Tagged: women

Event: Civil Rights Symposium

Please join the Community Engagement Committee and the SBA at Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Pace University, for a full day Civil Rights Symposium on Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM in the Moot Court Room.

Criminal Justice Reform Panel 

  • Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. – Leader of the Westchester Coalition for Police Reform, and outspoken advocate for police reform within the greater Westchester region.
  • Eugene O’Donnell, J.D. – Professor and former NYPD officer. Previously served in the Queens and Brooklyn DA’s offices. Nationally recognized expert on policing issues, including use of force.
  • Chief Edward L. Stephens – Chief of Police for the Wolcott Police Department

Gender Discrimination in the Legal Practice Panel 

  • Professor Linda Fentiman, J.D. – Her most recent work has focused on women and addiction. In 2010 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York.
  • Anne Golden, J.D.  – Co-founder of Outten & Golden LLP, and co-chaired the firm’s discrimination and retaliation practice group.
  • Steven Felsenfeld, J.D. –Over 20 years of labor and employment law practice experience, advising and litigating multiple sexual harassment matters. He has created and conducted sexual harassment training, and created multiple employee handbooks. Certified senior professional in Human Resources.

Legal Observer Training

  • Held by the National Lawyers Guild – Susan Howard – Executive Director of the NLG-NYC Chapter

Implicit Bias Training

  • Held by Cornell L. Craig – Director of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Programs at Pace University

Westchester Orgnizations attending

  • WESPAC
  • Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence
  • Westchester Coalition for Police Reform

Attacking Prostitution Through Legal Reforms

POST WRITTEN BY: Jessica Mlinar (’16), J.D. Pace Law School

Northern Ireland passed a law on June 1, 2015 making “buying sex” a criminal activity. “If convicted, a person could be fined, sentenced to a maximum of one year’s imprisonment, or both. It remains an offense to keep or manage a brothel, but the new law removes criminality from soliciting in the street or public place.” The efforts stem from the idea that the correct way to minimize prostitution and other activities of that nature is to decrease the demand for them rather than punish the prostitute. Andrea Matolcsi, a spokeswoman for Equality Now, which is an international women’s rights group, wholeheartedly supports these efforts. In her opinion, “the legalization and decriminalization approach is not benefiting anyone.”

By the same token, other countries believe that the best approach is to legalize both the selling and buying of sex, largely due to the fear that passing laws turning purchasing sex into a criminal activity will cause more harm than good. Buying sex is not a novel idea; it has been around for decades and any controversial move may consequently drive the activity underground. Additionally, it is feared that  strict laws outlawing these activities will increase violence against women.One sex worker, Katie McGrew, explains a concern that this new law will lead to “situations where more women are competing for fewer clients [which] has dangerous consequences, including charging less, offering services they wouldn’t have previously, and agreeing to unsafe sex.”

Further, the migration of the newly criminalized activity presents another problem. The Immigrant Council of Ireland stated that there was no doubt that men would “make the short journey over the border in order to escape the law.” Some believe that this movement has already begun and is evidenced by the increase in advertisements in the over-the-border areas.

Nonetheless, other countries such as France and Irish Republic are considering enacting similar legislation that criminalizes the conduct of a client, while protecting women who are in the business of providing sex. “ The Nordic Model” (social and economic model of the Nordic countries which makes purchasing sex a criminal activity) has been adopted in Canadaand Sweden, as well as Norway. Only time will tell which one of the two mainstream routes proves to be more successful.

In my view, this worldwide issue does not have a single solution. It is clear that authorities themselves struggle to figure out which approach works the best. This is because no one model has proven to be one hundred percent effective. Nonetheless, I believe that adopting the Nordic model is the right way to go. Passing a law criminalizing this undesirable activity shows just how important it is for Northern Ireland to manage and limit prostitution, or rather criminalize purchasing sexual services. Decriminalization can often be perceived as giving up, rather than as a way of taking control and fighting harder.

Related Readings:

Correctional Association Report on Women in NYS Prisons

POST WRITTEN BY: Michael B. Mushlin, Professor of Law at Pace Law School, Scholar, and Renowned Expert on Prisoners’ Rights.

Following an exhaustive five year investigation the Correctional Association of New York has just released a ground- breaking study of the treatment of women in New York state prisons. The report entitled Reproductive Injustice: The State of Reproductive Health Care for Women in New York State Prisons tells a distressing tale about how female prisoners are denied basic rights essential for women including substandard gynecological care and insufficient supplies of feminine hygiene products and toilet paper. Chillingly, the report describes the horrible practice of shackling pregnant women during labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery, in apparent violation of the state’s 2009 law barring such practices, as well as throwing some of these women into solitary confinement, which could have serious consequences for the mental health of the mothers and for the health of their unborn children.

The Correctional Association of New York is a 170 year old non-governmental organization with the legal authority to visit New York’s prisons and report to the public and to the Legislature its findings. It is one of only two such organizations in the country. The author of this important study, Tamar Kraft-Stolar, director of the Correctional Association’s Women in Prison Project, will visit Pace Law School on April 1st to speak at a PILSO Sponsored forum open to the public and also to speak at the law school’s Prisoners’ Rights Course.  More details about this event will be forthcoming.