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

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  • 'A clear winner': How education in prison can help people after release

    December 13, 2021 |

    Granite State News Collaborative |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New Hampshire

    Correctional education opportunities provide a number of benefits: Skills, self-esteem, job opportunities, and lower chances of going back to prison. Educational opportunities for people serving prison time decrease the possibility of recidivism by 30 percent.

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  • This NGO's Strategy Helps Ex-convicts Avoid Repeating Crime

    December 13, 2021 |

    Prime Progress |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Nigeria, Benue

    In the nine years since its founding, Dream Again Prison and Youth Initiative has helped more than 2,000 incarcerated Nigerians prepare for success in work and life after they leave prison. Using mental health support, vocational training, and financial aid after graduates leave prison, the program works in six prisons in an effort to combat the country's rising recidivism rate. Much of the focus is on helping would-be entrepreneurs start their own businesses rather than rely on existing businesses that may not want to give the formerly incarcerated a second chance.

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  • ‘Something major': Wake DA partners with nonprofits to clear people's arrest warrants

    December 11, 2021 |

    The News & Observer |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Raleigh, North Carolina

    The Wake County district attorney worked with criminal-justice reform groups to hold a "warrant clinic" where people could apply to void arrest warrants that could land them in jail, with all of the financial and social costs that come with that. About 45 of 160 applicants were approved in the process, which comes with multiple conditions limiting eligibility to people facing relatively minor charges who missed court dates or had similar reasons for getting named in a warrant. The organizers hope to continue the practice, which also saves the county money.

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  • The Judge Who Keeps People Out of Jail

    November 30, 2021 |

    The Washington Post Magazine |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Rio Arriba, New Mexico

    Since 2018, Judge Jason Lidyard of Rio Arriba County, N.M., has forged a new model for a drug court. Instead of demanding abstinence from drugs as the price to stay out of jail, Lidyard uses respect and personal relationships to seek a redefinition of success: making substance abuse less deadly and less socially crippling. Violating the court's requirements to get treatment results in more help, not jail. The less punitive approach seemed to reduce overdoses until a new fentanyl surge complicated the picture. Almost all of the people who've gone through the court have avoided new felony arrests.

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  • Prisoners hope that education can erase a stigma

    November 26, 2021 |

    The Hechinger Report |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Cottonwood, Idaho

    Idaho's nine prisons have more than 30 postsecondary educational programs geared to helping incarcerated people get hired in career-track, technical jobs after their release from prison. The prisons focus on jobs in demand and woo potential employers with tours of their well-equipped classrooms. They also focus on education that produces certifications that carry more weight in industry. Studies show those credentials produce better odds against people returning to prison. Such programs nationwide have suffered from inadequate funding, but more federal money is in the pipeline.

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  • Prison offers little to ease domestic violence trauma. This program tries to fill the gaps

    November 18, 2021 |

    PBS NewsHour |

    Broadcast TV News |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

    A New Way of Life gives formerly incarcerated women something that most did not get from prison: treatment for the trauma that so many incarcerated women suffered from domestic violence. As an antidote to a system geared to punishing wrongdoing without addressing its causes, New Way provides housing and supportive programs, many of which are taught by women with similar experiences. Some of the women tell their stories of lives repaired and families reunited thanks to New Way's interventions.

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  • Green Jobs Offer Ex-Offenders a Career Path after Prison

    November 18, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Miami, Florida

    At Florida's Everglades Correctional Institution, incarcerated men teach a course offered through a college correspondence school that can lead to certification to work as a wastewater treatment plant operator, a well-paying green-industry job in high demand. An incarcerated journalist tells the story of how demanding lessons in chemistry, microbiology, and algebra prepare students for the state certification exam. Hundreds have taken the course and many have found jobs in the industry after prison, although many employers remain reluctant to hire people with felony records.

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  • After prison, the fight to be a firefighter

    November 10, 2021 |

    San Francisco Chronicle |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    One year after California legislators created a legal opening for formerly incarcerated firefighters to use their prison training to land firefighter jobs on the outside, the system envisioned by the law's supporters has failed to materialize. Felony criminal records serve as a barrier to employment in such jobs ordinarily. The law was intended to create a pathway through expunging those records for people trained to fight wildfires while in prison. A slow, poorly planned rollout and lack of tracking data means no one knows how many have benefited, though it appears few have thanks to a daunting process.

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  • Evidence-based reentry resources key for sicker incarcerated population, researchers say

    November 08, 2021 |

    North Carolina Health News |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, North Carolina

    Community health workers with North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program (NC FIT) counsel people recently released from jails and prisons to help them get the care they need for mental and physical health problems. The program closes some but not all of the gaps left by the state's inadequate Medicaid coverage and prison health services. Banking on the trust that comes with shared experiences, the formerly incarcerated health workers can connect people with medication-assisted treatment for substance use, covid-related treatments, and mental health care, all common ailments post-incarceration.

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  • Home was a nightmare, then home was prison. Finally home is now a refuge.

    October 21, 2021 |

    Mother Jones |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

    Home Free is a small, transitional-housing program for women who served long prison sentences for crimes against or on behalf of their abusers. A population long neglected, the women are part of a community recovering from the trauma of prison and the trauma that put them there. Giving them autonomy, in ways typical re-entry programs do not, is key to their recovery. “Home Free is the culmination of a decades-long struggle by women to be seen and supported by a system that has condemned and ignored them.”

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