Bios of participants in the first 360exchange

David Anderson (moderator) has reported on and written about criminal justice issues for the past 20 years. From 1977 to 1981, he worked as editor and publisher of Police Magazine and Corrections Magazine, which were supported by the Police Foundation and the Ford Foundation. From 1981 to 1993, he was an editorial writer for The New York Times specializing in criminal justice and other urban issues. For the past six years, he has worked as a freelance journalist, contributing articles to The New York Times Magazine and The American Prospect while researching and writing about criminal justice projects developed by non-profit agencies in New York City. His books include Crimes of Justice: Improving the Police, the Courts, the Prisons; Crime and the Politics of Hysteria: How the Willie Horton Story Changed American Justice; and most recently, Sensible Justice: Alternatives to Prison. In 1990, while at the New York Times, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

Luis Barrios, Ph.D., STM, is a full time assistant professor in the Puerto Rican/Latin American Studies Department, teaching courses in Ethnic Studies, Latino(a) Psychology, and Latinos(as) and the Criminal Justice System, at John John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY, in New York City. He is a Board Certified Forensic Examiner (BCFE). He is also an Episcopal Priest, in the South Bronx, New York City.

Ellen Halbert began her journey through the criminal justice system when she became a victim of a violent crime in 1986. Since that time, she has been very involved both in state and national boards and committees dealing with varied criminal justice issues. Presently, she is the Director of the Victim Witness Division at the Travis County District Attorney's Office in Austin, Texas. In addition, she edits a national newsletter, the Crime Victim's Report.

Carl Johnson Jr. is a 62 year-old Intervention & Prevention Specialist, working in the Human Services for over 45 years. As a native New Yorker who has been in prison himself, he has watched this city's criminal justice officials wantonly erode our citizen's constitutional protections, creating a "Legal Apartheid" system through its prison industry complexes. Mr. Johnson has developed treatment models for inmate groups at the Oxford Federal Prison and Wisconsin Substance Abuse Training Center and is currently working with regional & national organizations seeking the immediate cessation of constitutional abuses and apartheid practices in the American criminal justice system.

Bill Jones was elected as California's Secretary of State in 1994, and authored California's "Three Strikes and You're Out" law. Prior to his tenure in the State Assembly, Jones (a native California rancher) worked on his family-owned farm in Fresno. He has served on the board of directors for both the Fresno City and County Chambers of Commerce and was Chair of the Fresno County Republican Central Committee.

Mario Myers currently works as a Captain and acting associate warden at the Deuel Vocational Institution in California. He started as a correctional officer and was promoted through the ranks of correctional sergeant and lieutenant to his current position. During his 25 years in the field of corrections, he has been employed at San Quentin, the Soledad Training Facility and the Deuel Vocational Institution, where he has worked with offenders who have been sentenced to both minimum and maximum security.

Vincent Schiraldi
is the Executive Director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a private, nonprofit organization, which has offices in DC, Baltimore and San Francisco. CJCJ provides direct services to delinquent youth and adult parolees, as well as residential treatment for severely abused and neglected adolescents. In addition to his work with the Center, he was the chair of San Francisco's Juvenile Probation Commission, an advisor to California's Commission on the Status of African American Men, and a member of the Corrections Subcommittee of Mayor Anthony Williams' transition team.