White Collar Week with Jeff Grant
A Podcast Serving the White Collar Justice Community

Limited 10-Episode Run: Summer 2020

It’s the Isolation that Destroys Us. The Solution is in Community.

Podcast Ep. 08: The Academics, with Guests: Cathryn Lavery, Jessica Henry, Jay Kennedy & Erin Harbinson

Today on the podcast we have four criminal justice professors at four different universities around the country. From the University of Minnesota, we have Erin Harbinson. From Montclair State, we have Jessica Henry. Joining us from Michigan State is Jay Kennedy. And from Pace University, we have my friend Cathryn Lavery.

Our guests are on the forefront of reimagining our criminal justice system at a critical time in our nation’s history – when a pandemic, social unrest, a Presidential election, and the media all call for rapid responses to very complicated issues. Issues that each have dedicated their life’s work to researching and teaching.

I was most impressed with the raw humanity in this episode, and how much all of our guests really care about people in the most difficult circumstances we could imagine.

So, coming up – The Academics. On White Collar Week. I hope you will join us. – Jeff

Listen on Apple Podcasts:

Listen on Spotify:

Listen on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/whitecollarweek/white-collar-week-ep-08-the-academics

Watch on YouTube:

 

______________________________

If you have a friend, family member, colleague or client with a white collar justice issue, please forward this email; they can reach us anytime – day or night! Our contact info: http://prisonist.org/contact-us.

______________________________

Guests on this Episode:

Dr. Jay P. Kennedy is an assistant professor jointly appointed to the School of Criminal Justice and the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection. He is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Michigan State University Graduate School, and Affiliated Faculty with the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and the Center for Business and Social Analytics. Dr. Kennedy is actively involved in research, education, and outreach efforts that focus on external partners including corporations, industry associations, and law enforcement agencies. His current research explores managerial and organizational responses to employee theft within small and medium enterprises, the incarceration and post-incarceration experiences of white-collar offenders, the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet, and the structure of occupational pharmaceutical counterfeiting schemes. Dr. Kennedy’s work has been published in a number of outlets, including American Behavioral Scientist, Criminal Justice Review, Journal of Crime and Justice, Journal of Financial Crime, Security Journal, and Victims and Offenders. He is currently serving as an elected board member of the American Society of Criminology’s Division of White-Collar and Corporate Crime and is an editorial board member of the Journal of White-Collar and Corporate Crime and the International Journal of Cybercrime Intelligence and Cybersecurity. Jay Kennedy can be reached at jpk@msu.edu.

 

Cathryn Lavery, MS, MA PhD, received her PhD in Criminal Justice from the Graduate Center/City University of New York with a specialization in Forensic Psychology and Ethics. Dr. Lavery is an active trainer, educator, researcher and consultant. She has trained on a variety of topics including: program curriculum and policy development, leadership training, sexual harassment, behavioral and mental health. She has coordinated and executed numerous conferences and seminars for multiple agencies in areas of sexual harassment, recruitment and retention and security threat assessment. She has worked within public educational settings, law enforcement and correctional agencies. Areas of expertise and consulting include: socio-political risk management, criminal justice and public administration issues, assessment and program evaluation, leadership development, sexual harassment and policy development, cultural sensitivity and intergenerational challenges within public and private agencies. After previously working at John Jay College/CUNY, Sacred Heart University and Iona College, where she was Chair and Graduate Coordinator for over  8 years, Dr. Cathryn has recently accepted the position of Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at Pace University. Cathryn Lavery can be reached at clavery@pace.edu.

 

Erin Harbinson is a Research Scholar for the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she works on research projects studying probation and parole. She received her PhD in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Harbinson’s dissertation examined the predictive validity of a correctional risk and needs assessment for people convicted of white-collar crimes. Prior to joining the Robina Institute, she worked as a policy analyst for the Council of State Governments Justice Center by providing technical assistance to states implementing justice reinvestment legislation and data driven policies. Dr. Harbinson has experience evaluating correctional programs and conducting training for correctional staff on risk assessment and other evidence-based practices in corrections. Her research interests include corrections policy, community supervision, parole decision-making, and understanding how corrections can reduce recidivism among people convicted of white-collar crimes and cybercrimes. Erin Harbinson can be reached at eharbins@uofminn.edu.

 

Jessica S. Henry is the author of SMOKE BUT NO FIRE: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes that Never Happened. She was a public defender for nearly ten years in New York City before joining the Department of Justice Studies at Montclair State University, where she is an associate professor. She is also a criminal justice expert, legal commentator, and blogger, with a particular focus on wrongful convictions, police corruption and misconduct, mass incarceration, and the death penalty. Jessica Henry can be reached a jessicahenryjustice.com. Jessica’s new book, Smoke But No Fire: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes that Never Happened, can be purchased on Amazon.com.

______________________

You can find all episodes of our podcast “White Collar Week with Jeff Grant” on our website prisonist.org, our Facebook page, Podbean, YouTube (video), SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Information About our White Collar Support Group…

____________________________

Louis Reed/Babz Rawls Ivy PSA:

Some very kind words from my dear friends Louis L. Reed and Babz Rawls Ivy in this brief PSA. Thank you Louis and Babz! – Jeff

______________________________

______________________________

Welcome to White Collar Week with Jeff Grant, a podcast serving the white collar justice community. It’s the isolation that destroys us. The solution is in community.

If you are interested in this podcast, then you are probably already a member of the white collar justice community – even if you don’t quite know it yet.  Our community is certainly made up of people being prosecuted, or who have already been prosecuted, for white collar crimes. But it is also made up of the spouses, children and families of those prosecuted for white collar crimes – these are the first victims of white collar crime. And the community also consists of the other victims, both direct and indirect, and those in the wider white collar ecosystem like friends, colleagues, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, law enforcement, academics, researchers. Investigators, mitigation experts, corrections officers, reentry professionals, mental health care professionals, drug and alcohol counselors, – and ministers, chaplains and advocates for criminal and social justice reform. The list goes on and on…

In this very eventful summer 2020, our mission is to introduce you to other members of the white collar justice community, to hear their very personal stories, and hopefully gain a broader perspective of what this is really all about. Maybe this will inspire some deeper thoughts and introspection? Maybe it will inspire some empathy and compassion for people you might otherwise resent or dismiss? And maybe it will help lift us all out of our own isolation and into community, so we can learn to live again in the sunshine of the spirit.

Along the way, I’ll share with you some of the things I’ve learned in my own journey from successful lawyer, to prescription opioid addict, white collar crime, suicide attempt, disbarment, destruction of my marriage, and the almost 14 months I served in a Federal prison. And also my recovery, love story I share with my wife Lynn Springer, after prison earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, pastoring in an inner city church in Bridgeport CT, and then co-founding with Lynn in Greenwich CT, Progressive Prison Ministries, the world’s first ministry serving the white collar justice community. It’s been quite a ride, but I firmly believe that the best is yet to come.

So I invite you to come along with me as we experience something new, and bold, and different this summer – a podcast that serves the entire white collar justice community. I hope you will join me.

Blessings, לשלום

Jeff

Rev. Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div. (he, him, his) 
Co-founder, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., Greenwich CT & Nationwide
Co-host, The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast
Host, White Collar Week
Mailing: P.O. Box 1, Woodbury, CT 06798
Website: prisonist.org
Email: jgrant@prisonist.org
Office: 203-405-6249
Donations (501c3): http://bit.ly/donate35T9kMZ
Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jeff-grant-woodbury-ct/731344
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revjeffgrant
not a prison coach, not a prison consultant

_________________________

Thank you for listening to White Collar Week.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast if you loved it – it helps others suffering in silence find us if they need us!

_________________________

Follow White Collar Week on Social:

Web: https://prisonist.org/white-collar-week

Facebook: https://facebook.com/whitecollarweek

Twitter: https://twitter.com/whitecollarweek

Instagram: https://instagram.com/whitecollarweek

LinkedIn: https://linkedin/whitecollarweek

_________________________

Follow Jeff Grant on Social:

Web: https://prisonist.org

Facebook: https://Facebook.com/revjeffgrant

Twitter: https://twitter.com/revjeffgrant

Instagram: https://instagram.com/revjeffgrant

LinkedIn: https://linkedin/revjeffgrant

_________________________

Want to be a guest on the Show? Have a connection you’d like to make?

Email us! info@prisonist.org

_________________________

Credits:

Host: Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div.

Audio Engineering: George Antonios: https://georgeantonios.com

Video Engineering: Todd Nixon

Art Direction: Greyskye Marketing, LLC: https://greyskye.com

_________________________

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is the world’s first ministry supporting the white collar justice community. Founded by husband and wife, Jeff Grant and Lynn Springer in Greenwich CT in 2012, we incorporated as a nonprofit in Connecticut in 2014, and received 501(c)(3) status in 2015.  Jeff has over three decades of experience in crisis management, business, law (former), reentry, recovery (clean & sober 17+ years), and executive and religious leadership. As Jeff was incarcerated for a white-collar crime he committed in 2001, he and Lynn have a first-hand perspective on the trials and tribulations that white-collar families have to endure as they navigate the criminal justice system and life beyond.

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is nonsectarian, serving those of all faiths, or no faith whatsoever. To date we have helped over three hundred fifty (350) individuals, and their families, to accept responsibility for their actions and to acknowledge the pain they have caused to others.  In accordance with our commitment to restorative justice, we counsel our members to make amends as a first step in changing their lives and moving towards a new spiritual way of living centered on hope, care, compassion, tolerance, empathy and service to others. Our team has grown to over ten people, most with advanced degrees, all of whom are currently volunteering their time and resources.

Progressive Prison Ministries’ goal is to provide spiritual solutions and emotional support to those who are feeling alone, isolated, and hopeless. We have found that these individuals are suffering from a void but are stuck, and don’t know what to do about it. Our objective is to help them find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what may seem like insurmountable problems. Many of those we counsel are in a place where their previous lives have come to an end due to their transgressions. In many cases their legal problems have led to divorce, estrangement from their children, families, friends and support communities, and loss of a career. The toll this takes on individuals and families is emotionally devastating. White-collar crimes are often precipitated by other issues in the offenders’ lives such as alcohol or drug abuse, and/or a physical or mental illness that lead to financial issues that overwhelms their ability to be present for themselves and their families and cause poor decision making. We recognize that life often presents us with such circumstances, sometimes which lead us to make mistakes in violation of the law.

All conversations and communications between our ordained ministry, and licensed clinical relationships, and those we serve fall under state privilege laws. This is one reason that attorneys often allow and encourage their clients to maintain relationships with us while in active prosecution or litigation situations.

If you, a friend, family member, colleague or client are suffering from a white collar criminal justice issue or are experiencing some other traumatic or life-altering event, and would like to find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what seems like insurmountable problems, please contact us to schedule an initial call or appointment.

Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.