Speakers
Bernie Warner
Scott Semple
John E. Wetzel
Rick Raemisch
Parallel Plenary
We will contemplate how correctional leaders, sheriffs, and other criminal justice system actors can play a role in reducing financial incentives to incarcerate. Drawing from the Brennan Center’s new report Perverse Incentives—which demonstrates how incarceration has become a commodified trade of people, increasingly driven by monetary gain over public safety - this conversation will highlight the multifaceted nature of the problem and identify potential solutions implemented by leaders in the correctional field.
Bernie Warner is a correctional consultant with over 40 years of criminal justice experience in both juvenile and adult corrections systems, at a federal, state and local level. He served as the Secretary of Corrections for the Washington State Department of Corrections, before retiring in 2015. Prior to that position, Mr. Warner held executive public sector positions in corrections in the states of Arizona and Florida, as well as California, where he served as Director of the state juvenile justice system. In each system, Secretary Warner has focused on comprehensive reform based on the evidence-based model of risk, needs and responsivity.
Mr. Warner is a former Board Member of ICPA and was a member of the US Delegation to the United Nations convening in Cape Town and Vienna to revise the international prison conditions standards known at the Mandela Rules.
