Alternative Sentencing Key Stakeholder Summit 2016
Georgetown Law Center, Washington, D.C
March 7 – March 8, 2016
Summit Partners
The Aleph Institute
American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section
The American Conservative Union Foundation
The Association of Prosecuting Attorneys
Be the Evidence International
The Brennan Center for Justice
Center for American Progress
Charles Koch Foundation
The Coalition for Public Safety
Jason Flom
JustLeadershipUSA
Kushner Companies Charitable Foundation
Laura and John Arnold Foundation
National Alliance of Sentencing Advocates & Mitigation Specialists
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
National Association of Drug Court Professionals
National Association of Social Workers
National Legal Aid & Defender Association
National Organization of Forensic Social Work
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Prison Fellowship
R Street
Right on Crime
The Women’s Prison Association
Videos Day 1
Videos Day 2
Breakout Sessions
About the ASKS Summit
This is a high-level summit that aims to highlight the range of alternative sentencing policies and programs that are currently operating in the U.S. and abroad, and look more deeply at their effectiveness and functional requirements. It will include a wide range of perspectives on these issues.
The summit will bring together an unprecedented number of current and former leaders and senior government officials who have served on the front lines of day-to-day operations in the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, government, judiciary, defense, forensic social workers and psychologists, and nonprofits, as well as formerly incarcerated people, victims and advocacy groups.
Beyond education, ASKS will use plenary, breakout and interactive sessions to generate substantive dialogue between all delegates and identify key priorities for:
- Expanding the use of effective alternative sentencing programs while enhancing public safety, including the mechanisms of discretion (police, prosecutorial and judicial) and legislative reforms;
- Addressing public safety concerns over its broadened use and practical barriers to expansion and launching effective new programs in new jurisdictions, including operational limitations, program evaluation and public education;
- NGOs that can help to support broader application of effective alternative sentencing, eg. ubiquity of access and other measures and peripheral programs to help ensure successful reentry.
The number of high-level participants; the balance between reformers and healthy skeptics; the interactive session; and the focus on making connections and producing outcomes that include the development of a database of best practices and an informal network for future coordination and support.
Summit Speakers include:

- Hon. Jo Ann Ferdinand
Presiding Judge of Brooklyn Treatment Court - Senator Mike Lee
Member of the Judiciary Committee (Invited) - Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee
Member of the Judiciary Committee (Invited) - Hon. Sam Olens
Attorney General, State of Georgia - Hon. Jackie Lacey
District Attorney, Los Angeles County - Hon. Bernice Donald
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- Hon. John Gleeson
Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of NY (Invited) - Hon. Brooke Wells
Judge Magistrate of the United States District Court for the District of Utah - Anne Swern
Special Advisor to the Criminal Justice Council and Co-Chair of the ABA Committee on Re-Entry - Gary Mohr
Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction - John Wetzel
Secretetary of Corrections for Pennsylvania
Advisory Commitee
- Hon. Michael Boggs – Georgia State Court of Appeals Judge (2012-present); Co-Chair Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform (2011-present)
- Lanny Breuer – United States Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division (2009-2013)
- Paul Clement – United States Solicitor General (2004-2008), Distinguished Lecturer in Law at the Georgetown University Law Center (1998-present), Senior Fellow of the Law Center’s Supreme Court Institute
- Hon. Jo Ann Ferdinand – Presiding Judge of Brooklyn Treatment Court; Co-chair of the Strategic Planning Committee on Problem Solving Courts for the NYS Court System
- Hon. Nancy Gertner – Professor of Practice Harvard University (present); Senior Judge United States District Court (Massachusetts) 2011; Judge of the United States District Court (Massachusetts) 1994-2011
- Hon. John Gleeson – United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York (1994-present), Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law (1995- present)
- Jamie Gorelick – U.S. Deputy Attorney General (1994-1997)
- Martin F. Horn– Executive Director of the New York State Sentencing Commission, Distinguished Lecturer in Corrections at the John Jay College of City University of New York; Executive Director of the New York State Sentencing Commission (present), Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation, (2002-2009), Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction (2003-2009); Secretary of Corrections, Pennsylvania (1995-2000)
- Hon. Michael Mukasey – U.S. Attorney General (2007-2009), U.S. District Chief Judge, Southern District of New York (2000-2006)
- Sam Olens – Attorney General of Georgia (2011-present), Chairman of the Cobb County Commission
- Hon. Charles Renfrew – US Deputy Attorney General (1980 -1981) ,US District Judge, Northern district of California (1972-1980)
- Hon. Kenneth Starr – U.S. Solicitor General (1989-1993); U.S. Circuit Judge, District of Columbia Circuit (1993-1989)
- Larry Thompson – U.S. Deputy Attorney General (2001-2003) U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Georgia (1982-1986)
- Seth Waxman – U.S. Solicitor General (1997-2001)