The legal scholar Derrick A. Bell foresaw that mass incarceration, like earlier systems of racial control, would continue to exist as long as it served the perceived interests of white elites.
Thirty years of civil rights litigation and advocacy have failed to slow the pace of a racially biased drug war or to prevent the emergence of a penal system of astonishing size.
Since founding Prison Fellowship 35 years ago, Chuck has visited hundreds of prisons. But his recent return to Maxwell struck him with particular force. As he walked the grounds where he was once incarcerated, he remembered the loneliness that prisoners experience.
This past month, the nation’s last island prison officially closed. Washington’s McNeil Island Corrections Center—widely considered “the prison without walls”—had a history of reform over retribution. It was a place where men were educated, taught trades, and developed into reputable, law abiding citizens—a testament to the power of community.
Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law Wednesday what she called a landmark corrections bill that will significantly change how the state deals with nonviolent offenders and relieve prison overcrowding.
House Speaker Kris Steele, the author of House Bill 2131, said the measure is a start and he hopes to look at sentencing guidelines next year.
Lorenzo had a hard time concealing his nervousness. Standing in front of a large room packed withBoeing employees in late March, the tall, lanky African American gang member described the arc of his life. At 22, he had spent nearly a third of his life incarcerated.
If your church has been involved in the Angel Tree® Christmas program, you may be wondering how to get your Angel Tree kids enrolled in a Christian summer camp. Frontlines spoke with Jennifer Lowrey, Angel Tree Relationships Specialist in Sheridan, Arkansas, to learn more about how this innovative program works and how churches can get more involved.
When a prisoner is locked up, the world he leaves behind does not stand still. Nor does his family. During the prisoner’s absence, roles shift, children grow, and emotional and financial hardships are endured. Even when the sentence ends, the prisoner and his family can never go back to the status quo that existed before prison, no matter how much they would like to.
The Wall Street Journal has published a review of Byron Johnson’s new book, More God, Less Crime. Johnson complied and considered a variety of studies “that measured the possible effect of religion on crime.” The list was long (273 studies).
Ohio appears to be on the verge of joining other states that recently reduced some of the long prison sentences that were a hallmark of the nation’s war on drugs.
States are not getting soft on crime, but rather are hoping to reduce prison costs, which have grown dramatically in recent decades, and to steer more of their law-enforcement resources towards hardened criminals, as WSJ earlier reported in this piece.
Employment is important to anyone’s success. Even more so is this true for the ex-prisoner, who faces unfamiliar, daily challenges like paying bills, finding housing, and supporting a family—often with little or no guidance.
Life can go on for sex offenders, but only with clear guidelines set by themselves and others.
There were an estimated 700,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. at year-end 2009, according to state sex offender registries. But Maia Christopher of the Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) is quick to point out that not all sex offenders are the same.
One day in the visiting room of New York State’s Albion Correctional Facility, LaTrisa Hyman heard her friend and fellow prisoner shriek, “He proposed to me! He proposed to me!” Looking across the room, she saw her friend’s elated new fiancé, still on one knee, saying, “She said yes!”
Pat Lewis, program manager of a Prison Fellowship faith-based reentry unit in New Zealand, held this belief dear to his heart: that the prisoners and ex-prisoners he passionately served were no different than he was, and must be treated as individuals worthy of dignity and respect.
Richard Rosario was convicted of a murder that took place on Turnbull Avenue in the Bronx on June 19, 1996, based on the testimony of two witnesses who had picked his picture out of a book of police photos.
There was no other evidence linking him to the crime.