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

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  • Creative Freedom

    New York-based nonprofit, Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), runs theater programs for individuals experiencing incarceration as a way of improving mental health and reducing recidivism. While the United States’ criminal justice system has been focused on punitive measures, there’s been a trend toward rehabilitation across the country in recent years. Participants in RTA have shown a rate of recidivism of just 5% – compared to a 60% national average – but funding and sustainability remain a consistent hurdle.

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  • 'The Hardest Part Was Finding a Job'

    Oklahoma’s Mabel Bassett Correctional Center is seeing its first graduating class of women coders. A nonprofit called The Last Mile offers training programs for incarcerated individuals with the goal of equipping them with timely job skills upon re-entry. Those that are a part of the program participate in 40 hours of class per week for a year, learning coding programs like CSS, HTML, and Bootstrap.

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  • A Tale Of Two Cities: New York Providers Credit 'Aftercare' For Helping Youths Transition Home

    After kids spend time in one of New York City's community-based incarceration facilities, they are enrolled in an "aftercare" program, which includes group meetings and mentoring, to help with the transition. As Milwaukee continues to reform its youth prison system, it is looking to New York as one promising model to consider.

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  • What follows punishment?

    Minnesota’s Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) program takes a restorative, rehabilitative approach to sex offender re-entry and has lowered the risk of recidivism by 88%. The initiative provides participants with a group of volunteers that help them with emotional support, job finding, and challenge and shift the attitudes and behaviors that led to the committed crime. The rise of the #metoo movement has given way to the complexity of sexual assault, restorative justice, and rehabilitation – making programs like CoSA both more necessary and challenging to sustain.

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  • Innovative open jail design changes San Diego inmate experience

    San Diego County’s Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility was redesigned to look less like a jail and more like a community. The newly designed facility prioritizes rehabilitation over punishment by providing educational facilities, like a fully stocked library, and mental health services. While the impact is still unknown, the goal is to make reentry transitions easier and decreasing recidivism rates.

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  • A College Education in Prison Opens Unexpected Path to Freedom

    California is leading the nation in prison education. “There are now in-person community college classes in all but one prison in the state, enrolling some 4,000 students." Nationally, 4 percent of higher ed institutions teach for-credit classes in prisons. “It's been the most amazing experience of my entire life, as either a free man or as an incarcerated human being." Evidence shows that providing people in prison with education reduces recidivism rates. “A major study by the RAND Corporation found taking classes in prison cuts the chances of getting locked up again by 43%.”

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  • New York juvenile justice program stresses ‘safety by relationships'

    In New York City, the Close to Home initiative is taking a different approach to juvenile justice by centering it around a localized, residential, and rehabilitative model. These facilities operate out of traditional-looking homes and are run by nonprofits like Rising Ground. Its model focuses on building relationships as a key to rehabilitation, and emphasizes the importance of staff / youth relationships and familial connections. As Wisconsin seeks to change their model of juvenile justice, it takes inspiration from Close to Home in its implementation of smaller, more regional facilities.

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  • Teens Learn Life Skills Training Therapy Dogs Audio icon

    Working to train therapy dogs helps kids with issues learn how to cope. Rising Ground, an organization in New York City, provides animal therapy as part of a residential placement program for juveniles facing problems with the law. The youth receive training in life skills, counseling, and peer support through their court-ordered program. In addition, Rising Ground engages them in an eight-week program to train therapy dogs, which helps the youth learn how to deal with their emotions, as well.

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  • Incarcerated Women Help Recover Rare Northwest Butterfly Species

    In a collaboration with the Oregon Zoo, the Institute of Applied Ecology, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Oregon’s Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, women experiencing incarceration are helping save the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly. Participants learn data gathering, environmental skills, and record keeping – all skills that can translate to life after release – so that they may help the species flourish from larvae to butterfly.

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  • In Nigeria's overcrowded prisons, Catholic group frees inmates through free legal services

    Thousands of people incarcerated in Nigeria’s rapidly growing prison system, many of them awaiting trial without lawyers, receive free legal, health, and educational services from an NGO that for decades has paid twice-weekly visits to prisons around the country. Serving the prisoners’ general welfare, the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice, and Peace seeks the release of defendants on bail, advocates for better health care, and delivers aid packages to people held in the overcrowded lockups.

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