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

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  • Prisoners hope that education can erase a stigma

    November 26, 2021 |

    The Hechinger Report |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Cottonwood, Idaho

    Idaho's nine prisons have more than 30 postsecondary educational programs geared to helping incarcerated people get hired in career-track, technical jobs after their release from prison. The prisons focus on jobs in demand and woo potential employers with tours of their well-equipped classrooms. They also focus on education that produces certifications that carry more weight in industry. Studies show those credentials produce better odds against people returning to prison. Such programs nationwide have suffered from inadequate funding, but more federal money is in the pipeline.

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  • Green Jobs Offer Ex-Offenders a Career Path after Prison

    November 18, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Miami, Florida

    At Florida's Everglades Correctional Institution, incarcerated men teach a course offered through a college correspondence school that can lead to certification to work as a wastewater treatment plant operator, a well-paying green-industry job in high demand. An incarcerated journalist tells the story of how demanding lessons in chemistry, microbiology, and algebra prepare students for the state certification exam. Hundreds have taken the course and many have found jobs in the industry after prison, although many employers remain reluctant to hire people with felony records.

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  • Prison offers little to ease domestic violence trauma. This program tries to fill the gaps

    November 18, 2021 |

    PBS NewsHour |

    Broadcast TV News |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

    A New Way of Life gives formerly incarcerated women something that most did not get from prison: treatment for the trauma that so many incarcerated women suffered from domestic violence. As an antidote to a system geared to punishing wrongdoing without addressing its causes, New Way provides housing and supportive programs, many of which are taught by women with similar experiences. Some of the women tell their stories of lives repaired and families reunited thanks to New Way's interventions.

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  • After prison, the fight to be a firefighter

    November 10, 2021 |

    San Francisco Chronicle |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    One year after California legislators created a legal opening for formerly incarcerated firefighters to use their prison training to land firefighter jobs on the outside, the system envisioned by the law's supporters has failed to materialize. Felony criminal records serve as a barrier to employment in such jobs ordinarily. The law was intended to create a pathway through expunging those records for people trained to fight wildfires while in prison. A slow, poorly planned rollout and lack of tracking data means no one knows how many have benefited, though it appears few have thanks to a daunting process.

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  • Evidence-based reentry resources key for sicker incarcerated population, researchers say

    November 08, 2021 |

    North Carolina Health News |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, North Carolina

    Community health workers with North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program (NC FIT) counsel people recently released from jails and prisons to help them get the care they need for mental and physical health problems. The program closes some but not all of the gaps left by the state's inadequate Medicaid coverage and prison health services. Banking on the trust that comes with shared experiences, the formerly incarcerated health workers can connect people with medication-assisted treatment for substance use, covid-related treatments, and mental health care, all common ailments post-incarceration.

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  • Home was a nightmare, then home was prison. Finally home is now a refuge.

    October 21, 2021 |

    Mother Jones |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

    Home Free is a small, transitional-housing program for women who served long prison sentences for crimes against or on behalf of their abusers. A population long neglected, the women are part of a community recovering from the trauma of prison and the trauma that put them there. Giving them autonomy, in ways typical re-entry programs do not, is key to their recovery. “Home Free is the culmination of a decades-long struggle by women to be seen and supported by a system that has condemned and ignored them.”

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  • In Venezuela, a Rum Maker Offers Gangsters a Life Outside of Crime

    October 16, 2021 |

    The New York Times |

    Multi-Media |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Venezuela, Sabaneta

    Rather than fleeing or fighting the twin threats to its business from criminal gangs and an aggressively anti-business government, the managers of Venezuelan rum-maker Ron Santa Teresa chose to make peace with both through social programs that have calmed what once was one of the violent country's most troubled towns. The company's Proyecto Alcatraz creates economic opportunity for gang members, providing them with job training and psychological counseling. It also courted favor with the socialist government with a housing initiative for the poor. Both programs have proved a boon for business.

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  • The Radical Shift in Drug Treatment Happening Inside California Prisons

    October 15, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Quentin, California

    To combat opioid overdose deaths among incarcerated people, the California prison system in January 2020 launched a treatment program that combines medication-assisted treatment with professional and peer counseling. The program uses the three most effective medications to reduce opioid dependency. The one-year program features intense counseling, individual and group, based on a workbook that takes gender and trauma-related causes for drug abuse into account. Preliminary data show a decrease in deaths at San Quentin prison. More than 15,000 people have enrolled in the program.

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  • From Felon to Fighter: The Redemption of Jose Santana

    October 14, 2021 |

    Santa Barbara Independent |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Santa Barbara, California

    When California adopted a new law in 2020 allowing formerly incarcerated firefighters to petition to have their criminal records expunged and parole waived, the law excluded people with the most serious, violent offenses. But it left others with violent offenses in a gray area, subject to objections that could deny them a chance to become professional firefighters, using the skills they learned at one of the state's 43 prison fire camps. This story profiles the first man from Santa Barbara County to win this right, and the obstacles he faced in the process.

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  • He befriended his brother's murderer. In each other, they found healing

    October 11, 2021 |

    Los Angeles Times |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    Since the 1990s, California prisons' victim-aid office has arranged for crime victims to meet with the incarcerated people who harmed them or their family members. These victim-offender dialogues, a restorative-justice method offering alternative forms of accountability, have helped survivors heal by providing information they could not glean from the traditional justice process. Some have also experienced reconciliation and forgiveness. Only victims can initiate the process, and most incarcerated people are deemed ineligible after screening and preparation for the face-to-face dialogues.

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