Convocation: Dawn Porter (Audio)

Dawn Porter is an attorney, civil justice crusader and an award-winning documentary filmmaker who understands the deficiencies of the United States criminal justice system and what it takes to maintain the passion and commitment to be a public defender. Twelve million people are arrested in the U.S. each year and millions of those cases will proceed through the criminal justice system. Most will be represented by public defenders—lawyers who represent low income people accused of crimes. Often these lawyers receive little or no training, resources or support. What does that mean for our system of justice? Lawyer turned filmmaker, Porter spent three and a half years following three public defenders working in the deep south. The result was Gideon's Army, a feature documentary about their work which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO Documentary Films in July of that year. The title of her presentation is “Defending America in the Age of Mass Incarceration.”