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Accessing Health Care in the Federal Bureau of Prisons

America’s prison population is, like the general public, aging rapidly.  The wide net cast by the incarceration explosion of the 1980s and 1990s means that the percentage of prisoners needing increased health care has risen dramatically as well.  This is particularly true in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which has always had an older population

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Captivating view of the sun breaking through clouds over a mist-covered mountain range.

Speak Up For Hope

On the fateful day, October 24, 1999, Carol Kent was awakened by a phone call that changed her life forever. Her only child, Jason P. Kent, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Jason was a model citizen, an Annapolis Naval Academy graduate with no prior record.  He was convicted and sentenced to life in

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A monochrome image of a tall stack of books symbolizing education and knowledge.

A Montessori Prison Education

Prison is one of the most un-fun places one can live and work. Preschools are all about fun. But both are about preparing people for the real world. Brian argues that we can unlock the future of prison education by relearning the lessons of preschool. Brian leads the offender education program for Peninsula College at

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7 Prison Weight Loss Secrets

The abundance of literature on weight loss inevitably leads one to the understanding that successful weight loss tactics are either very extreme or cumbersomely complicated. Some suggest fasting or a liquid diet; others suggest that primarily lean meats should be eaten and at particular times of the day . . . or night. And still,

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Why the U.S. Prison System Hurts Young Workers

by Elizabeth English and Ryann Roberts  / @FortuneMagazine The mounds of taxpayer dollars spend putting people behind bars take away from America’s investment in education. It’s a fact that seems almost too mind-boggling to be true: The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population.  In 2011, 716 out

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7 Prison Survival Secrets

By Christopher Zoukis / BlogCritics.org

Surviving a term of incarceration is no cakewalk. For all first-time prisoners, the transition from free-world living to prison culture is abrupt, extreme, and caustic. It’s like nothing else, and there are very real consequences to violating the unspoken codes of decorum and the concept of “respect,” a term which takes on a whole new meaning in the prison context.

Image courtesy citylab.com

This article presents seven secrets to surviving a term of incarceration. By internalizing and abiding by these principles, anyone new to prison culture will save themselves a lot of strife and possibly violent encounters.

In short, they can transform potential hard time to easy time.

Secret One: Don’t Snitch

The number one rule in prison is to not snitch. There is no worse crime in prison culture than to inform on a fellow prisoner. When serving time in prison, inmates often see others engaging in unsavory, unethical, or even illegal conduct. This is simply the way it is in prison. When such conduct is observed, the inmate should simply look away, continue on with whatever they were doing, and keep the knowledge of what transpired to themselves. When someone is found to have informed on fellow prisoners, they are usually either assaulted or “checked in” (forced to go into protective custody). By refusing to provide the prison administration with information, this very dangerous trap can be avoided in its entirety.

While there may be instances when it appears that keeping one’s mouth shut can result in disfavor from the powers that be, those consequences pale next to what can happen to a prisoner who is identified as a snitch by his fellows.

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Will.i.am Opines on the Prison Industrial Complex

By Annie-Rose Strasser / ThinkProgress.org  https://www.federalcriminaldefenseattorney.com/prison-education/Image courtesy Screenshot / NBC

Celebrities served as more than just pretty faces at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend. While they were in town, several big names, from basketball stars to musicians, also stopped by the week’s Sunday news talk shows to get in a word about policy.

Among them was Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am, who came on Meet The Press to talk about his education foundation. While there, the musician managed to weave together his interest in education policy with a powerful rebuke of America’s inactive Congress, and its problems with mass incarceration.

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Close-up of barbed wire and chain-link fence for security and protection.

The Purpose of Prison and the Measuring Stick of Recidivism

In a perfect world, prison generally has three purposes: prison acts as a deterrent to instant and repeat crimes, prison punishes the wrongdoer, and prison ideally treats or rehabilitates the wrongdoer so they no longer engage in crime.  This article will address these three purposes of prisons and show how the instance of recidivism can

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A close-up of a teenager with bruised hands, wearing a hoodie and jeans, sitting on a couch.

Violence, Security Lapses, and Media Attention Lead to Reforms at Georgia Prison

By David Reutter A series of investigative news reports by Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Joy Lukachick, published from February to December 2013, revealed numerous problems in Georgia’s prison system – particularly at Hays State Prison (HSP), located around 40 miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee – and resulted in lawsuits, security improvements and the replacement

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