Dialogues on Detention: Jones Day – Washington, D.C.

• Laura Tuell Parcher, Partner-in-charge of Pro-Bono, Jones Day
• Eleanor Acer, Director, Refugee Protection Program, Human Rights First
• Hope and Nazry Muskatim (Waco, Texas)

9:45     Alternatives to Detention: Models, Best Practices, and Creating Real Change Pre-trial services are designed to ensure that individuals are jailed pending adjudication of their charges only when they pose a significant risk to public safety or to flight. Cities and counties across the United States are increasingly investing in effective pre-trial services in order to save the cost of unnecessarily jailing. Like pre-trial inmates, immigrants held in ICE detention are awaiting final outcomes on their cases, and the purpose of their detention is limited – to ensure that they appear for their hearings and comply with any final order. What lessons can be learned from efforts to transform U.S. criminal justice systems with pre-trial services? How do these new approaches impact costs and effectiveness? What are the challenges to transformation and how can they be overcome?

• Moderator: Alex Nowrasteh, Immigration Policy Analyst, Cato Institute
• Clifford T. Keenan, Director, Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia
• Timothy Murray, Executive Director, Pretrial Justice Institute
• Brittney Nystrom, Director for Policy, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
• Julie Myers Wood, President, Compliance, Federal Practice and Software Solutions, Guidepost Solutions LLC, ABA Commission on Immigration Advisory Committee member, and former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

11:15   A Conversation with Grover Norquist: Applying Lessons from Criminal Justice Reform to Immigration Detention

• Elisa Massimino, President & CEO, Human Rights First
• Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform

12:15    Lunchtime Discussion: Transforming U.S. Detention Policies in the Context of Immigration Reform

• Moderator: Ted Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
• Wade Henderson, President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
• Richard Land, President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention
• Julie Myers Wood, President, Compliance, Federal Practice and Software Solutions, Guidepost Solutions LLC, ABA Commission on Immigration Advisory Committee member, and former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

1:30     Remarks

• Introduction: Elisa Massimino, President & CEO, Human Rights First
• Jim Silkenat, President-Elect, American Bar Association

1:45     A First-Hand Perspective

• Introduction: Ruthie Epstein, Senior Associate, Human Rights First
• Abdulai Bah, media producer, held in U.S. immigration detention while seeking asylum

2:00     Conditions, Oversight, and Transforming Detention Systems Detainees and inmates held by ICE, local jails, state prisons, the U.S. Marshals, and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) all face a fundamental loss of liberty, whether the authority under which they are held is civil/administrative or criminal law, and whether they are awaiting hearings or have been convicted and sentenced. What conditions respect the dignity and rights of individuals in custody? What conditions ensure safety for detainees and inmates as well as officers and staff? What conditions are appropriate for “civil” immigration detention? What are effective approaches for transforming the conditions in detention systems? What internal accountability mechanisms and external oversight structures are most effective to ensure that detention facilities are safe and humane and provide appropriate medical and mental health care?

• Moderator: Samuel M. Witten, Counsel, Arnold & Porter LLC; former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration
• Steve J. Martin, former General Counsel, Texas prison system (Austin, Texas)
• Gary Mead, Executive Associate Director, Enforcement and Removal Operations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• Margo Schlanger, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School, former Officer of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, part-time Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security
• Dora Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Correction

3:45     Finding Effective Counsel from Jail: Models of Legal Representation The performance of counsel in both the immigration removal and criminal justice context can be critical for both the outcome of the proceedings and for the efficiency/functioning of the courts – and individuals who are detained or incarcerated face even greater barriers to obtaining effective legal counsel. Where are the gaps and what are the challenges to representation in immigration detention? Should elements of the public defender system be replicated for individuals in removal proceedings? What efforts could be expanded or developed to help address the problem?

• Moderator: Karen T. Grisez, Public Service Counsel, Fried Frank immediate past Chair of the ABA Commission on Immigration, current Advisory Committee member
• Ken Mayeaux, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Louisiana State University
• Brianna Mircheff, Deputy Federal Public Defender (Los Angeles)
• Juan Osuna, Director, Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice
• Jonathan Ryan, Executive Director, RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) (San Antonio, Texas)

  5:15     Closing Remarks

• Ruthie Epstein, Senior Associate, Human Rights First