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

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  • KCPD CIT provides alternative to jail for mentally ill

    Kansas City’s Police Department has created a Crisis Intervention Unit with the goal of broadening their outreach and engagement with individuals with mental illnesses. Rather than send them through the criminal justice system, officers involved in this unit instead help them access the care, support, and treatment they need.

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  • California's overhaul of prison education programs a blueprint for others

    In the six years after California prisons became the first in the nation to offer college classes in nearly every prison, thousands of incarcerated people have enrolled in classes and have outperformed free-world students in grades and passing rates. While such programs have been shown to reduce crimes committed by those released from prison, the ultimate goal of California’s program is to see the benefits ripple through communities that the formerly incarcerated go home to.

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  • ‘I'm not the only one who has a mom in jail': Camp reunites locked-up mothers with their kids

    Wisconsin’s Camp Reunite is bringing together women experiencing incarceration with their children. The camp was hosted at Taycheedah, a correctional facility in Fond du Lac, WI, and while the kids were there had less security and more carnival games. Parental incarceration has a strong effect on children and on the parent/child bond, something Camp Reunite hopes to help repair.

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  • Detroit Bail Project aims to disrupt the process of cash bail and incarceration

    The Bail Project is posting bond for men and women who cannot afford to pay and haven’t been convicted of a crime. Based in Detroit, the nonprofit has locations across the country and uses a revolving fund to bail out individuals, meaning once the bond is recovered, the funding is then available for another person. Its Detroit location has bailed out nearly 200 individuals in an effort to end mass incarceration and prove that holding people – most of whom are people of color or experiencing poverty – does not diminish recidivism.

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  • A ‘Second Chance' After 27 Years in Prison: How Criminal Justice Helped an Ex-Inmate Graduate

    Since 2016, the Second Chance Pell program has been providing financial aid for those experiencing incarceration to pursue a college education. Started under the Obama administration, it has gained bipartisan support and traction in the Trump administration as well. Considering 90% of incarcerated individuals will be released, the Second Chance Pell program serves as a demonstrated commitment to reduce recidivism and mass incarceration.

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  • How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours

    Norway’s Halden Prison is taking a different approach to incarceration: emphasizing rehabilitation over punishment, which has led to a 20% decrease in recidivism in just two years. Over the past two decades, the country has sought rigorous criminal justice reform, which at Halden Prison means job training and certifications, yoga and other recreational activities, reenvisioning the role guards play, and spaces that look more like home than a jail cell.

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  • What if Fort Worth hired ex-convicts to fight violent crime? It's working elsewhere

    Within a year of founding its Office of Neighborhood Safety to prevent gun violence, Richmond saw its most violent neighborhood drop from 27 murders to three. The program pairs former gang members and formerly incarcerated men with people deemed at risk of shooting others or getting shot. The mentors are paid a salary by the city, and the program "fellows" get paid a stipend if they stay out of trouble and respond well to the program's life-skills counseling. The program expanded citywide and to other cities, based on its record of keeping fellows alive and shootings in decline.

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  • Hope For Prisoners Teams Up With Las Vegas Cops to Help Ex-Offenders

    Hope for Prisoners helps more than 500 people per year adjust to living and working productively after serving sentences in jail or prison, thanks in large part to a team of mentors – many of whom are police officers. In an exercise in developing two-way empathy – formerly incarcerated see police willing to help them, and the police see people with criminal records working to improve themselves – the program tailors its services to people's needs and skills. Since 2010, the program has graduated more than 2,600 people, nearly two-thirds of whom found work and nearly all of whom avoided new arrests.

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  • For-profit philanthropy: Portland labor supply business expanding to other states

    A company in Portland, Maine works to "dignify temp-work" through the employment of former convicts, addicts, and other individuals in rough transitional phases of life. The company operates as a for-profit business working for social good and facilitates a daily meeting for workers to check in with each other and form a supportive community.

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  • L.A. Homeless and Ex-Felons Find Second Chance in Skid Row Running Club

    L.A. Superior Court Judge Craig Mitchell started the Skid Row Running Club, which leads runs every morning with formerly incarcerated addicts. Many of the participants have led successful lives after running, giving credence to the evidence of a linkage between aerobic exercise and a reparation of the parts of the brain that have been damaged by drug and alcohol abuse.

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