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

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  • ‘People helping people': North Dakota's addiction fix

    In rural North Dakota where clinical treatment centers are hard to find, a program called Free Through Recovery "seeks to drive down North Dakota’s prison rates by creating networks of sobriety and support around people on probation and parole." Although local law enforcement claims the program is not an alternative to incarceration, in the short time it has been in operation, it has served over 550 people with many participants securing both housing and work opportunities.

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  • North Dakota may hold key to Wyoming's prison woes

    Criminal justice reform succeeds when states prioritize rehabilitation and over punishment. In North Dakota, the Free Through Recovery program increases the number of stakeholders in a parolee’s success, creating multiple levels of behavioral health support. The program is part of a criminal justice legislation package that included sentencing reforms and alternatives to incarceration. The state has been successful in beginning to reduce its overcrowded prison populations and serves as a model for other states.

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  • When a man kills his wife in India, what happens to the children?

    Global Network for Equality grew out of sociological research of men imprisoned for killing their wives. Researcher KR Raja saw how many children had been effectively orphaned by such killings, and how the men's rehabilitation in prison depended in part on knowing their families were provided for. GNE helps hundreds of children up to age 18 with living expenses, emotional support, and college applications and costs. While the effects on prisoners aren't shown, the program clearly improves the lives of the affected children.

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  • America's Other Family-Separation Crisis

    As incarceration rates of women in America continue to rise, Still She Rises, a project of the Bronx Defenders, uses a holistic approach to legal defense for incarcerated mothers in Tulsa, OK. Attorneys for the organization investigate injustices in cases and represent local, often impoverished, mothers, who face losing custody of their children in the face of the law.

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  • Emergency Preparedness for Prisons Isn't Just Sandbags and Non-perishables

    After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 stranded people incarcerated in the New Orleans jail without food or water, the city used the experience not to question its disaster preparedness but instead to rethink who needs to be incarcerated in the first place. By easing policies in cash bail and arrests for petty offenses, the city cut its jail population by two-thirds and replaced its flooded jail with one less than one-quarter the original size. The new policies helped inspire Louisiana to revise its sentencing standards in an effort to end its distinction for having the world's highest incarceration rate.

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  • Spreading the Good News of Worker-Owned Businesses in D.C.

    When Juan Reid had a hard time finding a job after his release from prison, he finally founded a worker cooperative called Tightshift Laboring Cooperative. He wanted to create sustainable employment opportunities for himself and others coming out of prison. This is part of a larger trend of worker cooperatives in the Washington, D.C. area. The DC Employee Ownership Initiative and Coop DC are two groups helping businesses like Tightshift and others.

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  • Law & Disorder: Progressive Prosecutors Hope to Dismantle Mass Incarceration

    Across the United States, individuals and organizations are seeking to shift the criminal justice system through District Attorney elections. From online communities like colorofchange.org, which seeks to support grassroots election efforts, to individuals like Minnesota’s Mark Haase, who is running on a platform of diversity and inclusion, to the Texas Organizing Project that wants to empower Black and Latinx communities, each of these missions seeks to create more equity and transparency in the criminal justice system.

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  • Glasgow was once the ‘murder capital of Europe.' Now it's a model for cutting crime.

    Glasgow used to be known as the murder capital of Europe. But police began tackling crime as a public health issue and partnered with doctors, social workers and educators, while also increasing stops and searches of potential offenders and getting harsher sentences passd for carrying knives. Perpetrators get help with education and jobs and the city has seen a 60 percent drop in homicides, but some experts caution that other factors could contribute to that decline.

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  • Rethinking Alaska's only maximum-security prison

    At Spring Creek Correctional Center, top officials are instituting new programming for inmates in the hopes of creating a culture of respect and innovation, while decreasing recidivism rates. Some of the new initiatives at Spring Creek include classes in business and art, support groups for those trying to stay sober, mentorship for inmates obtaining their GED, and a discussion group on ethics and morals. What makes all of these unique? They’re all prisoner-led.

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  • How to make prisons more humane

    A North Dakota prison looks to Norway's prison model that focuses on prisoner rehabilitation rather than punishment. By giving offenders responsibility, private space, and access to the outside world, these prisons have found lower rates of recidivism and more success with rehabilitation.

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