Michael Jacobson is the Director of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Institute for State and Local Governance and a Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of CUNY. Prior to joining CUNY in May, he was the Director of the Vera Institute of Justice for almost 9 years. He is the author of Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration (New York University Press 2005). A Ph.D. in sociology, he has an ongoing academic career as well as over twenty five years of government service. From 1998 to 2005 he was a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was the New York City Correction Commissioner from 1995 to 1998. From 1992 to 1996, he was New York City’s Probation Commissioner. He also worked in the New York City Office of Management and Budget from 1984 to 1992 where he was the Deputy Budget Director. In October 2010 he was appointed to the New York State Permanent Sentencing Commission by Chief Judge of New York State, Jonathan Lippmann.

Dr. Delores Jones-Brown is a Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. She is the founding director of the John Jay College Center on Race, Crime and Justice and its current faculty research fellow. Her areas of research and scholarship include: race, crime and the administration of justice, juvenile justice, and the legal socialization of adolescent males. Her book, Race, Crime and Punishment, won a New York Public Library ‘best book’ award. In addition to multiple articles, book chapters and legal commentaries, she is the co-editor of two additional books: The System in Black and White: Exploring the Connections between Race, Crime and Justice and Policing and Minority Communities: Bridging the Gap. Before joining the John Jay faculty in 1993, she taught at Temple University and served as an assistant prosecutor in Monmouth County, New Jersey. She earned both her law degree and doctorate in criminal justice from Rutgers University.

Anne J. Swern, First Assistant District Attorney in Kings County (Brooklyn), has served as a public prosecutor for 33 years. She supervises more than one thousand attorneys and support staff members in their prosecutorial and administrative functions handling over 100,000 cases per year. She is the senior executive for alternative sentencing policy and programming dedicated to promoting justice and safety for the 2.5 million residents and visitors, businesses, and institutions of Kings County. Ms. Swern is a member of the Board of Directors of the National District Attorney’s Association; the Advisory Board for the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and a vice chair of the Criminal Justice Council of the American Bar Association. She is also a member of the Judiciary Committee of the Brooklyn Bar Association. She served on numerous Task Forces and Commissions dedicated to improving the criminal justice system. She has been selected for her achievements by diverse institutions: The Education and Assistance Corporation; The Kings County Criminal Bar Association; The Community Newspapers Group; The Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association; The Associations of Treatment Providers and Professionals. Ms. Swern has received the prestigious Thomas E. Dewey Medal from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; the Family Justice Leadership Award from the Vera Institute and the Robert M. Morgenthau Award from the New York State District Attorneys Association. She is an adjunct associate professor at Brooklyn Law School and a recipient of its Alumni of the Year award. She has guest lectured at the New York State Judicial Institute, New York University Law School, Fordham University Law School, University of Wisconsin Law School, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Medgar Evers College, the Florence, Italy Bar Association and other institutions.