Many issues that are primary drivers of mass incarceration cannot be remedied through government solutions alone. Issues such as broken families and mental health, both forever altered by over criminalization, cannot be simply be repaired through legislation. Civil Society has the unique capability to address certain social issues that government cannot, or to address them more effectively than government can. This section also addresses issues in which over-policing attempts to fix issues that should be handled through the community.
“In late 2015, photographer Lili Kobielski began visiting inmates in Cook County Jail and documenting the plight of prisoners living with mental illness. Her new book, I Refuse for the Devil to Take My Soul: Inside Cook County Jail, is a powerful examination of the intersections between poverty, mental illness, mass incarceration, and race.“
VICE
January 17, 2019
Read More“NEADS World Class Service Dogs works with inmates at seven facilities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to train service dogs, while Leader Dogs For the Blind works with prisons in Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan in raising puppies that eventually become guide dogs for people who are blind. At one program at the Erie County Correctional Facility in New York, inmates raise pheasant chicks that are then released into the wild.“
CBS 13 New Hampshire
January 11, 2019
Read More"'No kid is seeking anything when they join a gang,' says Father Gregory Boyle, founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention and -reintegration organization in the country. 'Every kid is fleeing from something when they join a gang'."
The Nation
August 20, 2018
Read More"When Washington trains police, it teaches them not to see their role only as 'warriors,' but as 'guardians.' That's just one change, along with de-escalation training, to help police more safely interact with people exhibiting signs of mental illness. 'They’re going into communities, not war zones,' says the director."
Christian Science Monitor
August 16, 2018
Read More"A small but ambitious nonprofit organization in Charleston called the Turning Leaf Project is taking the one approach that research seems to suggest actually works: It’s training habitual offenders to change how they think, and therefore how they act, with cognitive behavioral therapy. During CBT, patients learn to identify antisocial thoughts and then replace them with healthier ones; for years, this popular form of talk therapy has been used to treat depression, post-traumatic stress, eating disorders and other psychological problems."
The Marshall Project
June 26, 2018
Read More"Our mental-health-care system is broken. Ten of every eleven psychiatric patients housed by the government are incarcerated. Here’s what this crisis looks like from the inside—a series of lost lives and a few rare victories—as reported by a prisoner-journalist."
Esquire
June 5, 2018
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