Calvin John Smiley, Ph.D. (Founder/Director) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Hunter College-City University of New York. He has spent nearly half his life working to combat mass incarceration. As the son of a system-impacted father, Smiley has done work to abolish the death penalty, reentry, and education in jails and prisons. Since 2021, he has been the lead facilitator of a restorative justice program inside Horizon and Crossroads Juvenile Centers in New York City. Smiley is the co-editor of Prisoner Reentry in the 21st Century: Critical Perspectives of Returning Home (Routledge, 2020). He is also the author of the award-winning Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition (University of California, 2023) and Defund: Conversations Towards Abolition (Haymarket Books, 2024). Smiley’s research on justice and inequality has been published in academic journals and public outlets. Yet, it is his advocacy, organizing, and praxis that motivates Smiley as Chairman Fred Hampton said, “Theory without practice is empty and practice without theory is blind.”

Jemma Clarke (Assistant Director) is a recent graduate from Hunter College-CUNY, majoring in Sociology with a focus on law, and currently a MSW candidate at the Silberman School of Social Work. Radicalized by mental health, race, and social justice issues, Jemma works at Horizon Juvenile Center and Crossroads Juvenile Center, helping facilitate restorative justice programming. As Assistant Director of Till Everything Better, LLC., a company focused on expanding restorative justice to be accessible across communities, especially those that are justice-affected, Jemma is integral in creating zines, curriculum, and leading groups with young folks.  

Mollie Hosmer-Dillard, MFA, is an artist and arts educator who has been working with underserved populations for 15 years, and with incarcerated youth and adults for the past five. In 2023, she founded the Arts + Justice Lab with the University of Utah. Mollie has had solo exhibitions in Germany, Finland, New York, Rhode Island, Indiana, South Dakota, and Utah. She is the recipient of an Oberlin College Scholarship, and artist grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Berlin Office of Cultural Affairs, the Salt Lake City Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. You can view her artwork here: www.molliehd.com. 

Nathalie Albarracin is a Macaulay Honors student at Hunter College-CUNY, majoring in Sociology with a focus on International Relations while pursuing a Public Policy Certificate. She considers herself an abolitionist working toward healing, accountability, and collective care. Nathalie works at Crossroads Juvenile Center, where she assists in facilitating restorative justice programming for justice-impacted youth. She currently organizes with Freedom Agenda and the Campaign to Close Rikers Island, advocating for decarceration, divestment from punitive systems, and reinvestment in communities. Guided by Che Guevara's belief that “The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love,” Nathalie is dedicated to creating more compassionate and just communities through restorative practices and to building sustainable alternatives to incarceration, so that one day we may no longer see cages.