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
There’s been much talk about prison reform in this country, but to date, not a lot has changed. While prisoner education programs and other reforms are slowly making ground, the U.S. still has the world’s highest prison population, with nearly a half million more in the prison system than China, which ranks second in the
Russell Hawthorne, or Rusty to his inner circle, had been released from Coffee Correctional Facility in Nicholls, Georgia — but he returned— gladly. He didn’t go back to being behind bars. He went back to join his graduating class and receive his welding certificate. While incarcerated, the prison education program he went through did precisely
PROVIDING A HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION COMBINED WITH MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTION TREATMENT HAS PROVEN TO BE A SUCCESSFUL FORMULA TO REDUCE RECIDIVISM. In Florida, one in four released prisoners is re-incarcerated—and it’s a lack of education that’s largely to blame. With the average Florida inmate having just a sixth-grade education, the chances of finding steady
By Christopher Zoukis Prison might be the last place you would expect to see a great performance of Shakespeare. But for more than a decade, Marin Shakespeare Company in California has taught Shakespeare in several prisons, and to rave reviews. In 1989, the company launched to reinvigorate Shakespeare in Northern California, but has expanded its
In the ongoing discussion of prison reform, mass incarceration, and reducing recidivism, vocational programs are often overlooked in favor of formal educational courses and other activities and programming. Maybe it is assumed that most incarcerated individuals have access to, and participate in, vocational training and prison jobs. At least, that’s what popular TV shows and
Educational and vocational training initiatives in the Pennsylvania prison system have improved conditions for both inmates and staff. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spent 2016 making laudable strides toward helping improve the state of mass incarceration in this country. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel made a statement in December outlining improvements the Department of Corrections (DOC)
Mass incarceration costs billions each year, but the toll on society is not just financial. By Christopher Zoukis There are myriad issues with the current U.S. system of mass incarceration where more people are imprisoned than any other country in the world, and often in a hugely skewed manner — one which varies widely across
By Christopher Zoukis The Prison Entrepreneurship Project has helped transform more than 1,300 convicted felons into business graduates that have transitioned successfully back into society. The project focuses on male prisoners, and is a comprehensive, holistic program aimed at reducing recidivism, giving second chances to ex-offenders, and helping to ensure successful reintegration into their communities.
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
We have profiled every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
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