in a local women’s prison.
Student researchers working with Leon on the current I-Poem project
are Clara Mey, Fran Moreno and Molly Hill and Honors students Maggie
Buckridge, Jules Lowman, Michaela Herdoíza and Lawson Schultz. Previous
team members include Lena Abboud and Jordan Mullikin.
Article by Ann Manser; photos by Maria Errico
Published May 16, 2022