Jill Sharkey of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School took part in a panel as part of UCSB Reads 2016 at the Montecito Public Library on Wednesday, April 6. The panel discussed the issues raised by Bryan Stevenson’s book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of clients he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice. Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls Stevenson, without qualification, “America’s Nelson Mandela.” Also on the panel with Dr. Sharkey were Lizzie Rodriguez, Executive Director of Conflict Solutions Center, Steve DeLira, Deputy Chief Probation Officer for Santa Barbara County, and Pei-te Lien, Professor of Political Science at UCSB.
While Stevenson’s book focuses primarily on racial inequality on death row, Sharkey and the panel examined the ways such racial disparities exist not only in the justice system but also in other agencies, such as schools and mental health and child welfare systems. Sharkey presented some of her research as a faculty member in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, including a study designed to understand why students who are English Language Learners are much more likely than other students to be expelled from school even for the same offense. In that work Sharkey and her team will be interviewing school administrators, reviewing school policies, and analyzing student data to uncover reasons for this disproportionality and provide recommendations for alternatives to exclusionary discipline that are more effective and equitable for all students, engaging rather than pushing them out of school.
Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy was revelatory, and I work on these issues every day,” Sharkey says. “I have studied the history of education and the criminal justice system and immersed myself in literature on this topic. Yet, the detailed accounts of Stevenson’s clients and the unfathomable injustices they have experienced opened my eyes further and reignited my passion to work even harder to address needed changes in the criminal justice system. We are doing great work in Santa Barbara County and changes are possible and happening.”
In fact, Sharkey, along with co-PI Dr. Matt Quirk, works with DeLira on several Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparity (R.E.D.) grants from the state of California, part of a network of researchers and service providers attempting to improve and reform the juvenile justice system in Santa Barbara County.
This panel was one of numerous events leading up to Bryan Stevenson’s free public lecture at UCSB Campbell Hall on Monday, April 18 at 8 pm.
UCSB Reads, in its 10th year, brings the campus and Santa Barbara community together for a common reading experience. It is presented by the UCSB Library, Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, Arts & Lectures, Associated Students, the Santa Barbara Public Library, and additional campus and community partners.