Story Search Results

Advanced Search

There are so many ways to search the solutions journalism stories in this database. Explore our searchable fields:

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 858 results for your search. View and Refine Your Search Terms

University degree awarded to student behind bars: his thesis on autoethnography is a survival story

Francesco Ciampa

September 07, 2021 |

News48 |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Italy, Catanzaro, Calabria

Magna Graecia University partnered with prison administrators in Catanzaro, Italy, to help two incarcerated men find a form of rehabilitation by writing their own lives' stories. In a process called autoethnography, the men, who are serving life sentences, focus on describing without moral judgment "the psychological and creative resources they used for survival before prison and during their time behind bars." This helps them see the traits that led them into crime might also lead them out of it. Both men tell of extraordinary personal growth through the experience, which others now seek to duplicate.

Read More
Go to Original Story
A push to change Colorado's prison culture and perceptions — one art piece at a time

Moe Clark

August 23, 2021 |

Colorado Newsline |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

The Prison Arts Initiative program, jointly run by the Colorado prison system and University of Denver, puts personal expression through visual and performing arts at the heart of the prisons' mission to become less punitive and more rehabilitative. With exhibits like "Chained Voices," featuring paintings by incarcerated people, the program aims to give hope to people by making them feel seen and valued as fully human. Formerly incarcerated artists say they valued not only the personal growth they experienced, but also the knowledge that their art could change public perceptions of the people in prison.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Some 'Most Impressive' Law School Applicants Are Convicted of Serious Crimes

Allen Arthur

August 18, 2021 |

Route Fifty |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, California

Starting in 2017, California has grown more open to licensing formerly incarcerated people to work as lawyers. State licensing authorities set high barriers to entry to the legal profession in their "moral fitness" license requirements. Vague rules can effectively rule out anyone with a serious criminal record. By clarifying its standards and making the process more transparent, the State Bar – aided by efforts to train licensing officials and by the California System-Involved Bar Association to educate prospective lawyers to pass the test – the system has evolved into a model for state-led change.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Prisons try incentives, education to get staff vaxxed, with mixed results

Cid Standifer

August 09, 2021 |

FreshWater Cleveland |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Mexico

While prisons generally have struggled to contain the spread of the coronavirus among staff and incarcerated people, New Mexico's program to vaccinate staff has succeeded where others have failed. New Mexico prison and health officials mounted an extensive education program. COVID "command centers" offer individual counseling to answer questions. Wardens get briefed regularly and then spread new information through the staff. Outreach to holdouts convinces some to get vaccinated. The staff vaccination rate is at least 85%, exceeding the rate for the adult population overall.

Read More
Go to Original Story
The Path Forward: Decriminalizing addiction through diversion

Ryan Lowery

July 29, 2021 |

Las Vegas Optic |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Alamosa, Colorado

In Alamosa County, law enforcement officers who believe drug abuse is at the root of a person's criminal behavior can refer that person to treatment and other services, rather than arresting and jailing them. The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, used in multiple places around the country, has helped the county jail fewer people and send more into treatment. It also has caused a large drop in arrest warrants, because case workers help people make their appointments in court and elsewhere. Now, San Miguel County, N.M., is working to adopt LEAD, though it needs more treatment facilities.

Read More
Go to Original Story
From a Prison Garden Sprouts Real Growth

Hannah Wallace

July 27, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oregon

Lettuce Grow teaches gardening skills to 200 incarcerated people per year in 16 Oregon prisons and juvenile detention centers. The teaching includes college-level courses and hands-on gardening on prison grounds, which then yields hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables for prison kitchens. Graduates of the program commit many fewer crimes than the average ex-prisoner and have found work after prison at nurseries and in other horticultural pursuits.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Austin youth re-entry program has 15% recidivism rate, compared to 75% nationwide

Clare O'Connor

July 26, 2021 |

KXAN-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Austin, Texas

Jail to Jobs pays youth while they get trained for jobs in construction, manufacturing, landscaping, and cooking. The youth come from youth detention, the streets, probation, and foster care and their trainers are formerly incarcerated. Jail to Jobs, with four locations in Austin, has helped more than 600 young people find employment despite their pasts. Only 15% of its graduates have been jailed afterward, a lower-than-average recidivism rate.

Read More
Go to Original Story
For girls with mothers in prison, a summer camp offers much-needed support

Amna Nawaz

July 21, 2021 |

PBS NewsHour |

Broadcast TV News |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Dallas, Texas

For three days each summer, the Girls Embracing Mothers (GEM) camp near Dallas gives girls an escape from their daily reality of being denied a normal relationship with their incarcerated mothers. Founded by a lawyer whose own mother was incarcerated, GEM combines typical summer-camp fun with trust-building exercises. During camp and afterward, the girls become part of a community of peers who understand each other's trauma – which puts them at higher risk of dropping out of school, mental health problems, and homelessness – in a place where they need not feel shame for their mothers' status.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Can ‘Bad Men' Ever Change?

Amelia Schonbek

July 21, 2021 |

The Cut |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

Among the many restorative justice programs in the U.S., the Domestic Violence Safe Dialogue program was one of the few to arrange face-to-face dialogue between survivors and men who had violently abused women. This form of surrogate dialogue – the pairings are between strangers – helps two people who want to change but can't do it alone. After extensive preparation and led by a facilitator, the meeting gives survivors a way to hear they were not to blame for the harm done to them, and for the men to admit responsibility and help someone else in ways that traditional punitive justice often cannot.

Read More
Go to Original Story
After 'painfully slow' start, restorative justice program tries to reset

Paul Cuno-Booth

July 17, 2021 |

Sentinel Source (The Keene Sentinel) |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cheshire County, New Hampshire

The Cheshire County Restorative Justice Program works to take low-level defendants, accused of things like shoplifting or alcohol violations out of court and into an alternative process, sparing them criminal records that would later weigh them down. The program’s goal is to push the legal system toward restorative justice, reimagining its traditional processes.

Read More
Go to Original Story