Norton Roundtable to Feature Personal Testimony from Three Federal and Two D.C. Code Returning Citizens, Tuesday

WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the historic early release of the first 6,000 low-level federal inmates nationwide this month, the office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that three federal returning citizens and two D.C. Code returning citizens will testify at a roundtable chaired by Norton on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, at the Old City Council Chambers (441 Judiciary Sq. NW), from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Both federal and D.C. code offenders are housed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The witnesses will testify before a panel of federal officials to examine ways to ensure assistance for returning citizens and their resistance to returning to prison. Also testifying will be Jeffrey Varone, Director and CEO of Hope Village, a halfway house in Southeast D.C., and Dr. Edith Westfall, Dean of Workforce Development & Lifelong Learning at the University of the District of Columbia, who will testify about services they provide to help returning citizens transition back to society.

At the roundtable, Norton will chair a panel of the federal officials with responsibility for D.C. returning citizens: BOP Assistant Director of Reentry Services Linda McGrew, U.S. Probation Office Deputy Chief Shari McCoy, and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA) Director Nancy Ware.

The roundtable panel will hear directly from citizens returning to D.C., who will share their personal experiences, including what services and programs are available and effective, what improvements they recommend, and what they are doing to reduce the possibility of recidivism. The returning citizens have served sentences ranging from one month to 33 years, and most have served multiple sentences. Norton said the roundtable will seek remedies to reduce recidivism, particularly in light of the recent early mass release of federal inmates as a result of the reduction of sentences by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, as affirmed by federal judges, for certain federal drug offenders, including 45 from the District.

"Each returning citizen has a unique story that residents and officials need to hear in the ongoing national bipartisan discussion about the effects of mass incarceration," Norton said. "Our roundtable will allow federal officials and D.C. residents a rare opportunity to hear directly from federal and D.C. code citizens very recently returned from prison. We are looking for the combination of assistance from federal and D.C. government agencies, service providers, D.C. residents, and responsibility by returning citizens themselves that can help our citizens remain returned—permanently."