Forum on the Hill
The Forum on the Hill provides opportunities for the community to engage with speakers once a month, (September- June) who discuss current topics. Join the Conversations! Presented both in person at 12:30pm in Widener Hall and then recorded and posted online here the next day. *Bring a brown bag lunch to enjoy, and we serve light snacks, water, and coffee starting at Noon.
WATCH the Recorded presentation from 9/12/24. Click HERE
A $5 donation is requested for the series to help support this program when you attend in person. If you are watching online, please consider making this small contribution through the secure Donate button below, or mail a check made out to PCCH to: Center on the Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia PA 19118 if you watch online. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Registration Required to attend in person, please CLICK HERE to Register Online, or call 215-247-4654 or email msaavedra@chestnuthillpres.org
September 12
Michael Schaffer and Ben Lerner
The Defender: The Battle to Protect the Rights of the Accused in Philadelphia
The Defender Association of Philadelphia has been providing free legal counsel to indigent criminal defendants in Philadelphia since 1934. The Defender, as it is commonly known, is a voluntary organization, not an agency of government, although it receives funding from the city of Philadelphia. The Defender: The Battle to Protect the Rights of the Accused in Philadelphia is the story of how this organization began with two lawyers and over the years grew to the size of a major law firm, with a staff of nearly 500 in 2015. Public defenders represent about 70 percent of the criminal defendants in Philadelphia, on everything from misdemeanors to capital murder. The Defender has been on the cutting edge of juvenile justice reform and the fight against prison overcrowding, has advocated effectively for alternative sentencing to place suitable defendants in rehab programs instead of sending them to jail, and has been an effective watchdog against police misconduct. Michael and Ben will talk about what has made the Defender Association of Philadelphia one of the best public defender agencies in the country.
Michael Schaffer is the co-author, with the late Edward W. Madeira, Jr., of The Defender: The Battle to Protect the Rights of the Accused in Philadelphia(Temple University Press, 2020) . He held a variety of editing and reporting positions at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including book review editor, before retiring at the end of 2014. He has a Ph.D. in American History from Yale University and worked at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution before becoming a journalist.
Judge Ben Lerner was in the vanguard of the criminal justice reform movement in Philadelphia, advocating systemic change and alternative sentencing at a time when the concepts were just gaining traction. He was an early graduate fellow during a five-year innovative partnership between the Law School and the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He went on to serve as Chief Defender of the Defender Association from 1975 to 1990. From 1996 to 2019, Lerner presided over the Homicide Trial Division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
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