The success of the Bard Prison Initiative was reinforced this year as the 14th commencement was celebrated last month at the medium-security Woodbourne Correctional Facility in New York. The men’s prison saw 30 students awarded Associate in Arts Degrees – degrees they earned behind bars! BPI graduate Lionel J Johnson recently gave an impassioned speech
Evidence continues to mount that the school-to-prison pipeline is a huge issue in our education system, contributing to mass incarceration across the United States. Yet the vast majority of our educators lack the knowledge and training necessary to implement changes that currently contribute to juvenile justice and recidivism. If we don’t properly equip our teachers,
Sang Dao and Noah Schultz were both sentenced to years in prison at 17 years old under mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines. Fortunately for them, both had access to mentors, role models, and educational opportunities – and were inspired to turn their life around and make the most of the opportunities many others don’t have. Sentenced
Maximum-security inmates at a New Jersey prison have been learning about the literary world with Rutgers University associate professor Emily Allen-Hornblower. But the novelty isn’t that they are studying literature or even that they are doing it behind bars. It’s what they are learning about that’s so impressive. At East Jersey State, formerly Rahway State
Connecticut is moving to implement a series of juvenile justice and education reforms aimed at cutting the school-to-prison pipeline after a series of complaints were lodged about problems plaguing the state’s system. Governor Dannel Malloy has already moved to close the Connecticut Juvenile Training Program by 2018 after multiple reports of violence, unlawful restraint, extended
It took him a decade, but former inmate Colin Bramlett Sr. has returned to Brown Creek Correctional Facility. But this time, he’s not there as a resident. Bramlett regularly returns to the correctional center in Polkton, North Carolina, to teach the culinary skills he learned behind bars – skills that helped him leave prison with
Last year, Brooklyn-based federal district court judge John Gleeson wanted to help a woman; he had sentenced her 14 years earlier on a federal criminal fraud charge (she had posed as an auto crash victim for an insurance fraud ring that faked accidents). The woman (in her mid-50s, a naturalized Haitian immigrant referred to only
It’s heartbreaking to hear about the atrocious conditions facing students at Detroit-area schools in recent months and even years. These learning centers are literally crumbling around their staff and students – and the situation continues to get worse. Spain Elementary and Middle School, one of the worst-off Detroit schools, was recently featured on The Ellen
In a time when we need to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline, I’m concerned to hear that four of the country’s largest school districts have more police or security officers than counselors – a troubling ratio that speaks to a police-state mentality that apparently continues to thrive in America. In New York City, the country’s largest
Most jurisdictions struggle with how to relieve overcrowded prisons and jails, but at the same time avoid releasing inmates who are most likely to re-offend. After examining the experience of Los Angeles County coping with a California state policy that transferred many low-level felons from state prisons to county and city jails, Stanford University management
We have profiled every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Learn about each prison’s location, security level, educational and recreational offerings, and much more.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C.
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