Elizabeth Pulanco / Winonan

In small towns, the way people operate and interact with their community is different than how people may act in a big metropolitan city. On Oct. 19 and 20, Winona State University will host the 21st Small Cities conference.

The conference is being organized by Winona State’s sociology department and the Center for the Small City at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.

According to Winona State sociology professor Nicole Civettini, Stevens Point has been hosting the conference for more than 30 years.

“The conference is a part of a series put on by the center of small cities at UW-Stevens Point,” Civettini said. “They have been hosting this conference since 1978. After several years, they started cohosting it with other universities and the conference has travelled around various parts of the state and the upper Midwest.”

Bob Wolensky, the co-director of the Center for the Small City, the conference has travelled across the Midwest and across the country.

“It has been at Stevens Point 16 of the 21 times,” Wolensky said. “Other venues have been the University of Louisville, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Illinois State University and Western Michigan University. We’re delighted to have Winona State host it.”

For the conference this year, they have brought in two featured speakers to discuss important topics within criminal justice.

John Shook, a former federal prison warden who is now working at the University of Dubuque, will give a presentation about the correction systems in small cities and the improvements that can be made.

President of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrator and retired Chief of Police at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Susan Riseling, will be discussing how to build trust between law enforcement and communities.

“[Riseling] is going to be a dynamite speaker. She’ll be talking about the way that community trust in law enforcement has been broken and how to repair that trust,” Civettini said.

Besides the two featured speakers, the conference will also feature different roundtable, panel and workshop sessions dealing with criminal justice and the LGBT community, women, alcohol and drug use recovery systems and different approaches to criminal justice in small cities.

“We have about 40 people coming in over two days. That’s a good sized conference and we’re pleased with the diversity of the panels, workshops, roundtables and featured speakers,” Wolensky said. “Panels tend to have people make formal presentations, the roundtable is a bit more informal for discussion and the workshop is really hands on.”

Both Civettini and Wolensky are looking forward to getting involved with important discussions about criminal justice.

“We’ve got counselors, social workers, police officers, former Navy Seals and district attorneys coming in. We also have academic presenters as well, and it is not very often that academic presenters are at the same conference as people who are in the field,” Civettini said. “It’s been really great to see people from all different areas come together and talk about really important issues.”

Wolensky also mentioned how this is the first time the conference is revisiting the topic of criminal justice in more than 30 years.

“This is the first time since the 1970s that we’ve looked at criminal justice and it is extremely timely,” Wolensky said. “We usually think of crime and criminal justice as a big city problem, but it is very much a small cities issue. Interstate highways are major arteries for drugs and other organized criminal activities as well.”

In addition, Wolensky also mentioned how crime is not just transferred to the small cities through the highway system. Small towns generate their own crimes related to hate crimes, domestic violence, corruption and theft.

“Winona is a very clean run town, but a lot of small cities have political or economic corruption,” Wolensky said.

The collaboration with Winona State this year is special for both Wolensky and Civettini because they are father and daughter.

“Right now I am working with my daughter Nicole Civettini at Winona. She was born the first year the conference was held and she hung around conferences when she was little,” Wolensky said.

Civettini added she and the conference are sharing a birthday this year.

She was also looking forward to the free registration option for this year’s conference.

“Registration and meals are free, so we want to take care of people from the time they start the conference to the time it’s over and make sure that it is convenient and low cost as possible,” Civettini said. “We don’t want people to have to pay to participate in this important event.”

-By Elizabeth Pulanco