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

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  • One Of America's Poorest Cities Has A Radical Plan To Remake Itself

    Evergreen Cooperative in Cleveland is on a path to make wealth and business ownership more accessible. They operate several cooperative businesses: a laundry and a solar panel firm among them, all of which choose to welcome most applicants for employee-ownership, regardless of income or wealth or if they have spent time in prison. The model hopes to grow through the city with the rise of patient capital and growing support of the cooperative movement.

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  • John Pace and His Friends Expected to Die in Prison

    Once deemed youthful “superpredators” condemned to spend their entire adult lives in prison, the peer counselors in Philadelphia’s Life After Life support group help other formerly incarcerated people transition back to freedom. Of the more than 100 former “juvenile lifers” who returned to Philadelphia after the Supreme Court deemed them eligible for a second chance, none has been convicted of a new crime or serious parole violation – a key metric that encourages Pennsylvania to continue whittling down its record-high population of juvenile-life-without-parole inmates.

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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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  • 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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  • A small state with big ideas on rehabilitating female prisoners

    Across the United States, women statistically receive a higher rate of disciplinary tickets for minor infractions compared to their male counterparts. In Vermont, however, where corrections falls under the Department of Human Services, employees of the correctional facilities are trained in gender-informed practices to better suit their responses to women and men offenders.

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  • Bringing Arts and Culture into the Work of Public Safety and Criminal Justice

    A collaboration between artists, lawyers, and community members has resulted in expungement clinics that clean or clear criminal records in a manner that is legally binding and emotionally therapeutic. Clinic attendees are invited to literally shred their records and are then presented with a blank piece of paper made by co-op members—many formerly incarcerated people themselves—representing a new start.

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  • Every employee at this grilled cheese restaurant has a criminal record

    Emily Turner, an attorney-turned-activist, runs the restaurant All Square, which only employs people with a criminal record. After years working in the field of prisoner reentry for the government, she decided to create a solution that would directly help people: providing jobs. By paying a living wage, providing mental health support, and teaching business skills, the “fellows,” as they are called, are finding a sustainable way to bounce back.

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  • Can a Bible college in this NC prison make a difference?

    The Field Minister Program by the College at Southeastern Baptist Seminary offers inmates inside Nash Correctional the opportunity to study ministry and ultimately be used as a tool to reduce recidivism. Inmates with long terms lead the cultural change within the prisons by helping departing inmates find jobs, mentors and communities, running their own religious services, and becoming juvenile mentors, GED tutors, hospice care workers, chaplain support, and more. Studies done on similar programs show that Bible college reduces participant misconduct by 65-80%, and many inmates share stories of success.

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  • Miami Thrift Store Gives Women Coming Out Of Prison Jobs

    Ladies Empowerment Action Program (LEAP), a Miami nonprofit organization, is helping women transition out of prison and into employment. Women are connected to a transitional job at Dragonfly Thrift Boutique, a store built with the explicit purpose of employing women coming out of prison. During their release period, the female participants go through an entrepreneurship training program to urge them to one day start their own companies and further the cycle of employment.

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  • Meet the Delaware Teen Fighting for the Rights of Former Juvenile Offenders

    After her neighbor was incarcerated, a Delaware teenager and her brother began supporting youth coming out of detention with clothes, school supplies and other items. Their nonprofit grew and was so successful in raising money and awareness that the state legislature took over the re-entry fund just a year and a half after the organization's launch. The founder is now working on a pilot program to provide financial literacy training for formerly incarcerated youth.

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