Roundtable: From Outlaw to Citizen, from Desistance to Peacemaking: The Role of Lived Experience in Social Transformation

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

In his early twenties, the gang leader William 'Juneboy' Outlaw III was sentenced to prison for homicide and armed assault, a sentence he spent at some of the most notorious federal prisons in the country. After his release, Outlaw became an award-winning community advocate, leading a team of former felons who negotiate truces between gangs on the streets he once operated a drugs empire. His story has recently been chronicled by the author Charles Barber in the book Citizen Outlaw. In this roundtable, Outlaw and Barber will discuss this remarkable story and respondents will discuss the relevance of lived experience leadership to social transformation of urban communities.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Shadd Maruna, University of Queens Belfast / ASC President

Discussants

• William Outlaw, Connecticut Violence Interruption Project

• Charles Barber, Wesleyan University

• Kieran P. McEvoy, Queens University Belfast

• Peter Simonsson, Temple University

• Paula Harriott, Prison Reform Trust