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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 321 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • How COVID Impacts Education — Prison Literature Club Adapts During COVID Lockdowns

    March 11, 2021 |

    Rafu Shimpo |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Quentin, California

    An educational program called ROOTS (Restoring Our Original True Selves) taught at San Quentin prison in Marin County, California, has transformed into the Literature Club due to the pandemic and has reached other nearby prisons. The Literature Club, started by the Asian Prisoner Support Committee in Oakland, pairs people who are incarcerated with people outside, and they exchange emails to update each other on their reading progress and reflections. "More than a reading group, it’s a supportive space where emotions are openly discussed."

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Will New York allow incarcerated people to access treatment for drug addiction?

    March 05, 2021 |

    New York Focus |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York

    Medically assisted treatment is proven to reduce fatal opioid overdoses, particularly among formerly incarcerated people. When people are denied treatment in jail or prison and then resume their previous doses once they're released, they are up to 40 times more likely to die of an overdose. Only 18 of New York's county jails and fewer than one in five of its prisons provide access to such treatment drugs as Suboxone and methadone. When Rhode Island became the first state to make MAT available throughout its prisons, its overdose deaths among people recently released from incarceration dropped 60%.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • The 'Hidden Punishment' of Prison Food

    March 02, 2021 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Charleston, Maine

    Mountain View Correctional Facility in Maine has turned its food service into a farm-to-table experience, sourcing healthier, more appetizing meals from its own apple orchard and vegetable garden and from local farmers. Prison food is traditionally a "hidden punishment" of bland or inedible fare that has poor nutritional value. By eating locally, cooking from scratch, and training incarcerated people in horticulture and cooking skills, the prison is fostering an atmosphere that's healthier physiologically and psychologically.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Teacher in Greece offers hope to inmates through TV classes

    February 18, 2021 |

    Associated Press |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Greece, Avlona

    When the pandemic shut schools down in Greece, that included the schooling system in place for those in Greece’s Avlona Special Youth Detention Center; so, the director of the school started broadcasting lessons over a TV channel. The director and his team worked together to get the station up and running and then with the young men who are incarcerated to popularize it throughout the detention center via word of mouth.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Tech Company Aims to Disrupt Predatorial Prison Phone Industry

    February 17, 2021 |

    Colorlines |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    A free mobile app called Ameelio opens a free channel of communication between incarcerated people and their families, to avoid the price-gouging telephone services that prisons and jails authorize to charge people exorbitant rates to talk. Ameelio's app makes sending letters with photos easier than doing it by snail mail. Nonprofits can also use the free service to communicate with clients. Ameelio, which is supported by donations and grants, is piloting a video-conferencing service.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • These local nonprofits bring books to incarcerated individuals in North Carolina

    February 02, 2021 |

    The Daily Tar Heel |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

    Prison Books Collective and a partner organization, N.C. Women's Prison Book Project, for 15 years have collected donated books and then distributed them inside North Carolina prisons to incarcerated people who crave new reading material. Answering requests, which sometimes can be quite specific as to genre, the groups fulfill orders from their revolving supply. Combined, the groups make up to 75 shipments per week and in return hear from people inside about how meaningful the donated books are to them.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • St. Louis comedian shares story of redemption, reentry following prison sentence

    January 28, 2021 |

    KSDK-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    Under 3 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

    When people emerge from long prison sentences, they can be in a hurry to put their lives back on track. But, when enrolled in a voluntary re-entry program called the Concordance Academy of Leadership, they first must go through intense mental health counseling that begins while they're incarcerated before they launch a search for a job or permanent housing. The St. Louis-based program boasts much lower-than-average recidivism rates, in part because it responds to post-release mistakes with more counseling rather than automatic punishment.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • How a project is training incarcerated people to become journalists

    January 26, 2021 |

    Poynter |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    In its first year, the Prison Journalism Project published hundreds of articles by more than 140 incarcerated writers in 28 states. The project provides journalism-skills training and then a platform for the work of incarcerated journalists. This delivers news and viewpoints that otherwise would not be heard by outsiders, spreading awareness of prison conditions and empowering often-ignored people to tell their stories.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Inmates are learning to be their own bosses after they leave jail behind

    January 24, 2021 |

    Mashable |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Charlotte, North Carolina

    Inmates to Entrepreneurs has graduated 1 million people from its eight-week program that teaches incarcerated people how to start their own low-capital businesses. An extension of a free online entrepreneurship course, Starter U, the program offered in-person workshops until COVID forced it to go virtual. One study shows the unemployment rate in December 2020 for formerly incarcerated people was more than 27%, more than four times higher than the general public. Inmates to Entrepreneurs was started 28 years ago in North Carolina's prison system.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Zoom Funerals, Outdoor Classes: Jails and Prisons Evolve Amid the Pandemic

    January 19, 2021 |

    The Marshall Project |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    When the pandemic forced jails and prisons to ban educational classes and cut off visits between outsiders and their loved ones behind bars, some jailers opened their facilities to remote-learning and -visiting tools. The result is a boom in the use of video conferencing for literacy classes, vocational training, family visits, and even to enable incarcerated people to attend family funerals. Some advocates for the incarcerated worry that in-person interactions could permanently be replaced by video, even after the risk of viral infection has eased.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

Go to All Solutions in Focus