Please join us in welcoming Laurie Pherigo as the newest Reentry Advocacy Fellow! Laurie brings a wide variety of experiences to this position, both from her past employment and from her life itself. Laurie has worked in the administrative/customer service field most of her adult life in environments ranging from law firms to automotive shops. As […]
Read MoreWe are adjusting the timeline for the next Roundtable Advocacy Fellowship to begin this fall. This is a part-time, contracted position for persons with significant lived experience navigating the criminal justice system and reentering the community. The goals of the Fellowship program are two-fold: To enhance the capacity of the Roundtable to address the challenges […]
Read MoreThe Roundtable is pleased to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act and National Fair Housing Month by releasing two documents designed to provide instruction to landlords and property managers on how best to comply with fair housing law and guidelines when implementing criminal background screenings for housing applicants. This Guide focuses on […]
Read MoreThe Roundtable is now accepting applications for the Advocacy Fellowship Program. This is a part-time, contracted position for persons with lived experience navigating the criminal justice system and reentering the community. The Roundtable anticipates having two Fellowships in 2018. The goals of the Fellowship program are two-fold: (1) to enhance the capacity of the Roundtable […]
Read MoreWe are thrilled to share the Roundtable’s new strategic plan, adopted by the Planning Council in September after 4 months of hard work. The new strategic plan offers an updated mission and vision for the Roundtable, as well as clarity about the group’s focus on engaging diverse stakeholders impacted by reentry; convening dialogue and critical […]
Read More“Criminalizing mental illness is expensive [and] it is ineffective” Sally Hernandez, Travis County Sheriff People with mental illness are greatly overrepresented among the millions of individuals cycling through our criminal justice system. Travis County is no exception, with the number of jail inmates with mental illness trending steeply upward over the past ten years. […]
Read MoreAccording to the speaker, the United States and the majority of state governments have created a justice system that promotes incarceration to drive profit. Our society has made it profitable for corporations to incarcerate people, with prisoners calculated as growth commodities on corporate balance sheets. Shareholders are fiscally rewarded when private prison populations increase. […]
Read MoreLeonard Manzella’s CAGES January 19-29th While counseling mentally ill patients in a corrupt prison system, a psychologist is challenged to evaluate his own life by the very inmates he came to help. When Dr. Tom Morri returns to the prison he had previously been terminated from, he begins to see the system – and himself […]
Read MoreIn 2016, with the support of Shield-Ayres Foundation, the Roundtable launched an Advocacy Fellowship Program for formerly incarcerated persons with lived experience navigating the criminal justice system and reentering the community. The Fellowship program was such a success that we are expanding it to include an additional Fellowship position for 2017. The new Fellow will […]
Read MoreWhen someone has been convicted of a crime and has paid their debt to society, then they ought to have an effective second chance in life. The ability to find housing is an indispensable part of that second chance. HUD Secretary Julián Castro In 2015, the Austin/Travis County Reentry Roundtable undertook the task of assessing […]
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