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

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  • San Quentin's Breakthrough Prison Newsroom

    San Quentin Prison's media created by the men incarcerated there have gone beyond rehabilitation of individuals to a broader mission of promoting criminal justice policy reform by reframing the narrative about those who have committed crimes and the system's inequities. Through San Quentin News, the podcast Ear Hustle, and a series of dialogues between incarcerated men and criminal justice officials, their stories have shed new light on prison life and those held in prison, and formed a cadre of journalists who gained experience behind bars and have become prominent advocates on the outside.

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  • COVID-19 Motivates Policy Overhaul For County Jails In Montana

    In response to COVID-19 infection fears, Montana jails rapidly shrank the numbers of pretrial detainees held on nonviolent charges in a demonstration of how quickly a change in policy – without even changing state law – can decrease incarceration rates. Based on numbers like those seen at Missoula County Detention Facility, which dropped its jail population by 37% in March and April by turning away people who ordinarily would have been jailed, decarceration advocates hope to make the changes permanent after studying the effects on crime.

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  • How Bangor drug court participants are getting help staying sober during the pandemic

    Bangor drug court in Maine has turned to the use of Zoom to keep in contact with program participants during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although meeting via video call can disguise some physical symptoms of drug use, this new process has so far seen success with all participants still enrolled and one even graduating from the program.

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  • How nonprofits are getting people out of metro Detroit jails during COVID-19 pandemic

    Nonprofit bail funds, which use donated money to pay the bail of low-income people held in jail on pending charges, have won the release of about 55 people in Detroit during the COVID-19 crisis. Beyond the immediate need to free more people from an environment that makes social distancing difficult, the bail funds are part of a larger movement challenging a system that disproportionately affects people of color. The combination of bail payments, bond reductions, and administrative releases have reduced Wayne County's jail population by almost half.

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  • Youth Are Flipping an Abandoned North Carolina Prison into a Sustainable Farm

    A former North Carolina prison has been reclaimed by the nonprofit Growing Change to teach sustainable farming to youth who otherwise might be doomed to their own prison terms without an effective intervention. The 9-year-old program, while small, is meant to serve as a model for reusing many other shuttered prisons as the nation’s incarceration numbers fall. Boasting positive effects on recidivism, the program’s focus is the racially diverse youth of the rural, impoverished eastern part of the state – the same people who disproportionately get imprisoned.

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  • Diversion program thrives on cooperation, embraces skeptics

    The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program in Alamosa, Colorado, gives police officers the option of sending people to substance abuse treatment rather than straight into the criminal justice system. Used in non-violent cases, the diversion program is based on a harm-reduction model that uses a health-care approach rather than a punitive approach to address the underlying issues when a crime is committed. Some police officers object to the program's mission, but proponents say that forcing compliance would be counterproductive.

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  • NM jail populations plummet amid joint efforts to avoid COVID-19 outbreak; positive test rates are low

    New Mexico criminal justice officials joined forces to lower local jail populations by one-third in just 11 weeks, a rushed COVID-19 response that not only seems to have prevented widespread illness but also led law enforcement officials to question whether they need to lock up so many people in the future. Prosecutors, police, and county jails arrested fewer people, released low-risk inmates, and suspended “warrant sweeps” and jailing people for technical probation and parole violations. With 27 jails less than half-full, a top prosecutor acknowledged the virus response may turn into standard practice.

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  • Arrests decrease under diversion program

    Alamosa, Colorado has lowered its jail population and the number of felony cases and arrests, and has broken the cycle of repeat offending, by diverting people with drug problems from prosecution into treatment. The local version of a national program called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) was modeled on one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which worked best when people in the program maintained a close relationship with their case workers. One of many problems those relationships solved: the high number of missed court dates, which result in arrest warrants.

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  • How Centre County Correctional Facility has adjusted amid the coronavirus pandemic

    Centre County, Pa., jail officials limited the spread of coronavirus inside its facility with extensive testing of all incarcerated people and staff, isolating those with the virus, barring visitors, and working with a coalition of court and law enforcement agencies to reduce the jail population. The jail, near State College, Pa., took action early with educational sessions and a rigorous cleaning regimen. Re-entry programs stepped up efforts to find housing for those released from the jail, although job prospects for them are bleak.

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  • Solutions to restore inmates' mental health and get them to trial

    In Texas, legislators and advocates are working to address mental health concerns for individuals entering or in the criminal justice system. For those already in jail, telepsychiatry is being offered to help rehabilitate inmates. For those just entering the system, a mental health court in Travis County has been developed to connect people with needed mental health services so that they can stand trial and even have their cases dismissed.

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