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

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  • Austin youth re-entry program has 15% recidivism rate, compared to 75% nationwide

    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.

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  • For girls with mothers in prison, a summer camp offers much-needed support

    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.

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  • Can ‘Bad Men' Ever Change?

    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.

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  • After 'painfully slow' start, restorative justice program tries to reset

    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.

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  • Key to disrupting Denver's homeless-to-jail pipeline? Permanent supportive housing, study finds.

    Providing permanent housing with a menu of health and social services saved the city of Denver millions of dollars and stabilized the lives of hundreds of people. A three-year controlled experiment provided various services, including substance use and mental health treatment, to 724 people who had cycled in and out of jail and the streets. The half who were provided housing in addition to the services enjoyed far fewer arrests and emergency room visits. Most stayed in their provided housing and took greater advantage of routine health care. Social impact bonds financed the upfront costs.

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  • Many in Jail Can Vote, but Exercising That Right Isn't Easy

    Chicago's Cook County Jail enabled 2,200 incarcerated people to vote in the November 2020 election by opening the jail to voter registration drives, civic lessons, distribution of voter education materials, two weekends of early voting, and four polling places inside the jail. Most people held in local jails nationwide are eligible to vote but usually don't, due to lack of awareness, intentional barriers, and logistical hassles. Cook County helped people exercise their rights and provided them with education to improve their reentry to society after prison.

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  • Keeping People Out of Jail Keeps People Out of Jail

    When prosecutors in Boston and Baltimore stopped prosecuting certain non-violent, minor offenses, crime of all sorts, from minor to violent, went down. Getting prosecuted and jailed can in itself increase the probability that people will get in more trouble. When their mistakes are not compounded by an arrest record that limits their job and housing prospects, they are apt to stay out of trouble. The prosecutors and research found that simply excluding cases of non-violent, minor drug possession, disorderly conduct, shoplifting from the system does not encourage more crime; probably the opposite.

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  • Some youth avoid detention and rehabilitate at Central Oregon ranch

    Youth in Oregon who get court-ordered rehabilitation as an alternative to youth detention might end up at the J Bar J Ranch, which despite its name is less a working ranch than a boarding school with individual counseling aimed at helping troubled young people change themselves. Success takes many forms – high school diplomas, reconnecting with family, setting and meeting personal goals – but first the youth must earn a place at the ranch, which can only take 28 at a time.

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  • The ‘prison' with no fence: Go inside a Charlotte women's center changing lives for good

    Charlotte's Center for Women uses a rehabilitative approach to incarceration, letting up to 30 women at a time live in a group home that provides both therapy and connections to employment. Women with one to three years left on their sentences can apply for a spot in the residential work-release program. They and their families – most are mothers – get the counseling they need to adjust to a better life once the residents get released. The women say the small freedoms they are granted in the home, plus the respect and help they get, do for them what prison never could in changing lives.

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  • Incarceration after COVID: how the pandemic could permanently change jails and prisons

    Across Wisconsin, the pandemic pushed prisons and jails to work quickly to lower their numbers of prisoners, in some cases accelerating reforms that had been planned apart from virus containment. Incarceration hit a 20-year low in December 2020 through a variety of mechanisms, including issuing citations instead of arresting; limiting arrests for parole violations or on old warrants; and using electronic monitoring. Some jails saw fewer coronavirus infections, as well as population numbers averaging much lower than before. But a backlogged court system has reversed some of the gains.

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