New London — Those young and old, who gathered Saturday at Shiloh Baptist Church, expressed their desire to see more positive stories in the news media, particularly when it comes to coverage of people of color.

For the fifth year, the Shiloh Baptist Church of New London Prison Ministry hosted the Community Prison Awareness and Prevention Gathering, which has aimed to shed light on the mass incarceration of people of color and the poor, and how the issue affects families and the community.

This year's theme and the topic of the panel discussion was "Working with the News Media to Positively Represent the Community of Color."

Winston Taylor, the event's organizer and the coordinator of the prison ministry program, has said that he always has wanted to involve the news media in the annual event.

Taylor described how the news media can affect change in a community, help get the world out and "be our partners," he said.

The three panelists — Senior Assistant State's Attorney Lonnie Braxton II; Brenda Taylor, who retired as lieutenant of the Mansfield Youth Prison in 2005; and Capt. Larry Keating with the New London Police Department — rated the news media poorly when it comes to its portrayal, both historically and currently, of people of color.

The media is really a representation of society as a whole, Braxton said, "and if we don't demand more, we won't get more."

"We can get the media to take a better look and do a better job, but we have to be active in the pursuit of that," he said.

As opposed to the negative stories around people of color who are incarcerated, for example, Taylor said she would like to see more coverage of "all the young men and women that have completed historically black colleges, have gone on to be lawyers, judges, engineers. The media doesn't tell us about those (people)."

In a time when there's an immediate demand for information, Keating advocated for "slowing down," and digesting "what information you have, what's getting out there."

"Come together for a constructive conclusion after all the information is digested, instead of going off the snippets," he said.

During the first half of the day, participants, broken down by age, rotated through various workshops.

Adult participants received a briefing on the governor's new Second Chance Society law, which seeks to reduce certain drug-related penalties and revises the parole and pardons processes for non-violent offenses with the goal of successfully reintegrating nonviolent offenders into society.

Connecticut Department of Correction Commissioner Scott Semple and Robert Martin, deputy warden at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center, spoke about the new law and described a shift in direction by the Department of Corrections, as a whole, toward more of a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration efforts, and getting people back in the community to be productive members of society.

"I'm not talking about murdering people. If you murder someone, you're going to go to jail, and you're going to be there for a long time," Martin said in emphasizing the law deals with those who have committed minor, nonviolent crimes.

In April, the Cybulski Community Reintegration Center, a 600-bed facility, was established at the Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution.

There are two units in the facility, according to Martin, with a third one planned for February.

The DOC also is looking to establish reintegration units at the York Correctional Institution, the state's only institution for female offenders, and the John R. Manson Youth Institute.

Those nonviolent offenders who will go the community reintegration center will be evaluated on an individual basis and will be provided with core programming to help them successfully reintegrate into society.

They also will choose from various "pathways," Martin explained, to deal with issues related to education, recovery from drug or alcohol problems, vocational skills and others.

The goal also is to get families more involved with an offender before his or her release.

"If you look at it, the individuals that we have in the Cybulski center, the discipline level has dropped down ... our staff incidents are going down tremendously because they're not responding to codes over there with staff getting injured," Martin said.

Sharyn Goode, a minister at the church, led a group of 10- through 12-year-olds in a workshop centered on respect.

"The goal was to help them understand what it means to be respectful. Sometimes their idea is that 'Well, they don't respect me.' But respect is regardless of how the other person treats you," Goode said.

Goode explained to the students that body language, tone and words all play into someone's perception of whether a person is being respectful.

"I was impressed with them, because they seemed to know the right thing to do," she said. "Now I think it's more or less getting them to practice to do the right the thing, because they are getting into their teen years and that's a whole different ball game."

At the close of the event, organizers recognized five individuals for their service to the community.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: @JuliaSBergman