• With only 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners.
• Between 1960 and 1990, official crime rates in Finland, Germany, and the US were close to identical. Yet the US incarceration rate quadrupled, the Finnish rate fell by 60 percent, and the German rate was stable in that period.
• From 1983 to 2000, as the “War on Drugs” gained traction, prison admissions for African-Americans grew 26 times the 1983 level and Latino admissions were 22 times higher, while white admissions were only 8 times greater. Although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are white, three-fourths of all people imprisoned for drug offenses have been black or Latino. 
• The US imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.
• With more than one million women behind bars or under the control of the criminal justice system, women are the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population, increasing at nearly double the rate of men since 1985.
• In the year 2000, 40% of criminal convictions leading to incarceration of women were for drug crimes; 34% were for other non-violent crimes such as burglary, larceny, and fraud; and 7% were for public order offenses such as drunk driving, liquor law violations and vagrancy. Only 18% of female convictions were for violent conduct.
• In fiscal year 2008, federal prosecutions of immigration crimes doubled from the preceding year to reach more than 70,000 cases. While immigration prosecutions rose sharply in the previous 5 years, in that same period, white-collar prosecutions fell by 18 percent, weapons prosecutions dropped 19 percent, organized crime prosecutions were down by 20 percent, and public corruption prosecutions dropped by 14 percent.
• Blacks in Texas are incarcerated at a rate seven times greater than whites, and one out of 3 young black men (29% of the black male population between 21 and 29) are in prison, jail, parole or probation on any given day.
• The Texas corrections budget increased from $600 million in 1985 to $2.4 billion in 2005. After adjusting for inflation, spending on public safety and corrections grew 223% in those 15 years, while real higher education expenditures rose only 44% during the same period.

10:00 a.m.  Chapel: Dr. Bob Ekblad, author of Reading the Bible With the Damned - Chapel of the Abiding Presence

1:00 p.m.  Reading the Bible With the Damned: Dr. Bob Ekblad - Chapel of the Abiding Presence

7:30 p.m.  Giesber Keynote Lecture - Mass Incarceration as a Tool of Social Control: Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - Jackson Auditorium [Watch LIVE STREAM]

 

9:00 a.m.  War on Drugs: Dr. Doris Marie Provine, author of Unequal Under the Law: Race in the War on Drugs - Jackson Auditorium [Watch LIVE STREAM]

10:00 a.m. Personal Story about Incarceration - Jackson Auditorium

10:30 a.m. Criminalization of Immigrants: Dr. Cecilia Menjivar, co-editor of Latinas/os in the United States: Changing the Face of América - Jackson Auditorium [Watch LIVE STREAM]

11:30 a.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m.  Personal Story about Incarceration - Jackson Auditorium

1:30 p.m.  Restorative Justice: Harley Eagle, co-coordinator of Indigenous Work Program, MCC-Canada - Jackson Auditorium [Watch LIVE STREAM]

2:30 p.m.  Unlocking the Future: Panel Discussion - Jackson Auditorium [Watch LIVE STREAM]

3:30 p.m.  The Community Responds: Interactive workshop - Centennial Hall Room 122

 

10:00 a.m.  Chapel: Dr. Derek Nelson, member of the ELCA Criminal Justice Task Force - Chapel of the Abiding Presence

10:30 a.m.  ELCA Social Statement on Criminal Justice: Dr. Derek Nelson - Chapel of the Abiding Presence

All films will be shown in the Center for Servant Leadership garage. Students should bring their ID card to receive credit for participation.

Concrete, Steel, and Paint (1 hour)

American Drug War (2 hours)
Visions of Abolition (1 hour and 30 minutes)
Tulia, Texas (1 hour)

TLU’s annual Krost Symposium brings together scholars, journalists, government officials, community leaders and others to discuss relevant and important issues of our time. Past symposium topics range from nuclear war to health care to the theological concepts of suffering and salvation. The symposium is one element of the university’s Krost Life Enrichment Program, established in 1977 to foster the physical, intellectual, social and spiritual development of TLU students and the broader community. The program’s commitment to developing the whole person – body, mind and spirit – is a manifestation of, and central to, TLU’s mission of preparing young women and men for lives of purpose through leadership and service to others.

 

One of the founding fathers of the Krost Life Enrichment Program and Krost Symposium was Dr. Frank Giesber, professor emeritus of economics, who served Texas Lutheran as academic dean when the idea of the Krost program and symposium became a reality. In recognition of Dr. Giesber’s contributions to the establishment and on-going support of the Krost Program, the keynote presentation of each Krost Symposium is now titled the Frank Giesber Lecture.

Krost Life Enrichment Program received its first funding in 1977 by Dr. Frederick Elliott. After the first funding, others such as the Lily Johnson Foundation followed, which gave a stipend for the construction of the Krost Building. Generous donations have made it possible for students of Texas Lutheran to take part in an intellectual and physical application to life.

 

The Krost Life Enrichment Program seeks to promote a whole person approach to life, which integrates the intellectual, spiritual, physical, and social well being of an individual. All students are urged to enroll in the program for a fitness evaluation, consisting of a graded exercise test to determine the fitness level and amount of body fat that exists. Counseling and planning sessions in which personal health practices, attitudes, and life objectives are explored follows the fitness evaluation and are incorporated into a wellness course.

 

The Krost program also provides academic enrichment opportunities for students in departments through internships and work-study programs. These internships and programs are sponsored by Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, NASA, and Texas Medical Center depending on the field that interests the student. These sponsors also support the Krost Symposium that is planned to foster intellectual inquiry with speakers of national and international stature.

 

Going beyond Texas Lutheran, Krost Life Enrichment has supported the field of environmental science and the outdoor recreation program. Recently the Krost Program has also supported the Astronomy Club. The program also purchases student art at the TLU Student Art Show each year. The Krost program creates students at TLU that are more complete when they graduate and are more prosperous in the real world.

Tim Barr
Director of Center for Servant Leadership

Rebecca Kosary
Associate Professor of History, Director of African American Studies

Juan Rodriguez
Associate Professor of English, Director of Mexican American Studies Center

Pam Johnston
Associate Professor of English, Director of the Center for Women's studies

Steve Boehm
Lecturer in Sociology

Chris Bollinger
Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Department Chair of Communication & English Studies