Discussions on Downstate: "Prisons Cannot Protect Us"

Playwrights Horizons Footnote*

with panelists Dr. Emily Horowitz, Willie Trent, and Judith Levine

On Saturday, December 3, a panel discussion was held at Playwrights Horizons. Please note this event was recorded live, so listeners will experience some irregularity in audio quality in listening to this playback and has only been lightly edited for volume, not for content.

For a partial transcript of selected highlights from this discussion, as well as bios of each participant, please visit the event website here. If you require a full transcript for accessibility reasons, please contact us at [email protected]. To read more about the other events in this series and for program curator Sivan Battat's curatorial framing essay, please click here.

“Why should we care about those who have done terrible things to others? After all, society tells us, they made a choice to do something that caused their predicament. Yet the reality is that registries do absolutely nothing to deal with the scourge of sexual harm. They don’t make us safer. They’re merely a punitive tool of social control that subjects millions to cruelty and harm that then spreads to their families and communities.” -Dr. Emily Horowitz

Downstate asks: What do we do with these individuals in society? What might we do better? How do we heal from harm without repeating the cycle? This conversation with justice field experts and those affected by the registry engages with the challenging, visceral questions around the justice system brought up by Bruce Norris' gripping work.

*The title of this panel is derived from "Navigating Justice For Sexual Abuse Survivors, When You’re A Prison Abolitionist And A Survivor" by Joshua Briond