On this week's Truth to Power, we tackle the issue of higher education's role in reintegrating the formerly incarcerated into society. On Monday, Sept. 29th, at the University of Louisville's Ekstrom Library, the UofL Liberal Studies program presented this event on "Reimagining Public Safety: Transforming Public Universities into Pathways of Reintegration and Repair" with philosopher and higher education leader Dr. Brady Heiner, the Founder and former Executive Director (2016-2022) of Project Rebound at Cal State Fullerton (https://www.fullerton.edu/rebound/). Dr. Heiner was also the Founding Executive Director and Executive Committee Chair of the CSU Project Rebound Consortium (2019-2023), which provided leadership and oversight for the statewide expansion of Project Rebound programs across eighteen CSU campuses.
In this public lecture, Dr. Heiner argued that public universities must be reimagined as civic infrastructures of care, accountability, and belonging. Drawing on his experience building and scaling programs that support thousands of formerly incarcerated students across 18 campuses in the California State University system, Heiner outlines how universities can repair social dislocation, reduce incarceration, and rebuild communities harmed by punitive and extractive systems.

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