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Federal Judge Rules County Jail Must Allow Addict Methadone

A federal judge in Boston has ordered officials at the Essex County House of Correction to allow an incoming inmate to take his doctor-prescribed methadone while he serves a sentence there. It was thought to be the first such order issued by an American judge. Geoffrey Pesce, a 32-year-old resident of Ipswich, Massachusetts, faces a

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What is the Prison Scholar Fund?

Having spent 16 years behind bars, Dirk Van Velzen is used to the word “no”; however, he may have heard that word more than the average prisoner. Van Velzen went to prison in 1999 on commercial burglary charges and got bored. According to his story on Prison Scholar Fund, “he quickly realized that the main

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Unexpected Benefits of Prison Education

More and more people are learning that prison education programs are instrumental in reducing crime and cutting down recidivism. Educating prisoners (both in and out of prisons, which ultimately leads to lower incarceration rates) costs less than housing offenders in the federal prison system, making education a key tax-reduction strategy. However, the benefits of prison

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Edward Sanders Proves the Necessity of Prison Education Programs

“I made a mistake when I was 17 years old, and I recognize that someone lost their life. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I was there. There’s no snapping my finger and getting them to come back. I know what death means.” That was Edward Sanders’s powerful statement during a recent lecture at the

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Orange is the Color of Strength

Orange is the New Black is an award-winning, hard-hitting Netflix show that mixes comedy and drama to suck viewers in and keep them enthralled. The story centers on Piper Chapman, whose cozy suburban life is disrupted when an old brush with crossing the law catches up to her. However, did you know that Chapman’s character

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A Historic First for the Center for Prison Education

It started as the Cheshire Reformatory in 1909. The goal of the Reformatory was to keep male prisoners aged 16-24 out of the adult prison population. The Reformatory evolved over the years, and now it’s Connecticut’s Cheshire Correctional Institution, where male adult offenders carry out long sentences. It’s a level four facility with protective custody

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Online Education in Prison Benefits the State and the Student

Prison education programs benefit everyone. The RAND Corporation, a non-profit global policy think tank, notes that offenders who have participated in prison education programs cut their risk of recidivism by 43 percent. Education programs focused on vocational training also raise their employability by 13 percent. “Our findings suggest that we no longer need to debate

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Prison Education – Is it a Right or a Privilege?

Do you believe that education is right and not a privilege? According to a poll on debate.org, 69 percent of respondents say education is a basic human right, while 31 percent said it is a privilege. Now let’s get a little controversial. Assuming that the majority of Americans see education as a basic right, should it

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Female Inmates in Georgia to Learn Coding and Technology

Thanks to a partnership between Code/Out and Arke, women in the Georgia prison system are getting a unique learning opportunity, thanks to a collaboration between Code/Out and Arke. Code/Out is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing recidivism and poverty among incarcerated women in the Georgia penal system. Code/Out addresses this by teaching female inmates how

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University of Iowa goes to Prison – For all the Right Reasons

As long as there have been prisons in America, there have been people concerned about educating the inmates. William Rogers, a clergyman, is believed to be the first prison educator, teaching behind bars in the late 1700s. Despite strong opposition from those that believe prisoners should not be entitled to an education, there are still

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