By Dianne Frazee-Walker The Yavapai Reentry Project, established in 2011, fulfills a critical need within the state prison system and the Prescott, Arizona, area. The main objective of the program is to empower newly released inmates and create a safe environment for the communities they re-enter. The goal of human service non-profit organizations, government agencies,
By Dianne Frazee-Walker American prisoners and wild mustangs roaming the Arizona desert have a lot in common. The most obvious mutual denominator inmates and these untamed beasts share is there are too many of them. There are about five prison programs in the U.S. that bring prisoners and horses together to tame each other and
Watch the first 2 minutes of Coming Home: The CARE Program, a documentary film produced by Bucknell University students for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The film focuses on a community-assisted re-entry program in the district.
From Diane A. Sears Mr. J. Jondhi Harrell Founder and Executive Director The Center for Returning Citizens Telephone: 215-305-8793 E-Mail: [email protected] ATTORNEY AND WURD 900 AM RADIO TALK SHOW HOST MICHAEL COARD TALKS TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND REINTEGRATION THOUGHT LEADER J. JONDHI HARRELL ON “RADIO COURTROOM” PHILADELPHIA, PA (USA) – 6 NOVEMBER 2013 —
Like many other states, North Carolina’s approach to prison education is multi-tiered and varied. With inmates coming from different backgrounds, cultures, and educational levels, the population of NC prisoners has access to many programs suited to their needs. Not only does the North Carolina Department of Corrections offer basic adult education to inmates, but they
Kathryn Griffin, 53, leads an unconventional reentry program at the Harris County Jail in Houston for women who have been incarcerated for prostitution. Griffin’s mission to rehabilitate women who were living on the streets supporting their drug addictions by means of prostitution is not just a coincidence. She has lived this lifestyle herself. Photo courtesy statesman.com
Griffin’s experience began 30-years ago, when she toured as a singer with Rick James. She developed a cocaine habit that she couldn’t sustain with her singing income alone. Griffin had to sell herself for sex to keep up with her drug addiction.
After 20-years of accruing drug and prostitution charges, Griffin was facing up to 35-years in prison. Her life turned around after she completed her drug treatment and sentence.
Griffin was volunteering at Harris County Jail when she met up with Adrian Garcia, then city councilman and currently Harris County Sheriff. The program was spawned when Garcia was inspired by Griffin’s vision of creating a program for women serving time for prostitution. Garcia is responsible for launching the program that dozens of women have successfully completed.
On a nippy spring morning in April, I arrived at Trinidad State Junior College in Alamosa, Colorado, a little shy of 8:00 am. The cosmetology students were anxiously awaiting my arrival. The purpose of my visit was to demonstrate Tammy Taylor’s famous 12-step process for doing a full set of acrylic nails in one hour
Susan Trieschmann, a northwest Chicago café owner took a big leap of faith when she renovated her for-profit business into a non-profit reentry program for young adult ex-offenders. The second chance café is an experimental restorative justice restaurant. Initially the neighbors were skeptical about offenders pouring their morning coffee. But it only took the community three weeks to trust the stigmatized employees to serve them the blue plate specials. Today you will find customers on Central Street lined up at the counter during the noon hour waiting for lunch to be served by the transformed ex-offenders. Curt’s Cafe / Photo courtesy ecowren.net
Curt’s Café is a solo act in a city that only provides reentry programs for juvenile offenders. Chicago has hundreds of coffee shops, but only one restorative justice café that gives ex-offenders a second chance. The innovative reentry program requires the employees to form a restorative circle at the end of each eight hour shift to check on each other’s personal development and work skill progress.
Trieschmann’s idea for her restorative restaurant originated from a passion to help offenders reenter the workforce with employable skills. She emotionally explains that she doesn’t think it is fair how difficult it is for ex-offenders to become productive citizens when they re-enter the working world with a criminal record lingering in their past.
When the employees first started working at the café they barely knew how to make a cup of coffee and had difficulty making it to work on time. The ex-offenders have come a long way since they first began working at the café. They had many challenges to overcome, but persistence has paid off.
Returning to community after spending time in prison can be very challenging for ex-offenders. Finding employment, housing, education and even acquiring essential paperwork can be daunting. Support and resources are necessary for returning ex-offenders for successful integration into community. Reentry AfterCare is a grassroots organization that works with communities to help them understand the problems
Friends Outside, located in Modesto, California, was created in 1955 to bridge the gap between prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. Friends Outside has been filling a critical need in the community by offering services and education to people affected by the devastation of incarceration. History of Friends Outside Like many human service organizations, the initiation
We have profiled every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Learn about each prison’s location, security level, educational and recreational offerings, and much more.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C.
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