A forward-thinking group in Florida is helping women both in and outside of prison to empower themselves and help better their lives and families after recognizing that many of their needs were not being met in the community. The Red Tent Women’s Initiative was inspired by Anita Diamant’s novel The Red Tent, which follows the
By Christopher Zoukis The Federal Bureau of Prisons incarcerates over 14,500 sex offenders within its roughly 200 facilities. This equates to approximately eight percent of the federal prison population. Increasingly, those convicted of federal sexual offenses are being housed at Sex Offender Management Program (SOMP) facilities which have a larger sex offender population and offer
By Christopher Zoukis Some California prisoners, including those confined at the notorious Pelican Bay supermax, are enjoying access to higher education courses provided by the state’s community colleges. A 2014 law eliminated the requirement that all classes taught by community colleges must be open to the public; as a result, such colleges can now offer
By Christopher Zoukis For most Americans, life without Google or Wikipedia would be quite different, and living without Internet access is probably unimaginable. One might ask, “How would I obtain the information I need to live my life?” Yet for most of America’s 2.3 million prisoners, there is no Google, no Facebook, no Internet at
Inability to pay fines and fees related to the criminal justice system results in further punishment for youth, including extended sentences and probation. It is becoming increasingly obvious that zero-tolerance policies contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline, often unfairly punishing youth for offenses that should not be dealt with in the criminal justice system. Involvement in
By Christopher Zoukis A report compiled by a well-respected prisoner group indicates that while the Massachusetts Department of Corrections is diligent in collecting profits from prisoners’ commissary purchases, it has failed to spend those funds on prisoner benefit purchases, as required by state regulation — to the tune of a $2 million surplus for the
New initiative aims to foster understanding and discussion on the topic of mass incarceration through the lens of history and current events. In 2014, the Colorado College history department embarked on an initiative called the Social Issues and Historical Context Initiative, with the goal of demonstrating the connections between history and current issues and events.
By Christopher Zoukis The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit focused on racial and economic policy, in conjunction with Forward Together and a dozen other community and civil rights organizations recently released a study which surveyed hardships experienced by former prisoners and their families. The study examined the experiences of over 1,080 current
Restorative justice is an alternative approach aimed at rehabilitating youth and keeping them from entering the criminal justice system. King County, Washington, is one of the most recent courts in the country to turn to the alternative approach of restorative justice over criminal justice when it comes to dealing with juvenile offenders with no previous
Yoga and meditation have a host of benefits for prisoners. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that within five years of release, 76 percent of prisoners released in the U.S. re-offend. Breaking this cycle requires radical reforms in rehabilitation methods, and some surprising approaches are showing promising results — downward dog and mantra chanting. Educational