Great Falls Forum with Joseph Jackson

The 2018-2019 season of the Great Falls Forum kicks off on Thursday, September 20th, featuring Joseph Jackson, Coordinator of Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition and Program Coordinator with Maine Inside Out, with a talk entitled “Prison Reform in Maine, and the Need for Those with Lived Experience to Lead the Discussion.” The program will take place from 12 noon to 1 PM in Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library.

Joseph Jackson is a returning citizen, having spent two decades as a prisoner within the Maine Department of Corrections. As a prisoner, Mr. Jackson completed Literacy Volunteer Training, Peer Education, Work-Ready Alternatives to Violence, One, Two, and Three. He is a founder of the Maine State Prison chapter of the NAACP and served on its executive committee in several capacities from 2003-2012. While incarcerated, Mr. Jackson earned his Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees with summa cum laude honors from the University of Maine in Augusta. In 2012, he was selected as a member of Who’s Who among students in colleges and universities. Mr. Jackson is the first person in Maine to be selected to a graduate program while still a prisoner. He recently earned his Master’s Degree from the University of Southern Maine and was one of four commencement speakers for his class.

Mr. Jackson was published in the online news journal Village Soup, in 2003 and 2004. His poetry was featured in Portland and Bangor’s NAACP Martin Luther King Breakfast catalogs from 2005-2012. Mr. Jackson’s poem “Brighter Days” was published in The UMA Scholar in 2012, his poetry was featured in the Bangor Daily News in 2014, and in 2016, he released his master’s thesis, “Black In Maine.”

In his Great Falls Forum presentation, Joseph will discuss the current state of Maine’s system of punishment as state-sanctioned trauma for adults and youth. He proposes that the Department of Corrections has failed in its mission to protect the public by failing to prepare prisoners for responsible reentry.

The Great Falls Forum is a monthly, brown-bag speaker series featuring statewide and regional leaders in public policy, business, academia and the arts. The programs are free, open to all and no reservations are required. Coffee, tea and bottled water are provided for a donation at the event. The Forum is a co-sponsorship of the Sun Journal, Bates College, Maple Way Dental Care, and LPL.

For more information, contact LPL Adult & Teen Services at (207) 513-3135 or LPLReference@Gmail.com