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UnCommon Law Helps Inmates Serving Life Sentences Earn Back Their Freedom

Jennie Butler

April 26, 2020 |

NowThis News |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, California

The California law firm UnCommon Law is helping people in prison make parole through group counseling and training. The firm facilitates conversations around insight, helping participants understand and explain their own personal journey and reckon with the impact of their actions, so that they can convey this to their parole board. Since 2006, UnCommon law has helped 248 men and women receive parole, a 60% success rate.

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Prisons' Use of Solitary Confinement Explodes with the COVID-19 Pandemic, While Advocates Push for Alternatives

Jean Casella Katie Rose Quandt

April 10, 2020 |

Solitary Watch |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Louisiana

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues on, prisons are having to figure out ways to keep it from spreading across inmate populations. A popular response has been cell lockdowns, drawing criticism from advocacy organizations and judges across the country. Being compared to solitary confinement, which takes extreme physical and mental tolls on individuals, groups like Amend, the Vera Institute, and the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture are offering alternative plans that are less punitive while still protecting those experiencing incarceration.

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A New Tactic To Fight Coronavirus: Send The Homeless From Jails To Hotels

Abbie Vansickle

April 06, 2020 |

The Marshall Project |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

California’s governor signed an executive order allocating $50 million to lease hotel rooms for those experiencing homelessness after being released from prison as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. While the hotel business is at a standstill, it provides shelter and the needed self-isolation to one of the most vulnerable populations. So far, 7,000 hotel rooms have been reserved for these individuals.

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Vermont inmates released to spread out population

Anna Merriman

March 28, 2020 |

Sentinel Source (The Keene Sentinel) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Vermont

To reduce incarcerated people’s exposure to COVID-19 behind bars before anyone had even fallen ill, Vermont officials all but stopped new admissions to state prisons and released hundreds from custody in February and March. Lowering the population by more than 200, from its late December benchmark to late March, was designed to make the prisons less crowded and to avoid introducing people to a potential virus hot spot if at all possible. The measures required coordination among prison officials, courts, prosecutors, and halfway houses.

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As pandemic spreads, nonprofit is on a mission to clear out Twin Cities jails, one bail bond at a time

Andy Mannix

March 27, 2020 |

Minnesota Star Tribune |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minnesota Freedom Fund has ramped up its spending to pay bail for people with low-level charges. The COVID-19 threat has added urgency to this increasingly popular response to the cash bail system. With jails and prisons posing a great threat to inmates during a pandemic, there have been increased calls to release non-violent inmates to slow the spread and protect those experiencing incarceration.

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Inmates Released, Deputies Get COVID-19 Gear

Sheena Elzie

March 20, 2020 |

Spectrum News 1 Ohio |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Hamilton, Ohio

In Butler County, Ohio, law enforcement and jails are adapting quickly as the COVID19 pandemic continues on. They’re working with courts and judges to allow low-level and non-violent offenders to be released and have stopped allowing visitations. Officers also get full protective gear for responding to possible coronavirus cases, although many reports have been taken over the phone lately, instead of in person.

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Nowhere to Go: Out of jail, recovery housing hard to find

Hadley Barndollar

March 15, 2020 |

Seacoast Online |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

New Hampshire's Rockinham County gives some people with extensive drug and criminal histories an offramp from the criminal legal system, in the form of housing at Cross Roads House and a drug court to emphasize treatment over punishment. But, while other cities in the state meet such needs with multiple programs, the second-most populous county in the state has a severe shortage of supportive housing and services. Such services can make the difference between prison and success, and even between life and death in a place with high rates of overdose deaths.

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Private Prisons Profit Off Incarceration. One In Australia Shows How To Flip The Script

Rae Ellen Bichell

March 09, 2020 |

KUNC |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Australia

Using a performance-based contract to give a private prison company the incentive to lower recidivism has encouraged the private operator of Australia’s largest prison to foster a more positive environment and provide a rich array of rehabilitative programs. Instead of penalizing the prison operator for problems, the contract rewards it for success, defined as fewer people returning to prison. Early indications are that it’s working well, by providing job training, counseling that continues after incarceration, and help finding housing post-release.

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What Would a World Without Prisons Look Like?

Patricia Leigh Brown

March 06, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

Deanna Van Buren and her nonprofit firm Designing Justice/Designing Spaces use architecture to advance social justice and criminal-justice-reform ideas, designing workplaces, meeting places, and homes nationwide founded on the notion of "what a world without prisons could look like." The firm's projects, often planned with input from the people directly affected, have included privacy-enhancing temporary living units for people recently released from prison, a "peacemaking" space in Syracuse, N.Y., and two of the first restorative-justice meeting places for crime victims and those who harmed them.

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City watchdog says Chicago's arrest diversion program for youth can't be evaluated due to poor record keeping and lack of collaboration

Annie Sweeney

February 25, 2020 |

Chicago Tribune |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Over the past 14 years, the city of Chicago has been running a Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC) to help divert youth away from the criminal justice system. The goal of the program, which took a $5 million investment, was to connect them with social services, favoring rehabilitation over punitive measures. But because of record destruction, lack of record keeping, and an inability by the police and Department of Family and Support Services to collaborate, a recent audit has proved unable to determine the success of the JISC.

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