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

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  • Pa. state prisons transform mental health care, but is it working?

    The Department of Corrections in PA pledged to transform care for mentally ill inmates. Its system of diversionary treatment has achieved some success but continues to face skepticism.

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  • Harvard's prestigious debate team loses to New York prison inmates

    The Bard prison initiative, in New York, allows inmates at correctional facilities to take liberal arts classes and improve their opportunities to find work upon release.

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  • Prison Without Punishment

    Both incarceration and crime rates are low is Western Europe where the focus in prison is on rehabilitating prisoners so they can return to society. American leaders visited a prison in Germany to consider implementing certain aspects in the United States.

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  • When Prisons Need to Be More Like Nursing Homes

    The U.S. prison population is aging, which is costly because older inmates need more care. Some states have responded by creating special wards, having the young inmates care for the old, or building nursing homes.

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  • Can Prisons Reduce Recidivism by Inviting Victims of Crime to Talk to Prisoners? 

    A Houston man whose sister was murdered created a way to help his own pain and possibly foster more empathy and understanding among inmates. The restorative justice program, Bridges to Life, has grown to hundreds of volunteers throughout Texas, which includes crime victims who tell their stories and work with inmates to impress upon them the harm that their actions can inflict on others. The prisoners are encouraged to open up about their own lives with the idea that both groups will find healing.

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  • Putting Fewer Innocents Behind Bars

    Pre-trial detention for non-risk offenders has proven to be socially harmful, costly, and actually increases the crime rate. The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is a national program that aims to decrease pre-trial detentions based upon individual merit, and provides ways that a newly released offender can be surveilled, have mentoring, and receive treatment for mental health or substance abuse. The initiative has effectively helped to keep low-level offenders out of jail.

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  • Everything you think you know about disciplining kids is wrong

    Disciplining schoolchildren has led many students down the “school-to-prison-pipeline” because teachers have focused on controlling students rather than instilling problem solving skills. Ross Greene has developed Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS), which is a method that trains staff at schools to develop relationships with disruptive kids and help them problem solve. With the CPS method in practice in 2012, Central School has reported fewer students sent to the principal’s office and no suspensions.

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  • Prison Born

    More women are being incarcerated around the United States and that has spurred more institutions to create prison nurseries, which allow women to be with their newborns. It's not a new idea, but it's finding support among prison advocates as well as budget hawks because research shows nurseries can lower recidivism rates among mothers. The idea of children in prison remains controversial however.

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  • A Mother Forgives the Man Who Raped and Killed Her Daughter

    Restorative justice emphasizes accountability and making amends by facilitating meetings between people who committed a crime and those who were hurt by that crime. Victims can get their questions answered and express to the offender how their lives were impacted and the offender apologizes and presents specific ways they will make amends, such as community service or drug treatment. The method improves recidivism rates and gives victims a small sense of control. One participant, Linda White, was inspired to become a vocal and active advocate of the approach after speaking with a man who killed her daughter.

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  • Life on Parole

    Connecticut is attempting to reduce prison recidivism by changing parole practices. Changes to the system are allowing parole officers to foster relationships with parolees and counsel them as people, not as cases.

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