An Evening with Sister Helen Prejean: Abolitions and the Morality of Punishment

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ—educator, activist, and best-selling author of Dead Man Walking—is internationally known as an advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Her work in this area has inspired conversation, conversion, and change, drawing attention to the immorality of capital punishment and the way in which individuals, the state, and the culture at large relate to those we have imprisoned and sentenced to death. As part of the DePaul Humanities Center’s year-long series, “CondemNation,” Sister Helen brings her clarity of thought, unique insightfulness, and hard-won, compassionate wisdom to the complex question of prison abolition as well as death penalty abolition.

Condemning someone to death is, arguably, the worst we can do to another. But even the desire to imprison someone is an impulse that deserves to have its motivations sounded and its ethics scrutinized. What do we gain by locking someone away from our community? Are punishment and the intentional infl iction of suff ering on anyone ever the correct responses to “crime”? Given our current prison industrial complex, with its history of racism and corporate exploitation, is the United States’ justice system capable of dispensing justice as it stands?

Why, most basically, do we punish, and what do we want out of just punishment?

From 6:30-7:00 p.m. you are also invited to visit our pre-event exhibit on Stateville Correctional Center—a maximum security state prison for men just outside Chicago—with photographs by Lloyd DeGrane, “Why My Life Matters” letters from men incarcerated at Stateville, and interactive experiential displays on life inside the prison.

Monday, April 27, 2015 at 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Cortelyou Commons, Main Hall
2324 N Fremont St

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