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  • Many in Jail Can Vote, but Exercising That Right Isn't Easy

    July 16, 2021 |

    Stateline |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

    Chicago's Cook County Jail enabled 2,200 incarcerated people to vote in the November 2020 election by opening the jail to voter registration drives, civic lessons, distribution of voter education materials, two weekends of early voting, and four polling places inside the jail. Most people held in local jails nationwide are eligible to vote but usually don't, due to lack of awareness, intentional barriers, and logistical hassles. Cook County helped people exercise their rights and provided them with education to improve their reentry to society after prison.

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  • The ‘prison' with no fence: Go inside a Charlotte women's center changing lives for good

    July 08, 2021 |

    The Charlotte Observer |

    Multi-Media |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Charlotte, North Carolina

    Charlotte's Center for Women uses a rehabilitative approach to incarceration, letting up to 30 women at a time live in a group home that provides both therapy and connections to employment. Women with one to three years left on their sentences can apply for a spot in the residential work-release program. They and their families – most are mothers – get the counseling they need to adjust to a better life once the residents get released. The women say the small freedoms they are granted in the home, plus the respect and help they get, do for them what prison never could in changing lives.

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  • Back to Life

    June 30, 2021 |

    Transitions Online |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Belarus, Gomel

    People Plus has begun to fill a vacuum left by the Belarus prison system's lack of reentry services aimed at giving people a better chance to succeed after prison. The NGO provides its "resocialization" counseling for incarcerated people in the six months before their release. In its first six months, the program counseled more than 1,000 people, helping prepare them to find housing and jobs and avoid substance abuse, which in many cases proved successful. Its peer counselors stay in contact with clients after prison through meetings and online forums.

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  • The Everglades Experiment: Florida's First 'Incentivized' Prison Redefines Punishment

    June 21, 2021 |

    The Crime Report |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Miami, Florida

    Two years into an experiment in "incentivized prison" management, Florida's Everglades Correctional Institution is considered the state's safest prison. An incarcerated journalist reporting from inside writes that by rewarding good behavior instead of only punishing bad behavior, the prison has expanded the classes it offers incarcerated men who can participate if they have a trouble-free record for four years. Separating men from the general population based on their desire to work toward their own rehabilitation and success once they leave prison has reduced stress and violence in the prison.

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  • College-in-prison programs have many benefits, but barriers to access abound

    June 21, 2021 |

    Prism |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Middletown, Connecticut

    College-in-prison programs like Wesleyan University's Center for Prison Education have a track record for improving incarcerated students' lives, lowering crime, and making prisons safer. But a number of factors compromise the number and effectiveness of such programs. Many fewer programs exist since incarcerated students were denied Pell Grants beginning in the 1990s. A 2015 program aimed at making financial aid more accessible poses a number of logistical hurdles. Prisons themselves can be inhospitable environments for attending classes and independent studies.

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  • Clearing a Path from Prison to the Bar Exam

    June 21, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    The Formerly Incarcerated Law Students Advocacy Association at City University of New York's law school mentors people whose criminal records serve as a barrier to pursuing a law career. FILSAA is part of a movement to nurture law-practice dreams and make them a reality by knocking down those barriers, including restrictive use of states' "character and fitness" requirements to become licensed to practice. Before that step, mentors can help people prepare for the LSAT and succeed in law school. Advocates say that lawyers with lived experience can serve clients better by earning their trust more readily.

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  • Some U.S. states have higher vaccination rates inside prisons than outside.

    June 01, 2021 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    Three state prison systems have vaccinated incarcerated people at far greater rates than in the general public thanks in part to educational meetings with experts that helped overcome natural distrust. In California and North Dakota, town-hall-type meetings gave incarcerated people opportunities to ask questions about safety. Kansas prisons gave incarcerated people priority in the vaccination program, and provided them and their families with information. Other possible factors increasing compliance included peer pressure and the ease of getting vaccinated within the prisons.

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  • Utah Co. jail has largest jail industries program nationwide, providing jobs and hope for inmates

    May 28, 2021 |

    KSTU-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    Under 3 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Spanish Fork, Utah

    Nearly 10,000 people incarcerated in the Utah County Jail have found paid work in the community during their jail terms thanks to the sheriff's Jail Industries program. While the incarcerated people get to keep just 20% of their wages, and only people with low-level offenses may participate, about 70% who go through the program get offered permanent jobs when they're released, thanks to employers' satisfaction with the workers. Having a decent job is a critical factor in preventing future criminal offenses. Jail Industries graduates have shown lower than average recidivism rates.

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  • This running program gives a mental health boost to incarcerated women

    May 27, 2021 |

    The Philadelphia Citizen |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Wilsonville, Oregon

    More than 1,000 women incarcerated at Oregon's Coffee Creek Correctional Facility have participated since 2015 in Reason to Run, a program promoting better physical and mental health through running. Participants receive eight weeks of training and then are eligible to compete in races, albeit within the prison confines. After their release, the encouragement continues with "run care packages" of sneakers and sports bras. Surveys show the women felt happier, healthier, and part of a positive group experience.

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  • People in Solitary Confinement and Volunteers Team Up to Garden, Imagine a World Without Prisons

    May 27, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

    The Solitary Gardens project started in New Orleans and has been copied in multiple other places as a combination art exhibit and therapeutic link between incarcerated people and the outside world. People on both sides of the prison walls collaborate in pairs to design a garden that grows flowers and herbs chosen by the incarcerated person. The gardens match the tiny dimensions of a solitary-confinement cell. The healing herbs are used to help others, and the exercise overall gives incarcerated people a sense of connection to the earth, part of the project's prison-abolition message.

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