Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Reporting for Work Where You Once Reported for Probation

    Since 2012, the New York City Department of Probation’s Arches program has integrated “credible messengers” into its mission, diverting some energies toward helping instead of punishing. The term refers to people, often formerly incarcerated or on probation themselves, who apply their street knowledge to mentoring youth caught up in the criminal justice system. The movement has spread to a variety of government agencies, but usually is used in street-outreach crime prevention work by community organizations. A large body of research shows the effectiveness of the approach in lowered crime and recidivism.

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  • ‘They only cut off half my left foot.' What happens when inmate care goes wrong in Georgia?

    Without federal oversight, prisons are left to their own devices to determine what sort of health care they want to provide. That, combined with limited funding and resources, often leads to low-cost privatized health care that doesn’t necessarily have safeguards or patient-centered interests. While an increasingly complex issue, the response of privatized health care for inmates requires reform, but won’t get there unless the sheriffs that oversee these prisons embrace them.

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  • For sheriffs, healthcare for inmates can be a burden. For one doctor, it has been the opportunity of a lifetime.

    As prison populations have increased dramatically since the 1980s, prisons have outsourced inmate health care to private companies, like CorrectHealth, to save money. While it is the most incentivizing when it comes to cost, this is only possible because private companies have to have the lowest bid – meaning they skimp on spending for inmates in the long run. The result has shown to be not just a decrease in the health care services offered to inmates, but more litigation for companies providing allegedly inadequate care.

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  • Why are there so few prisoners in the Netherlands?

    Providing care to individuals with psychiatric problems reduces the need for incarceration. With the help of a psychological rehabilitation program known as TBS, the Netherlands has shut entire prisons following a decline in the number of individuals sentenced to time in prison. TBS works with offenders at its detainment centers to help them manage their mental health issues and re-enter society.

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  • Would You Open Your Home to an Ex-Prisoner?

    Home-sharing programs help formerly incarcerated individuals avoid homelessness. The Homecoming Project, operated by Impact Justice, a nonprofit in California, leverages the sharing economy model to reduce homelessness and recidivism among ex-prisoners. The program pairs individuals leaving prison with good records with hosts willing to share their homes. The arrangement provides stability and a supportive environment for ex-prisoners to reintegrate into the community.

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  • Art Helps Returning Citizens ‘Cross the Threshold'

    Performance art provides a healing outlet for formerly incarcerated individuals. In New York City, the Ritual4Return program encourages participants to express the transition in their lives through art. Using an artistic expression helps individuals cope with the experience of incarceration and encourages them to reflect on crossing the threshold into the next stage of life. The program operates with the support of grants from universities, foundations, and private donations through a Kickstarter campaign.

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  • Speech club helps Utah prison inmates tell their stories

    At Utah State Prison, the New Visions Speech Club is teaching inmates public speaking. The club gives inmates the opportunity to practice communication and bolster their confidence – two skills that can help them in the long run. While there hasn’t been any evidence between the club and decreased recidivism, those that participate have said how its helped them express themselves in parole hearings and job interviews.

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  • For Veterans in Jail, This Anti-Violence Workshop Provides Support

    The Alternatives to Violence Project, an international nonprofit, provides workshops around conflict resolution, personal growth, and other social skills to people experiencing incarceration. While a large-scale organization, individual prisons have the agency to implement the workshops. In Washington’s Pierce county, they tailor their workshops for veterans experiencing incarceration, teaching community-building, self-reflection, listening, and de-programming aggression and violence.

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  • Can basketball reduce gun violence? It did in Richmond, Virginia.

    RVA League For Safer Streets uses a basketball league as "bait" to change young men's lives by teaching critical thinking and better ways to resolve conflicts. The Richmond, Virginia, program was co-founded in prison by a former drug dealer convicted of murder who learned the methods of cognitive behavioral therapy behind bars. Paroled after 23 years, he began counseling youth with an approach that police say contributed to a significant drop in Richmond's gang violence and other crime.

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  • One Bay Area organization found a radical and surprisingly simple approach to helping former prisoners start over

    The Homecoming Project pays homeowners to rent their spare bedrooms to people just released from long prison sentences, providing welcoming, free, stable housing option to people whose re-entry is often hamstrung by housing instability and grim, restrictive halfway houses. Only 12 formerly incarcerated people were served in the project’s first year, but the service providing its clients with six months of housing hopes to serve as a pilot for other organizations outside the Bay Area. All 12 have jobs and six have gone on to live independently.

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