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

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  • How Philly plans to ditch cash bail and what stands in the way

    A candidate for district attorney in Philadelphia is pushing to do away with cash bail entirely as other places have done, including Washington D.C., and New Jersey. Both of those places have seen their jail populations drop, and Philadelphia has taken some initial steps that reduce pre-trial populations in jail, but it faces a number of challenges in implementing no-cash bail. Those include getting widespread buy-in and a conservative legislature.

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  • Meet the Disruptor: Quaker City Coffee

    Christian Dennis stood up in front of his class and told them about his life: He sold drugs, went to prison three times before the age of 18, and realized he had to start over. That’s all his classmate, Bob Logue needed to hear to realize he wanted Dennis to be his business partner. Together, they started Quaker City Coffee, a business they hope can “bridge the gaps between Philly neighborhoods.” How can they do that? By hiring former inmates, and giving back money to the community.

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  • Wilmington's Solution to the Opioid Crisis

    The opioid crisis has resulted in numerous addictions, overdoses and deaths, leading North Carolina to reassess how they are handling the crisis. A rapid-response team checks on users after being given naloxone, health-care navigators will help users get treatment, and individuals will be sent to treatment instead of prison.

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  • New Zealand Tries a Different Kind of Private Prison

    The privatized prison system is largely skewed against inmates, as most are funded based on the number of individuals incarcerated, creating a disincentive to invest in the rehabilitation and comprehensive treatment of inmates. But the Wiri prison in Auckland is piloting a new approach that focuses on the greater good: the government pays the prison for positive results based on recidivism rates and improved outcomes for inmates, especially the Maori minority.

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  • Justice, Restored? New North Lawndale Court Aims to Change Punitive System

    A new restorative justice court in a Chicago neighborhood shows promise in bringing healing to the community through having defendants repair harm they’ve done and reintegrate into the community. It has support from key members of the criminal justice system but it faces funding issues and getting buyin from the community. Some argue restorative justice cannot operate effectively within the existing criminal justice system.

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  • Courting The Ones Who Need It

    Developed in 2016, the Eugene Community Court program offers individuals cited for nonviolent, minor crimes an alternative to prison. If a person agrees to participate, they are matched with a case manager who connects them to the resources they need, like substance abuse treatment or job training services. The city hopes to decrease the rate of recidivism by creating tailored programs for each individual and spark a societal shift that has long criminalized poverty.

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  • Can a fake court help high-risk Pennsylvania parolees?

    Close supervision and support during parole lowers recidivism among medium- and high-risk offenders with substance-abuse issues in Philadelphia. However, the impact seems to fade after parolees graduate from the yearlong Re-entry Program, often referred to as “Philadelphia re-entry court.”

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  • How a New York Police Official Targets Thoughts to Fight Crime

    A former prosecutor now works directly with offenders as a deputy police chief in a movement called Council of Thought And Action (COTA), often going directly to them in the community and bringing them together in support groups. The idea is that crime is a result of poor problem solving, and COTA is designed to restructure ways of thinking and behaving, using cognitive therapy tools to address past emotional baggage, and the power of social networks to provide a positive replacement to the destructive networks they had in the past.

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  • Pennsylvania training mentally ill inmates to help others on the cellblock

    Peer to peer programs have existed since the 1980s. These programs pair up a person with mental health illness, with one another. The concept, is relatively new in the prison systems, and is gaining traction in states like Pennsylvania.

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  • Conservation Meets Corrections

    There are currently 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States. According to rainforest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, that's a lot of brainpower and potential sitting unused. It was this thought that inspired the start of the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP). As a collaboration between the Washington State Department of Corrections and The Evergreen State College, SPP aims to bring science and education within the walls of confinement – all while promoting the conservation of both plant and animal species.

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