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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 855 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • How Atlanta Is Turning Ex-Cons Into Urban Farmers

    An entrepreneur and activist in Atlanta, GA runs an urban farm and employs former prisoners in an attempt to tackle Georgia's incarceration and recidivism problems. The program, called Gangstas to Growers, employs folks regardless of previous experience and aims to keep up with the rapidly gentrifying community.

    Read More

  • Boston's miracle: how America stopped young men killing each other

    An initiative that aims to keep troubled former criminals from continuing down the same path is technically called group violence intervention, but most know it as the Boston miracle. Piloted in the 90s, this style of intervention has shown so much success in reducing shooting rates that it has began scaling to European countries.

    Read More

  • One Of America's Poorest Cities Has A Radical Plan To Remake Itself

    Evergreen Cooperative in Cleveland is on a path to make wealth and business ownership more accessible. They operate several cooperative businesses: a laundry and a solar panel firm among them, all of which choose to welcome most applicants for employee-ownership, regardless of income or wealth or if they have spent time in prison. The model hopes to grow through the city with the rise of patient capital and growing support of the cooperative movement.

    Read More

  • Video screening cuts jail time, reduces court 'no shows'

    In Bernadillo County people who are arrested for nonviolent crimes have the chance of being released, without having to serve jail time. They are screened through video by an intake officer who gauges the likelihood of them showing up in court. “We know from national studies that releasing low-level, non-violent offenders promptly reduces recidivism.” Data shows it works, and an overwhelming majority, 90 percent, of defendants showed up in court.

    Read More

  • Detroit homeless court changes lives for its defendants

    Street Outreach Court Detroit is a collaboration between the courts and service providers to waive legal and financial obligations post-conviction if a person makes a commitment to an individualized action plan. These plans can include steps such as substance misuse treatment, enrolling in a workforce readiness program, and accessing housing subsidies.

    Read More

  • Rhode Island Prisons Push To Get Inmates The Best Treatment For Opioid Addiction

    In order to reduce opioid related deaths, Rhode Island has taken a rare step among state prisons: offer medication and drug counseling to opioid addicts. The Rhode Island Department of Corrections gives small doses of either methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone to inmates, as well as drug counseling. "I still have to fight the other drugs… But at least I have something to help with one of the ones that's brought me closer to death than anything else." Evidence show the program is working. There was "a significant drop in overdose deaths among people recently released from prison."

    Read More

  • John Pace and His Friends Expected to Die in Prison

    Once deemed youthful “superpredators” condemned to spend their entire adult lives in prison, the peer counselors in Philadelphia’s Life After Life support group help other formerly incarcerated people transition back to freedom. Of the more than 100 former “juvenile lifers” who returned to Philadelphia after the Supreme Court deemed them eligible for a second chance, none has been convicted of a new crime or serious parole violation – a key metric that encourages Pennsylvania to continue whittling down its record-high population of juvenile-life-without-parole inmates.

    Read More

  • ‘People helping people': North Dakota's addiction fix

    In rural North Dakota where clinical treatment centers are hard to find, a program called Free Through Recovery "seeks to drive down North Dakota’s prison rates by creating networks of sobriety and support around people on probation and parole." Although local law enforcement claims the program is not an alternative to incarceration, in the short time it has been in operation, it has served over 550 people with many participants securing both housing and work opportunities.

    Read More

  • North Dakota may hold key to Wyoming's prison woes

    Criminal justice reform succeeds when states prioritize rehabilitation and over punishment. In North Dakota, the Free Through Recovery program increases the number of stakeholders in a parolee’s success, creating multiple levels of behavioral health support. The program is part of a criminal justice legislation package that included sentencing reforms and alternatives to incarceration. The state has been successful in beginning to reduce its overcrowded prison populations and serves as a model for other states.

    Read More

  • When a man kills his wife in India, what happens to the children?

    Global Network for Equality grew out of sociological research of men imprisoned for killing their wives. Researcher KR Raja saw how many children had been effectively orphaned by such killings, and how the men's rehabilitation in prison depended in part on knowing their families were provided for. GNE helps hundreds of children up to age 18 with living expenses, emotional support, and college applications and costs. While the effects on prisoners aren't shown, the program clearly improves the lives of the affected children.

    Read More