Mental Health and The Justice System

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Michael Capra has over 32 years of experience in the field of Correctional Management and Law Enforcement. He is known as a seasoned leader, manager and mentor. Mr. Capra started his career in 1981 as a Corrections Officer and today, he is the Superintendent of Sing Sing Correctional Facility, one of the largest maximum security correctional facilities in the state. Superintendent Capra oversees a staff of 825 security and non-custodial staff and 1,825 offenders. As Superintendent, Mr. Capra evaluates and develops policies and procedures that enhance public safety by ensuring that offenders have opportunities to improve their skills and to receive individual treatment services based on ability and willingness to participate so they can return to society as productive members. Mr. Capra co-developed “Voices from Within” a program that enhances the potential of inmates as well as impacts the minds of our youth.

A Forensic and Clinical Social Worker, Betsy Biben is the Chief of the Office of Rehabilitation and Development (ORD) where she has served her clients and PDS since 1982.  Betsy has dedicated her life to empowering people arrested in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Throughout her career, she has prepared sentencing reports and/or testimony before courts in Washington, D.C. (local and federal), Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama and has trained judges, attorneys, and law and social work students on a national and local basis since 1976.   Betsy is a member of the Defender Counsel and the Client Policy Group and a founding member of the National Alliance for Sentencing Alternatives & Mitigation Specialists for the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA).  She also serves on two committees for the Southern Center for Human Rights and is a former board member for Voices for a Second Chance in D.C.  Betsy is also a former consultant for The Sentencing Project and the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA).  She has worked in the criminal justice system since 1974. 

Betsy received her Master in Social Work from the University of Connecticut and a postgraduate certificate from the Washington School of Psychiatry. She is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW) and is a licensed social worker in D.C. (LICSW).

Tammie M. Gregg joined the ACLU’s National Prison Project as a Deputy Director early this year.  Among other responsibilities, Tammie will assume leadership of the ACLU Stop Solitary campaign for NPP.  Tammie comes to NPP from a long and distinguished career with the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal agencies.  After beginning her career with law firms in Minneapolis and Washington, in 2000 she joined DOJ as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division.  From 2003 to 2011 she was a senior attorney in the Special Litigation Section, where she worked on cases involving prisons, jails, and policing.  She rose to the level of Principal Deputy Chief of the Section, where she provided day-to-day supervision to a staff of over 70 people.   

In 2011 Tammie served as an Enforcement Director in the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights.  In this position she directed civil rights enforcement activities in four regional offices to ensure equal access and eliminate discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability in educational settings.  From 2011 to 2014 she was Adjudicator/Counsel to the Assistant Director, Office of Professional Responsibility, in the FBI, where she adjudicated professional misconduct matters regarding Special Agents and other Bureau employees. 

From 2014 to 2017 Tammie was Deputy Associate Attorney General overseeing the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office on Violence Against Women, and Community-Oriented Policing Service at DOJ.  From 2017 to 2020 she was Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for OJP, providing legal and policy advice to the AAG on crime prevention/reduction; civil rights enforcement; criminal and juvenile justice reform; and reentry and recidivism reduction. 

Tammie is a 1995 cum laude graduate of Howard University Law School, where she received the Lloyd MacMahon Fellowship, a Merit Scholarship, and three American Jurisprudence Awards. She is currently in the process of adopting a 10-year-old son and enjoys cardio-kickboxing and reading for pleasure any chance she gets. 

Brittany Ripper, J.D., is a third-year doctoral student in the Justice, Law and Criminology Department at American University. Prior to coming to AU, she worked as a public defender. Her current research focuses on juvenile life without parole, women’s reentry, and reentry of individuals sentenced to life. Ripper’s background gives her rich insight into the criminal legal system, as she has seen family members go in and out of the system and defended people involved in the system. Her article with Robert Johnson examining alternatives to de facto life sentences was published in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Law. She has a column on the BleakHouse Publishing website about current events in the field.

Drawing on the wisdom of thirteen years of direct involvement with the criminal justice system, Mr. Johnny Perez is the Director of the U.S. Prisons Program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, an interfaith membership organization comprised of 325 religious organizations working to end U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. More than 75,000 individuals of diverse religious backgrounds have participated in NRCAT’s work through telephone and email campaigns, public events, and education and organizing work in congregations and other interfaith bodies. Through his leadership, Mr. Perez coordinates NRCAT’s existing campaign efforts to end the torture of solitary confinement, adding value and strategic insight to building the capacity of faith leaders and directly impacted communities to engage in education and advocacy in the United States. 

In addition, Johnny works to change unjust policies and practices in the criminal justice system as a member of the NYC Bar Association’s Correction and Reentry Committee and a member of the NY Advisory Committee to The US Civil Rights Commission. He also sits on the Board of Directors at the Juvenile Law Center, a non-profit public interest law firm advocating for the rights, dignity, equity and opportunity for youth in the child welfare and justice systems.

A sought after speaker and organizer, Johnny has been invited to provide major presentations on criminal justice reform at law schools and institutions of higher learning nationwide, including various state, regional, and national conferences on topics including the perpetual consequences of justice involvement, access to higher education, and solitary confinement. His commentary has been published by The New York Times, The Fordham Law Journal, Ebony Magazine, USA Today , and the Daily News.

Johnny’s recent collaboration with ACLU’s Smart Justice Campaign on the challenges of reentry resulted in acceptance into the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Perez has made appearances on Now This, Capital Tonight, and recently in the new short film: After Rikers: Justice By Design about a future NYC without Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. Johnny is a father to a teenage daughter and newborn son. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from St. Francis College of Brooklyn where he mentors formerly incarcerated students.