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.
"Rick Aguilar was facing ten years in prison and for many in his situation there would be two options upon release: return to prison or die back on the street. Aguilar found and developed his own skills while in prison, positioning him for a third option when he was released."
Charles Koch Foundation
July 31, 2018
Read More"Hand-picked by a unique violence-predicting algorithm as well as referrals from outreach workers and partners in the criminal justice system, READI participants are among the most likely to be shot or shoot someone in the city."
Block Club Chicago
July 26, 2018
Read More"Stockton is one of six American cities taking part in a new experiment funded by the Department of Justice. (The others are Birmingham, Ala.; Pittsburgh; Gary, Ind.; Fort Worth; and Minneapolis.) The cities are beginning programs to promote racial reconciliation; to address the racial biases all of us carry; and to gain the community’s trust using an idea known as procedural justice."
New York Times
July 26, 2018
Read More"Defy Ventures, founded in 2010, has a simple but unique mission: 'To end mass incarceration and to drastically reduce the rate convicted convicts re-offend after being let out' by instilling an understanding of entrepreneurship as a tool to "transform legacies and human potential'."
Inc
July 25, 2018
Read More"It may not be obvious to those who consume news digitally, and elect not to click on spot homicide coverage, but these stories make up a substantial portion of a newspaper on any given day. Open a local daily paper, and you’ll get a sense of a city under siege. Crime has declined drastically in the last two decades, but newspapers are still doing what they’ve always done: covering crime. "
Popula
July 24, 2018
Read More"The Durham, North Carolina City Council faced an unusual debate at a recent meeting. Activist groups urged the council to prohibit city police officers from participating in police training exchanges with Israel. According to the groups, such training promotes the militarization of police forces. Council members agreed and voted to prohibit the exchanges."
Criminal Legal News
July 21, 2018
Read More"Yet behind the footlights, those who really run the show are putting into place policies which erode our freedoms and undermine our attempts at contributing to the workings of our government, leaving us none the wiser and bereft of any opportunity to voice our discontent or engage in any kind of discourse until it’s too late."
Criminal Legal News
July 20, 2018
Read More"Should any of these students become eligible for release, they could potentially use their experience and skills to find work and community on the outside, a challenge for many released inmates. Tending the bees also provides the women with an opportunity to go outside, collaborate with each other, and learn something new. It’s an antidote, Mahood says, to the monotony of day-to-day life behind bars."
Atlanta Magazine
July 18, 2018
Read More"The number of children with incarcerated parents may surprise you. As of 2010, 2.7 million children in the United States had a parent in jail or prison — or about one in every 28 minors, according to the IRP. Such high numbers are perhaps part of why so many organizations have made it their mission to help these children. Here are a few that could use your help."
Romper
July 17, 2018
Read More"'Serving time' is a misleading expression, because it suggests that a person is only serving time when confined behind the walls of a prison. The harsh reality is that people continue to 'serve time' by being denied food benefits, professional licenses and housing, as well as being subjected daily to the social stigma attached to a criminal conviction."
Charleston Gazette-Mail
July 15, 2018
Read More"While the First Step Act doesn’t tackle sentencing, Christian organizations see its use of faith-based programs as a critical to keeping felons out of prison. 'As Christians we suit up, we show up and we do what Christ would have us do we go into the prisons. As we heal the prisons in America, I think we heal the communities in America,' said DeRoche."
Christian Broadcasting Network
July 14, 2018
Read More"Group Project, a student group from MIT, is helping GrowingChange, a non-profit that works with previously incarcerated youth, to transform an old North Carolina prison into an agricultural community center. GrowingChange looks to take advantage of the small, decommissioned prisons scattered throughout the state's landscape. They see these sites as "places where communities can work together to provide clinical support, education, and vocational training as a means to divert youth from the criminal justice" system. "
Arch Daily
July 11, 2018
Read More"They realized that they had lost 13 employees to addiction over 10 years, and that half the cases were related to opioid drugs. 'They were not fired,' Mr. Perez said. 'They were dead'."
New York Times
July 10, 2018
Read More"To Yalamanchi and He, fixing the systems that created these traps seemed a monumental challenge. But, taken individually, these were problems they could solve. So, they launched the Shift Fund, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that provides small — but hopefully life-changing — grants to people who are just a few hundred dollars away from getting their lives on track."
Philadelphia Inquirer
July 10, 2018
Read More"Scenes like this have been taking place across the Twin Cities thanks to the Lights On program, believed to be the first of its kind in the country. Instead of writing tickets for minor equipment problems, police officers are authorized to issue $50 coupons so motorists can have those problems fixed at area auto shops. Twenty participating police departments have given out approximately 660 coupons in a little more than a year."
Washington Post
July 7, 2018
Read More"At CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which is one of the institutions mentioned in the article, the answer is always yes. We are deeply engaged in finding innovative solutions to the entrenched societal problem of mass incarceration. We carry out this mission in ways both highly focused, and broadly supported by our identity as 'Fierce Advocates for Justice'."
The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 6, 2018
Read More"Each episode of Felony Miami centers around a different topic in the criminal justice world, from bail bonds to mass incarceration to public corruption. Now in its second season, the show's eclectic lineup of guests has included Miami-Dade chief public defender Carlos Martinez, activist and reality star Angela "Myammee" Pitts, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher Chris Mattox."
Miami New Times
July 5, 2018
Read More"The Portland Bail Fund, created to pay bail for black defendants who otherwise couldn't afford it, has raised close to $30,000 since May. Part of that money has been used to bail out Virgil Adams, 20, who spent nearly a year and a half in the Multnomah County jail without being convicted of a crime."
The Oregonian
July 4, 2018
Read More"In a city whose citizens and police department have a contentious relationship, the militarized rhetoric of a “surge” designed to “disrupt” and “dismantle” will just trap the department in a loop of badly ineffective, biased policing."
The Appeal
June 29, 2018
Read More"When the philanthropist Agnes Gund launched the Art for Justice Fund last year, using the proceeds from the sale of a Roy Lichtenstein painting, the first round of grants focused on groups that work directly to change government policy, such as bail and sentencing reform, and those that help current and former prisoners through education, employment and creative programmes."
The Art Newspaper
June 29, 2018
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