Bi-partisan discussions about prison reform go back and forth in both state and federal legislatures, but the United States still incarcerates more than two million people. In some jails and prisons, conditions remain deplorable. Funds are being cut in the federal system, compromising some rehabilitation efforts.

Instructor Judy Patterson Wenzel, author of Light from the Cage: 25 Years in a Prison Classroom, will lead a discussion for those 50 and over about who is incarcerated --and about the need for prison education. We will discuss America’s focus on punishment instead of rehabilitation and healing and how race has become such a potent reality in the criminal justice system.