A panel of professors from Human Rights Institute at San José State spoke about issues concerning human rights and social justice on Tuesday.
Four professors discussed issues such as mass incarceration, reproductive rights and climate change, at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.
The Human Rights Institute at SJSU has students and faculty do research on pressing societal issues and work with community organizations to design solutions, according to an SJSU web page.
John Halushka, an associate professor for the Department of Justice Studies, spoke about his book, “Getting the Runaround: Formerly Incarcerated Men and the Bureaucratic Barriers to Reentry.”
“I wanted to — in one way — humanize the people who were incarcerated and listen to their stories,” Halushka said. “I also wanted to have a bigger conversation about mass incarceration and human rights.”
The United States is responsible for more than 20% of the world’s incarcerated population, according to an American Civil Liberties Union web page.
“One of the biggest barriers when it comes to reentry is the amount of red tape that people have to deal with,” he said. “(This) includes overlapping appointments between their parole officer and their welfare case manager, in their housing facility or curfews not just from parole, but various housing facilities.”
Every year, around 700,000 people are released from jails in the U.S. and face many barriers to successfully reenter society, according to a Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights web page.
Halushka said reentry is when a previously incarcerated person transitions back into society after being in jail or prison.
Tanya Bakhru, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies, spoke about her recently published book “Reproductive Justice, Adoption, and Foster Care” at the event.
“I started doing more and more research (on the foster care system) and it became a very personal and very urgent issue,” Bakhru said. “Especially because so many families were being separated during the first Trump administration.”
The U.S. Department of Justice implemented a “zero tolerance” policy, according to a May 8, 2018 speech from the Office of Public Affairs.
In the policy, all cases involving immigrants who crossed the border illegally must be referred to the department for prosecution, according to the same source.
“It’s really important to look at adoption and foster care as a reproductive rights issue,” Bakhru said. “The issue of separating families at the border is not pro-family.”
Grace Howard, an associate professor at the Department of Justice Studies, spoke about the criminalization of pregnancy and opened up about doing a self-managed abortion.
Howard said she was in college at the time when she became pregnant and couldn’t afford to have a procedural abortion at a clinic.
“I was safe, but it was very clear to me at that time that it could have gone another way,” Howard said. “I didn’t realize how pervasive the criminalization of pregnancy was until much later.”
She said she was introduced to the topic of reproductive rights during the second year of her PhD.
“I learned that the criminalization of pregnancy has been happening for a very long time,” Howard said. “I was so angry that I didn’t know about it.”
Pregnancy criminalization refers to a state creating criminal laws against acts associated with pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth the subject of criminal prosecution, according to a Sept. 24 Time article.
Tumy Pitso, a San José resident, said it's important to participate in conversations concerning reproductive rights, especially after the 2024 General Election.
“It kind of feels like (the election) is taking independence further away from women,” Pitso said. “It’s scary stuff that in this day and age, we’re having conversations about what we can do with our bodies or the future of our family.”
Roe v. Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court case that established the right to abortion as a constitutional right, was overturned in 2022, according to a June 24, 2022 NPR article.
“Hearing the panelists talk about reproductive rights startled me a little because it’s worrying to learn this stuff,” Pitso said. “I definitely think it’s something more people should be aware of because we’re the future generation of parents.”
President-elect Donald Trump pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices to help overturn Roe v. Wade during his first presidential term, according to a Nov. 7 NBC News article.
William Armaline, professor in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies, spoke about overlapping threats to human survival, such as nuclear power and climate change.
“You’re not hearing a single person in your media talk about important topics like nuclear power,” Armaline said. “It’s not even a point of discussion.”
The panelists also urged students and those at the event to stir a conversation about human rights issues to bring more awareness to them.
“We’re just going to have to do a lot of work together to understand and re-orient ourselves on these issues,” Armaline said.
