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.
"Upon release from prison, ex-offenders often enter a world full of uncertainty. Where do you live? Where do you work? How do you survive? Mario Bueno tries to help people find these answers. He is the co-founder of Luck Inc., a non-profit headquartered in Detroit helping ex-offenders get on their feet."
Michigan Radio
June 29, 2018
Read More"Over the past three years, Freeman has been developing a low-sodium ramen that will soon be sold at correctional institution commissaries across the country. Along with honey buns, ramen noodles — typically the kind that comes in a plastic wrapper, made by the brands Maruchan or Nissin — are the most popular items at prison commissaries, filling the gap left by nutritionally inadequate and, at times, inedible correctional meals."
The Outline
June 29, 2018
Read More"Each year, about 23,000 inmates like Camper leave prisons in Ohio, and 640,000 are released from prisons across the country. Nearly two-thirds of them can’t find a job within the first year and a majority of them are arrested again within three years. Not getting a job doesn’t hurt just the former inmate, it hits the whole economy. One think tank estimated that the cost of not hiring felons is $87 billion in gross domestic product every year."
Politico
June 28, 2018
Read More"The number of arrests is dramatically disproportionate to Portland's homeless population. People experiencing homelessness represent a tiny fraction of the city's overall population -- well below 3 percent even using the biggest estimates. Yet in 2017, they accounted for 52 percent of arrests."
The Oregonian
June 28, 2018
Read More"Along with being less humane, family incarceration is more expensive than alternative to detention programs. In its Congressional Budget Justification for fiscal year 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimated that it costs approximately $319.37, per person, per day, to house a person in a family detention center. In comparison, other alternative programs cost as low as 30 cents to $8.04 per person, per day. These alternative methods include family-based case management, community-based programs, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-ins and home visits."
Human Rights First
June 27, 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"When James Forman Jr. first came to New Haven to teach at Yale Law School he thought things might be different from what he had been seeing in Washington, D.C. — black people in authority locking up their own. In the case of New Haven, he found black public school officials, at least to some degree, deciding harshly the fate of black students."
New Haven Independent
June 22, 2018
Read More"Responses operating outside the institution of policing and in the interest of the material well-being of the people are needed. This means not relying on police to solve conflict or social problems but instead pushing to divest funding from them and putting those funds into education, mental health, and other resources for the places we live."
The Appeal
June 19, 2018
Read More"Being stuck in jail, even for a few days, can have a devastating effect on someone's ability to keep their job, pay rent, or care for their children. And it can be an incentive to just plead guilty — which will often result in immediate release."
The Oregonian
June 13, 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
Read More"More than 130 organizations from across the country are partnering with Prison Fellowship for the community walk. It’s scheduled to include a prayer walk, personal “second chance” stories, and a re-entry job fair at the D.C. Dream Center, a community center in Washington, D.C., that offers employment counseling and networking for families affected by incarceration."
Daily Signal
April 7, 2018
Read More"Pettus-Davis has devoted most of her career to improving the lives of ex-prisoners, and her latest project is arguably the most significant. In 2018, she will lead a major research initiative, funded by a $1 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation, to identify the most effective re-entry services for reducing recidivism."
Charles Koch Foundation
January 29, 2018
Read More"Over the years, the number of state and federal rules which carry criminal penalties has exploded. At the federal level alone, there are already more than 300,000 laws and regulations whose violation can lead to prison time. But the list of criminal laws and regulations by which we are bound is much bigger than that. And it’s growing."
Manhattan Institute
January 10, 2018
Read More"In most cases, for anyone prepared to give people who have made mistakes a second chance, changing our language is a small but important step in overcoming a counterproductive prejudice toward people who have offended."
Aeon
November 10, 2017
Read More"Most theories for the great crime decline that swept across nearly every major American city over the last 25 years have focused on the would-be criminals....But none of these explanations have paid much attention to the communities where violence plummeted the most. New research suggests that people there were working hard, with little credit, to address the problem themselves."
The New York Times
November 9, 2017
Read More"Education for me has been the biggest balancer to offset my criminal convictions. Education broadens horizons, tears down fences, and leads to career building. It has helped me build my personal and professional support network."
The Sentencing Project
July 26, 2017
Read More"The programs we met with can serve as examples of innovative, results- and technology-driven approaches to reducing recidivism."
American Enterprise Institute
July 5, 2016
Read More"Children of Inmates, an organization dedicated to bringing incarcerated families together, facilitates these unusual visits on a quarterly basis, where parents can directly interact with their children, with volunteers instructing them to get into full “mommy” or “daddy” mode...."
TIME
May 17, 2016
Read More"The trip, free of charge, was made possible by local philanthropy but also, in a way, by the power of a radio program — “Calls From Home”— that airs once a week on a tiny Kentucky radio station, WMMT....“Calls From Home,” offers prisoners’ relatives the chance to call in and record greetings that are then played from 9 to 10 p.m. on Mondays. Inmates can listen on Mp3 players that are sold at the prison commissary."
The Marshall Project
March 13, 2016
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