Ben Jealous, former President and CEO of the NAACP, appeared at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law on Friday evening as a part of a forum titled "The Corporatization of Criminal Justice" which featured discussion among activists and legal scholars about the prison system in the United States.


Jealous spent 20 years in civil rights activism, and discussed the current state of corporatization in the criminal justice system, and the fall out that has occurred in minority communities.


The conference sought to address "a broad range of questions, including how the profit-motive of private prison corporations influences the length and severity of sentences and availability of parole, how private prisons and mass incarceration disproportionately impact communities of color, and how private prisons contribute to social inequality and oppression."


In addition to Jealous, several other activists and professors took part in the event, including John Dacey of Abolish Private Prisons, Donald Tibbs of Drexel University, Alex Friedmann of the Human Rights Defense Center and Paul Bender of the O'Connor College of Law.


Jealous is considered a potential candidate for the Maryland gubernatorial election in 2018 in the Democratic primary. The incumbent is Republican Governor Larry Hogan.

You can find photos from the event here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskSY4HYf