Our very welcome and special guest today is Prof. Rebecca Ginsburg. She is the Director of the Education Justice Project, an initiative of the University of Illinois. Our questions for her will include the following.

1. Can you tell us about the Education Justice Project? What does it offer?

2. What do you see as the foundation of justice?

3. There is a longstanding debate about the purpose of criminal punishment Is it retributive, as Kant thought, or a matter of deterrence, as J.S. Mill thought? Or is it perhaps therapeutic? None of these?

4. Catholic thinkers, as well as many others, are now discussing restorative justice. What does that involve?

5. You speak of “the right to read.” Could you explain what you mean?

6. The EJP has been at odds with prison authorities over what books it should make available to prisoners. What’s at stake in this dispute?

7. Would it surprise you to learn that there are now some 600 criminal justice majors at Cal State Pomona? What might account for so many majors? What advice can you offer them and their teachers?

8. A good many Catholics are involved in prison ministry programs. What suggestions might you offer them?

(February 14, 2020)