WHO: The DePaul University College of Law and the DePaul University Ministry Center for Spirituality and Values in Practice.

WHAT: Will explore the plight of incarcerated women in a program featuring Kathy Kelly, a three time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, an organization dedicated to ending economic and military warfare against the Iraqi people. Kelly will share her perspectives on women in prison based on her own experiences of being incarcerated for resistance to U.S. war policies. Kelly, who has visited Iraq an estimated 22 times since 1996 and has spoken at length to American soldiers there, is an outspoken advocate for ending economic sanctions imposed against Iraq by the United States and the United Nations.

In 2004, Kelly served a three month sentence at the Pekin Federal Prison Camp in Peoria, Ill., for protesting alleged torture techniques taught by the U.S. Army at a military training school in Fort Benning, Ga. In 1988, Kelly was sentenced to one year in prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites. Kelly served nine months of the sentence in a Lexington, Ky. maximum security prison.

WHEN: The program, “And Throw Away the Key?” will be held from 12:20 p.m. until 1:20 p.m. Feb. 23.

WHERE:The DePaul University College of Law, 25 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 805. The event is free and open to the public.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of women under the jurisdiction of state or federal prisons was 104,848 in of Dec. 31, 2004, a 4 percent increase over the number of incarcerated women one year earlier. Kelly, who has been described as a prisoner of conscience, will address how this growing female population fares in prison as well as the politics of the peaceful protests that sparked her time behind bars.

The event is co-sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild, the Public Interest Law Program, DePaul’s Women’s Center and the Louise Project.

Editor’s Note: Reporters wishing to cover the event or arrange interviews with Kathy Kelly should contact Valerie Phillips, DePaul Media Relations, at 312/362-5039 or 312/330-3155 (cell).