The National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc. hosts its joint conference Feb 13-14, 2017  in cooperation with the National Association of African American Studies, National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies, the National Association of Native American Studies, the International Association of Asian American Studies and the Center for Islamic Studies.

The conference will be held at the Westin Dallas Park Central Hotel in Dallas, TX

This year’s theme: Abolishing all vestiges of racial, national origin or ethnicity, religious affiliation, or any other basis of unlawful discrimination and disparate treatment in the United States and achieving true equality in this nation in all public sectors of our lives.

Schedule of events are as follows:

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017

8:00 A.M.  – 5:00 P.M.                   General Registration

8.30 A.M.  –  9:00 A.M.                  WELCOME AND OPENING COMMENTS.

Dr. Winston Price, M.D.

President

Judge Artur L. Burnett, Sr., Retired

Vice-President of Administration and

and National Executive Director

9:00 A.M.- 10:30 A.M.                    PANEL: Meeting the Needs of African Americans for

Depression, Emotional Anxiety, Post Traumatic Disorder due to exposure to homicides, violence and sexual abuse, and post traumatic  slave-segregation disorder resulting in law enforcement confrontations resulting in alleged police brutality and deaths.

Moderator: Judge Arthur L. Burnett, Sr., Retired

Panelists:

Dr. William B. Lawson, M.D., Ph.D. DFAPA – Dell Medical School

The University of Texas at Austin, Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, Director of Community Health Programs and Professor, Huston – Tillotson University, and Editor of the Journal of the National Medical Association.

Dr. Ronald Beavers, Ph.D., Psychologists, Adjunct Professor, Charles R.. Drew School of Medicine and Sciences University, Los Angeles, California – Specialists in Women Afflicted with Substance Abuse and Mental Health issues in Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Donald R. Vereen, M.D., M.P.H., Director of Community Based      Public Health, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Previously Served as Director of the Substance Abuse Research Center, NIH, and served as Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in The White House.

10:30 A.M. –  10:45 A.M.                         Refreshment and Coffee Break

10:45 A.M. –  12:30 P.M.                          Should Our Youth Living in Poverty Neighborhoods Receive

Special Attention for Exposures to Homicide, Sexual Assaults and

Robberies and Should More School-Based Health Clinics    be      Established  and what Training Should Clinic Personnel Receive to Overcome Stigma of Youth to be Screened for Mental Health Issues and referred for Treatment?

Moderator:   Dr. Julius Debro, Ph.D., Criminologists, Former College and University Professor and Administrator.

Dr. Edwin Chapman, M.D.  and Addiction Medicine Expert.  Awarded the National Medicine Association the “Doctor of the Year” at its Annual Conference in August, 2016.

Dr. Michael Lindsey, Esq., Ph.D. – President of Houston-Fort Worth Chapter of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc., College and University Professor, and former Advisor to the Black Crusade for Children of the Children’s Defense Fund, and Faculty Member for American Psychologists Association and also an Attorney.

Talib I Karim, Esq., Former Chief Counsel and Legislative Director for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Special Counsel to the Mayor of the District of Columbia, an Honors Program staffer with the Federal Communications Commission, and is now the Managing Attorney of his own law firm and the Founder of a non-profit known as STEM4US to promote more minority youth going into the STEM fields.

Sheila L. Thorne, President & CEO. Multicultural Healthcare Marketing Group, LLC, expert in the relationships between depression, emotional anxiety and mental illness to the other broad range of adverse health conditions suffered by African Americans and the general population in the District of Columbia and throughout the Nation.

12:30 P,M. – 2:00 P.M.                            Lunch:     On your own.

2:00 P.M. –  3:30 P.M.                              Dealing with Minor Drug Offenses as Primarily a Medical and Public

Public Health Issue for those persons simply possessing drugs   because of a craving or compulsion or engaging in small incidental selling to get their own supply and increasing funding for Drug Courts and other Treatment Programs to be Really Effective in the Healthcare System.

Moderator;  Dr. Ura Jean Bailey, Ph.D., Professor, Howard University School of Human Development, and one of the Three (3) Principal Founders of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition.

Terrence Walton, Director of Operations, National Association of Drug Court Professionals  and former Drug Court official with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Major General John R. Hawkins, III, U.S. Army, Retired, Director of the U.S. Army Directorate of Human Resources when he retired in May 2009 and Assistant National Executive Director of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.

Susan James Andrews, President of the Thurgood Marshall Action Coalition, an organization of Black Drug Court professionals and consultants, working with Drug Courts and drug treatment programs, a Member Organization of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.

3:30 P.M. – 3:45 P. M.                           Refreshment and Coffee Break

3:45 P.M – 5:30 P.M.                    What Should be Our Response to Decriminalization or Legalization                                                                                                                              of Small Amounts of Marijuana for Recreational Usages by Adults?

What are the Potential Harms and Impact on our Youth?  Is the Harm

to our Youth a Sufficient Danger to Prohibit all persons from possession and legally using marijuana for recreational purposes?  Will the advocacy also lead to dangerous Use of Tobacco?  Are there

dangerous usage of tobacco to our youth also?

Moderator: Judge Arthur L. Burnett, Sr., Retired, Superior Court of the District of Columbia and Former United States Magistrate Judge  of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Kevin A. Sabet, former White House Senior Drug Policy Advisor; Founder of “Smart Approaches on Marijuana” (SAM).

Judge Veronica Morgan-Price, Retired Juvenile Court Judge, Co-chair of the Judges Black Community Crusade for Children, Children Defense Fund.

Sean Mixon, a School Teacher in the Dallas, Texas area with direct experience with impact on Children in School who have been

Using Marijuana.

John I.  Dixon, Retired Chief of Police, Petersburg, Virginia, Past President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

9:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M.                         What are the Prospects for Criminal Justice Reforms under the new

New Administration?  Can we expect a Reduction in Mandatory Sentences Required or the Giving Judges broader judicial discretion and in the length of sentences imposed?  Will the Usage of Private Prisons both at the Federal and the State Be Reduced, Prohibited or Eliminated?

Moderator:  Judge M. Lynn Sherrod. Retired, Alabama State Judge, Member of the Board, National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.

Jasmine Tyler, Esq., Senior Legislative Policy Counsel, Open Society Foundations Institute, Washington, D.C. Office.

Marc Mauer, Director, The Sentencing Project, Washington, D.C.

Nicole Austin-Hillary, the Brennan Center, New York University School of Law.

Janie Jeffers,  Professor, School of Social Work, Howard University and former U.S. Parole Commissioner.

11:00 A.M. –  11:15 A.M.                  Refreshment and Coffee Break

11:15 A.M. – 12:15 P.M.                   Should the Thirteenth Amendment be amended to delete the

The exception clause for slavery and involuntary solitude to exist in prisons for persons duly convicted of criminal offenses?   What Must be done about the School Discipline to Prison Pipeline for minority children living in Poverty?

Moderator and Panelist:   Judge Arthur L. Burnett, Sr., Retired, Superior Court of the District of Columbia and Civil Rights Legend,   General Chair, The Episcopal Church of the United States Organization on Procedural Justice.

Panelists:

Professor Myles V. Lynk, Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, University of Arizona, Former President of the District of Columbia Bar, former Chair of the Individual Rights Section of the American Bar Association and Leader in the  American Bar Association in many other officer positions.

Mr. Ronald Stubblefield,  Third Year Law Student, New York University School of Law, Chair of the Millennials Committee and Law School Leader of the Organization on Procedural Justice.

Ms. LaFonda Willis, a Former Education Expert for D.C. Public School System, Founder of non-profit, Institute for Equity and Excellence in Public Education.

12:15 A.M. –  2:00 P.M.                           Lunch with Speakers:

Professor Myles V. Lynk, Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law, former Chair of the Individual Rights Section of the American Bar Association, former President of the District of Columbia Bar, former Judicial Law Clerk to Judge Damon Keith, retired Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and holder of several high level positions in the Jimmy Carter Administration.

Retired Judge Arthur L. Burnett, Sr. – His Direct Civil Rights Involvement in Brown v. Board of Virginia in the Farmville – Prince Edward – Farmville School Cases,  his subsequent Involvement as Justice Department Attorney as a Special Assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy and through the Attorney General information furnished to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in monitoring the Civil Rights Movement, and his direct personal involvement  in Overseeing Police Operations in the District of Columbia following the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1968 until appointed to the Bench June 26, 1969 as First African American United States Magistrate Judge in the United States and his Subsequent Role in the United States Government and How that Relates to the Work he is Doing Now and to Black History Month.

2:00 P.M. – 3:15 P. M.                            What Changes Should be Made in Our Juvenile justice systems   at

both the Federal and State Levels and what important changes have      recently occurred and are now in progress? Should Prosecutors be  denied authority to direct file adult criminal charges even where the charge is a serious felony charge where the offender’s involvement may be on the fringe where charge as aiders and abettors in the offense.  Should ever child under 18 years of age have an evidentiary hearing before a Juvenile Judge with a determination of the quality of evidence against that child and his or her prior social life history is reviewed, before that Child is referred to Adult Court and may be the subject of prosecutorial abuse to coerce that child to testify against the main perpetrators and coerce that child to give embellished testimony which may not be true.  Designing Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Alternatives.

Moderator:  Rhonda Chargois, Esq., Prominent Texas Attorney in Capital Cases Defense Work, Houston, Texas.  Vice-Chair of the Houston, Texas Chapter of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.

Jody Kent Lavy, Esq., Director, Campaign for Youth Justice, Washington, D.C.

Marsha Levick. Esq. , Deputy Director and Senior Counsel, of the Juvenile Justice Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rodney Mitchell, Esq., Former Director of the Office of Returning Citizens for the Mayor of the District of Columbia, former Judicial Law Clerk to Superior Court Judge of the District of Columbia.

Leonard Anthony “Tony” Upson, Director,  The PROMISE PROGRAM” Capstone Institute, Howard University, Washington, D.C.  as Sub-Grant Recipient Under NIH Grant to Prevent Crime, Violence and Juvenile Delinquency in African American Communities.

3:15 P.M. – 5: P.M.                                 How to design and operate a “Youth Court” or “Teen Court” as a

Non-profit   private organization to establish a model juvenile diversion program that is effective in preventing recidivism, getting these youth to abstain from usage of illegal drugs and juvenile delinquent behavior and to graduate from High School and become responsible Adults in life.

Moderator:  Judge Arthur L. Burnett, Sr., President of Youth Court of                                                         the District of Columbia, Inc.

Ricardo Richardson, Interim Executive Director, Youth Court of                                                                                    District of Columbia, Inc.

Major General John R. Hawkins, Retired, U.S. Army, Member of the Board of Directors and President, Washington Healthcare, Justice, Education and Economic Empowerment Coalition, Inc. , the District of Columbia affiliated Chapter of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.

Robert V. Pitre, Entrepreneur and Radio Commentator, promoter of                            ranch  type living  for inner city youth to divert them from juvenile delinquency and his road map promotion of choices used in court programs with juveniles in the Dallas, Texas area.

Adjournment:                                            Closing Remarks

Judge Arthur L. Burnett, Sr., Retired       Convener