News

Prisoners Train Shelter Dogs for Adoption

By Claudia Kawczynska Seven years ago, in May of 2008, Monty’s Home in Southeastern North Carolina received state approval to start its first Pawsitive Partners Prison Program (PPPP), in conjunction with the Pender Correctional Institution, in nearby Burgaw, NC. President and co-founder Barbara Rabb was on an educational mission to use her dog training skills

Read More »

Former Inmate Gives Back By Encouraging Others to Pursue Education

Gina McConnell-Otten turned 12 the day she ran away to escape her abusive home in Lake Stevens. She was 15 when she got addicted to cocaine and 29 when she served her first sentence in a Washington state corrections center on 17 felony counts for drugs, forgery, possession of stolen property, and identity theft. She

Read More »

Critics Say New York Prisons Should Educate, Rehabilitate, Even Inspire

By Brian Mann Every year, tens of thousands of inmates cycle through state and federal correctional facilities in the North Country. Almost all of those men will eventually get out of prison. They’ll go home, back to communities and neighborhoods. This morning, we’re looking at the debate over whether our prisons are doing the right

Read More »

Should We Let More Prisoners Take College Classes?

By Andrea Brody Earlier this month, an editorial was published in the New York Times from an unusual source. The writer was John J. Lennon, an inmate at Attica Correctional Facility in New York, who’s currently serving 28 years to life sentence for drug dealing and murder he committed in 2001. He is one of 23

Read More »

UCF Professors Stress the Importance of Prison Education

By Alex Wexelman A college degree, whether stated or unstated, is often a prerequisite for a career. For prisoners, a career is integral to adjusting after getting out, and education plays a major role — and UCF professors agree. A recent op-ed in the New York Times, written by John J. Lennon, a prisoner inmate

Read More »

Behind Bars, But Not The Times

By Eric Markowitz At first glance, APDS looks like your typical tech startup: A bunch of young, bearded guys hanging out and working on MacBooks in a cavernous loft in Manhattan. There are plush vintage furniture and chalkboard walls. There’s even an antique canoe dangling inexplicably from the ceiling. But look a little closer, and

Read More »

Senator Seeks Insight on Prison Education Program

By Jennifer Sheridan U.S. Sen. John Cornyn visited the Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony to see how the prisoners are receiving education and college credits during their sentence. The education is provided by Trinity Valley Community College educators, and prisoners are able to get GEDs, vocational skills, and associate degrees to benefit them after they

Read More »

A College Education for Prisoners

To the Editor: “Help Us Learn in Prison,” by John J. Lennon, an Attica inmate (Sunday Review, April 5), urging that prisoners be offered college courses, hit me like a ton of bricks. That was me in the early 1990s, in my cell, believing that I was destined to sell drugs on the corner, with

Read More »

The Next Tech Boom Is Taking Place Behind Bars

By Joseph Erbentraut When San Francisco-based venture capitalists Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti walked into San Quentin State Prison in 2010 to speak with a group of inmates that a friend was mentoring, they didn’t know what exactly to expect. But the men behind bars, whom Redlitz described as “the most engaged audience I’ve ever

Read More »

Conference to Focus on Prison Education Awareness

When one thinks about a traditional classroom, he or she might envision rows of desks, chalkboards, or computers, maybe windows overlooking a school campus.Arizona State University’s Prison Education Awareness Club invites the public to learn about a different type of classroom – one enclosed by walls, fences, and prison bars.On March 27, the club hosts

Read More »
Search
Categories
Categories
Archives