Prison re-entry programs: A solution to the recidivism problem
Did you know that more than 75 percent of released prisoners are rearrested within five years? That's according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. With more than 1 million individuals in prison at the end of 2014, that's a huge number...
source: By Danielle Wegert
Race and Ethnicity of Violent Crime Ofenders and Arrestees, 2018
In 2018, based on data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, black people were overrepresented among persons arrested for nonfatal violent crimes (33%) and for serious nonfatal violent crimes (36%) relative to their representation in...
source: U.S. Department of Justice
Black lawmakers: Medicaid expansion, criminal justice reform needed
Gathered outside the state Capitol Wednesday, with three of the state's new magnolia-themed flags nearby, Angela Turner-Ford, a Democratic lawmaker from West Point, noted the moment. "We're happy to join in the celebration...
source: Daily Journal
Why protecting prisons from COVID-19 is everyone's problem
The COVID-19 pandemic that has devastated the United States has raged with particular ferocity inside prisons and jails. Such facilities are characterized by poor sanitation and health care, and house large concentrations of high-risk individuals; social distancing is nearly...
source: The Christian Science Monitor
Plus program provides inmates opportunities to change their lives
The Wabash Valley Correctional Facility focuses on rehabilitation through their PLUS program. The Program Living Units Serve (PLUS) program was created 16 years ago in hopes of encouraging offenders to choose an alternative to criminal behavior and thinking.
source: WTWO-TV
Gov. Baker defends decision to vaccinate inmates before general public
Massachusetts will start vaccinating individuals living and working in congregate care facilities and prisons on Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Wednesday. The facilities include residential congregate care programs, group homes,...
source: NBC News
Second chances: Why providing Pell Grants for prison inmates is a sound investment
This year gives about 463,000 of the more than 2 million Americans behind bars — and President-elect Joe Biden — a chance at a fresh start. Buried deep in Congress' latest COVID-19 relief deal is a provision...
source: USA Today
Who should respond to 911 calls related to mental illness? Allentown discusses police alternatives, though path forward remains hazy
Allentown officials are largely in agreement: Recruiting social workers to help city police respond to 911 calls involving mental health crises, substance abuse and homelessness issues is, conceptually,...
source: The Morning Call
Cities say they want to defund the police — their budgets say otherwise
The rallying cry to defund the police that erupted with George Floyd's killing almost eight months ago has come up against political realities with most major U.S. cities unwilling to make meaningful cuts. Even as the 50...
Illinois General Assembly approves sweeping criminal justice overhaul that would end cash bail, require cops to wear body cameras
State lawmakers on Wednesday passed a sweeping overhaul of the state's criminal justice system that would end cash bail and eventually require every police officer in the state to be equipped with...
source: Chicago Tribune
New law restores college grants to prison inmates
Prison inmates are once again eligible for Pell Grants to pay for their college education while they serve their sentences, thanks to a provision tucked into the 5,000 pages of the omnibus appropriations bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald...
source: The Legal Examiner
A high school student needed help with tuition, so an unlikely group stepped up: Prison inmates
Shortly before Sy Newson Green's sophomore year in high school, a family health crisis ate up the money that would have paid his tuition at the private Catholic school he'd been attending for a year. His father...
Program seeks alternatives to youth incarceration
A program that seeks community-based alternatives to the practice of locking up youth offenders or placing them in rehabilitation facilities outside their homes has come to communities in Michigan. The nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs is working with Michigan's Department...
source: The Associated Press via Winston-Salem Journal
BA program for students, incarcerated and not
All but one of California's 35 prisons offer associate transfer degrees through local community colleges for incarcerated students. Those students have been clamoring for opportunities to pursue a bachelor's degree while incarcerated, said Rebecca Silbert, senior director...
source: Inside Higher Ed
Hinds Community College partner in grant to teach humanities in prison system
Hinds Community College is among three Mississippi two-year colleges that are part of a $375,000 grant supporting humanities courses being taught in prisons for the next two years. Hinds, Northeast Mississippi Community College...
source: The Northside Sun
California to phase out Division of Juvenile Justice, creating an opportunity for substantial reform
Next summer, California will begin closing its three youth detention centers and shift the responsibility of juvenile justice onto the state's 58 counties, ending an 80-year history of detention facilities that...
source: KOLD-TV
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