As all of you know, several months ago, I signed a contract with McFarland and Company for my book on college for prisoners, College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons. This book presents the current state of prison education, the reasons why policymakers and the American public should support higher education
American Prisons: A Failure of the Greatest Magnitude The state and federal prison systems of America are in tatters. Inmates are being transformed into hardened convicts. Recidivism rates continue to rise. And all the while, the concept of prison rehabilitating offenders has become a running joke, ongoing dialogue on prison reform aside. It’s pathetic, plain
Name: Windham School District Associated Educational Institution: Itself Associated Prison: 89 Separate Prisons Website: https://wsdtx.org/ Mailing Address: P.O. Box 40 804 Bldg. B, FM 2821 West Huntsville, TX 77320 Phone Number: (936) 291-5300 Fax Number: (936) 291-5300 Email Address: [email protected], Contact Forms Available on Website Point of Contact: Not Publicly Available Social Media: Texas Prison
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has sparked controversy after proposing to fund a college program for state prisoners that has demonstrated success at reducing recidivism. New York state prisons house around 55,000 prisoners. Recidivism is a major problem. Around 40 percent of prisoners who are released end up back inside prison walls. With one
By Christopher Moraff / NextCity.orgImage courtesy shouselaw.com
There’s a reason it’s called corrections and not punishment,” Rick Raemisch said. “Punishment doesn’t work.”
Raemisch, who is executive director of Colorado’s Department of Corrections and was part of a panel discussion on prison reform hosted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice earlier this year, was responding to a question on retributive incarceration. Yet, despite that simple and profound statement, since the 1960s, the U.S. criminal justice system has taken on an increasingly Puritanical streak with mandatory minimum sentences, dozens of new classes of felony, and repeat offender laws.
Now, as part of an effort to reverse more than four decades of broken prison policy, several states are beginning to look overseas for alternative models.
In February 2013 (a year before Raemisch took over his position), his predecessor, Tom Clements, joined delegations from Pennsylvania and Georgia on a fact-finding trip to Germany and the Netherlands sponsored by the Vera Institute of Justice. Both countries have largely replaced retributive and deterrence models with one whose primary goal is reintegrating inmates back into society as law-abiding citizens.
On June 14, 2014, the Law Office of Jeremy Gordon, in conjunction with the national criminal justice reform organization Prisology, announced the latest installment in their Commitment to Change College Scholarship. This scholarship covers the cost of tuition and books for one federal prisoner to take one course at the regionally accredited Adams State University,
