By Michael Virtanen New York University has enrolled 36 inmates in English classes at Wallkill Correctional Facility in the Hudson Valley. Their first courses are “Literary Analysis and the Politics of Interpretation” and “Critical Perspectives on Justice through Creative Writing.” They take one or the other.Backed by a $500,000 Ford Foundation grant, NYU’s new program
Concurrent with a recommendation from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to test all inmates at two California prisons for “Valley Fever,” a new multi-million dollar lawsuit filed in federal court calls these prisons “incubators” for the disease that has killed dozens of prisoners and prison employees over the last decade. Prisoners confined at
By Molly Greenberg A new Virginia Commonwealth University scholarship is giving three people who were formerly incarcerated at the Richmond City Justice Center the opportunity to continue their education. The three ex-cons who took college classes while in jail have received John Patrick Dooley Open Minds Scholarships, which will compensate for all tuition, fees, and
By Alice Hu / Harvard Political Review Education reduces crime. This connection seems like common sense, and indeed it has been researched, analyzed, and affirmed countless times. According to a 2007 study by researchers at Columbia University, Princeton University, and the City University of New York, higher education reduces the crime rates of both juveniles
Last month, a small, black-and-white newsprint magazine quietly made a case in a Florida courtroom to protect the fundamental rights that nearly every citizen in the industrialized world holds dear. Yet the odds are, you didn’t hear a word about it. Prison Legal News has reported on the legal landscape of prisoners’ rights in America’s
By Robert Robb The knock on Gov. Doug Ducey’s budget that seems to have gained the most traction is that it shortchanges K-12 education in favor of prisons. Now, an argument can be made that Arizona underfunds K-12 education. In fact, I’ve made it. There’s a reasonable discussion to be had about Arizona’s incarceration rates.
Turning hardened criminals into productive members of society does not happen on its own, it takes an education. With 68 percent of prisoners without a high school diploma or a GED, there is no better time than now to educate our nations’ prisoners. Such is the case in the Oregon Department of Corrections. Seeing the
Transformation (Part 1) By Brian Darnell Berkley Sr. I want to share a true story. This story is about a guy I once knew better than anyone else. I really don’t know this Young Man any longer, but I do know him as he was way back then, and as I write, vivid memories come
When looking at recidivism rates (the national average is 75 percent), the answer to this gruesome statistic is education. But while most prisoners do not have enough money for education, it becomes time for prisons to step up and find the means to educate their prisoners. These sky-high recidivism rates burden taxpayers, and the money
On October 21, 2014, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed into law the Revictimization Relief Act (HB 2533/SB 508), which enabled victims of crime to petition a judge to censor Pennsylvania state prisoners, if the prisoner’s words cause or will theoretically cause “mental anguish” to a crime victim, regardless of who committed the crime against the