In a Whole New Way: Film as a Vehicle for Probation Reform

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Ana M. Bermúdez is the NYC Department of Probation’s (DOP’s) first openly gay person, first Latina and second woman to be appointed Commissioner. A graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School, Commissioner Bermúdez began her professional career representing children in family court cases at the Legal Aid Society. For over twenty years, she has been a tireless advocate for children and teenagers involved in the justice system through the development and implementation of strengths-based interventions, the application of restorative and youth development practices and the designing of programs that ensure successful re-integration for adjudicated juveniles. During her tenure as DOP’s Deputy Commissioner of Juvenile Operations from 2010 through 2014, she successfully led city-wide initiatives that focused on improving outcomes for court-involved youth through interdisciplinary collaborations. With her appointment to Commissioner in March 2014, she continues to lead the Department in its mission to enhance public safety through appropriate and individualized and community-based interventions in the lives of people on probation to enable them to permanently exit the justice system. Prior to joining the DOP in 2010, she was the Director of Juvenile Justice Programs at the Children’s Aid Society. She has also worked at CASES (The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services) holding progressively responsible positions: Director of Training and Technical Assistance; Co-Director of Community Prep High School: a transitional school for court-involved students; and Deputy Director for Court Services and Case Management at CASES’ Court Employment Project, an alternative to incarceration program for adolescent felony offenders.

Jonathan Fisher is the associate director of the nonprofit Seeing for Ourselves, which equips and trains marginalized individuals to take charge of their own public narrative by documenting their lives photographically. He has been a "participatory photography" practitioner since 2010, editing the globally acclaimed book "Project Lives" about public housing residents, and writing and directing the globally acclaimed film "In a Whole New Way" about people on probation. Over a half century, he has worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City, the marketing communications firm Ogilvy, the New York City Housing Authority, the United Nations, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He lives with his family in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.