Advocacy and Reform

Christopher Zoukis, JD | May 30, 2025 | Advocacy and Reform

Solitary confinement reform in the United States is at a crossroads. Once considered a necessary tool for prison management, solitary confinement is now widely condemned as a practice that inflicts profound psychological and physical harm, undermines rehabilitation, and, in many cases, violates constitutional and international human rights standards. Despite mounting evidence of its dangers and […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | May 16, 2025 | Advocacy and Reform

President Donald J. Trump has granted Ross Ulbricht, the founder and operator of the Silk Road online marketplace, a full and unconditional pardon after more than a decade behind bars. This historic turn of events brings renewed focus to the broader implications of the Ross Ulbricht pardon, reigniting debates on federal sentencing, digital-age criminal liability, […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | May 7, 2025 | Advocacy and Reform

No one needs convincing that prison is probably a lonely place, filled with hostile guards and dangerous inmates.  At least from the Hollywood point of view, the only comfort for most convicts is a letter from home or the occasional visit from family or friends.  Sadly, though, a new study indicates that many prisoners do […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | April 2, 2025 | Advocacy and Reform

Kathryn Griffin, 53, leads an unconventional reentry program at the Harris County Jail in Houston for women who have been incarcerated for prostitution. Griffin’s mission to rehabilitate women who were living on the streets supporting their drug addictions by means of prostitution is not just a coincidence. She has lived this lifestyle herself. Griffin’s experience began […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | July 12, 2024 | Advocacy and Reform

This past February 25th, a panel of experts on solitary confinement converged at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to discuss the horrendous practice in our U.S. prisons that many call “cruel and unusual punishment.” While the panel detailed the disastrous effects such isolation causes, the legal challenges through the years, and the “judicial and institutional […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | July 7, 2024 | Advocacy and Reform

The New York-based Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) is one of the largest prison-based higher education programs of its kind.  While serving their prison sentences, participants study rigorous coursework and work toward earning college degrees.  The program offers access to higher education to both incarcerated men and women who want to pursue their education and increase […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | July 7, 2024 | Advocacy and Reform

After nearly 40 years of unprecedented growth, our nation’s expanding prison population has finally begun to sputter. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010 marked the first year since 1972 in which, taken together, state and federal correctional populations declined slightly – a trend that continued in 2011. This modest reduction reflects revisions to […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | July 7, 2024 | Advocacy and Reform

By John Jay Powers Jack Powers is an inmate in the federal Bureau of Prisons convicted of bank robbery and escaping from prison. He spent more than a decade in extreme isolation at the ADX, where he amputated his fingers, earlobes, a testicle, and scrotum. He has tried several times to commit suicide. “The world outside is […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | December 20, 2018 | Advocacy and Reform

The school to prison pipeline represents a disturbing national trend where children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems through harsh disciplinary policies and increased police presence in schools. Drawing from federal data, Department of Justice reports, academic research, and civil rights analyses, this comprehensive examination reveals how […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | July 31, 2014 | Advocacy and Reform

Over the past several years, a number of criminal justice and social commentators have discussed the idea of shaming or guilting as an alternative sanction for minor criminal wrongdoing.  They have suggested that shaming or guilting is less expensive, more effective, and allows the offender to stay in the community — thus enabling them to […]