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

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  • The Latest Trend in Reducing Recidivism: Keeping Mothers and Children Together

    Most states and cities don’t permits mothers who give birth in prison to stay with their children. However, scattered across the country are programs like ReMerge, a program in Oklahoma City that allows mother and children to stay together, and avoid prison time. Programs like these are working, and yield lower recidivism rates.

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  • Lancaster knows how to keep people out of jail, but it's expensive

    Officials around Pennsylvania who want to reduce recidivism are studying a re-entry program in Lancaster that gives former inmates intensive case management to help them return to society. That includes transitional housing, job interview clothing and workshops on things like personal finance and interviewing skills. It also addresses the small slips that often send someone back to jail by putting the fees many former prisoners owe on hold for six months and helping them tackle bureaucratic challenges that can seem daunting.

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  • Meet the Disruptor: Quaker City Coffee

    Christian Dennis stood up in front of his class and told them about his life: He sold drugs, went to prison three times before the age of 18, and realized he had to start over. That’s all his classmate, Bob Logue needed to hear to realize he wanted Dennis to be his business partner. Together, they started Quaker City Coffee, a business they hope can “bridge the gaps between Philly neighborhoods.” How can they do that? By hiring former inmates, and giving back money to the community.

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  • New Zealand Tries a Different Kind of Private Prison

    The privatized prison system is largely skewed against inmates, as most are funded based on the number of individuals incarcerated, creating a disincentive to invest in the rehabilitation and comprehensive treatment of inmates. But the Wiri prison in Auckland is piloting a new approach that focuses on the greater good: the government pays the prison for positive results based on recidivism rates and improved outcomes for inmates, especially the Maori minority.

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  • How a New York Police Official Targets Thoughts to Fight Crime

    A former prosecutor now works directly with offenders as a deputy police chief in a movement called Council of Thought And Action (COTA), often going directly to them in the community and bringing them together in support groups. The idea is that crime is a result of poor problem solving, and COTA is designed to restructure ways of thinking and behaving, using cognitive therapy tools to address past emotional baggage, and the power of social networks to provide a positive replacement to the destructive networks they had in the past.

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  • Conservation Meets Corrections

    There are currently 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States. According to rainforest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, that's a lot of brainpower and potential sitting unused. It was this thought that inspired the start of the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP). As a collaboration between the Washington State Department of Corrections and The Evergreen State College, SPP aims to bring science and education within the walls of confinement – all while promoting the conservation of both plant and animal species.

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  • Supporters of juvenile lifer gather for a 'community resentencing'

    The Supreme Court ruled about 2,500 life sentences handed down to juveniles were unconstitutional and resentencing hearings are taking place to decide if these men and women will receive parole. In Philadelphia, a grass roots effort called Community Resentencing is designed to give family and friends an opportunity to weigh in on options for one man in a way that satisfies the need for him to repent and seek forgiveness from those he wronged while also serving the community through community service and mentoring.

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  • Delivering Gourmet Pizza, and Jobs Training, in Cook County Jail

    Recipe for Change is a program that teaches incarcerated people Italian cuisine skills, which is meant to help them gain employment when they reenter society. An estimated 200 people have gone through the program. Similarly, other programs are focusing on helping formerly incarcerated people gain employment.

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  • Why a $10,000 Philly tax break got almost no takers

    In Philadelphia, the city enrolled out a program that offered companies a $10,000 tax credit. The catch? Hire former prisoners who have crime records. To the surprise of the city, the program tanked. Now, the city created a similar, but revised program “ the Fair Chance Hiring Initiative.”

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  • Empowering Women to Break the Jihadi Cycle

    In order to counter terrorism and reduce recidivism of incarcerated male jihadists', the Entrepreneurship and Proselytization Empowerment Program helps the wives of jailed extremists through counseling and lessons about entrepreneurship. The program can help these families stay afloat and decrease the appeal of extremism for their husbands upon release.

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