"Javier,* what has happened to your heart?" I asked. I brushed tears from my eyes as I glanced away from his tightly cuffed wrists.
By Prison Fellowship
May 4, 2017
Mentoring Prisoners | Pennsylvania | Solitary Confinement
By Prison Fellowship
December 26, 2016
forgiveness | Pennsylvania | Remorse | Responsibility | Year in Review
Kevin Bethel was in charge of school police in Philadelphia when he started researching juvenile crime.
“I was shocked to see we were locking up 1,600 kids a year,” Bethel tells Philly.com. “And I was shocked to see the offenses kids were being locked up for.”
By Emily Andrews
October 7, 2016
Collateral Consequences | Juvenile Justice | Kevin Bethel | Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | School | School Diversion ProgramCindy Sanford is the author of Letters to a Lifer: The Boy ‘Never to be Released.’ Visit her website at letters2alifer.blogspot.com.
He sat in the front row, a light skinned black man with long, slender braids streaked with gray. There was a gentle, compassionate energy about him that touched me.I
By Cindy Sanford
August 4, 2016
forgiveness | Pennsylvania | Remorse | Responsibility
Scan the radio dial on any summer road trip, and you will find no shortage of talk radio programming. Whether conservative, liberal, or somewhere in-between, there are always plenty of people who are willing to share their opinions and their experiences about the events and issues of the day.
By Steve Rempe
July 8, 2016
Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Radio | Reentry | WPPMWhen the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia was first built in 1829, it promised to be the leading edge of what was to be a reform of the corrections systems around the world. In contrast to other prisons that focused primarily on retribution, Eastern State put an emphasis on reform instead of punishment, and served as the model for more than 300 prisons worldwide.
By Steve Rempe
June 29, 2016
Eastern State Penitentiary | Germany | Jim Kenney | Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Vera Institute | Vera Institute of Justice | Warden ExchangeDavid Padilla knew that he deserved to be punished for the drug dealing of his youth. But he didn’t see how it would benefit the community—or his wife Lisette and their four children—for him to die in prison.
After his third drug-related offense resulted in a life sentence, Padilla set out to become a model resident of the federal prison system.
By Alyson R. Quinn
May 16, 2016
David Padilla | Men in Motion in the Community | Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Second Chances | sentencingCindy Sanford is the author of Letters to a Lifer: The Boy ‘Never to be Released.’ Visit her website at letters2alifer.blogspot.com.
“Javier,* what has happened to your heart?” I asked. I brushed tears from my eyes as I glanced away from his tightly cuffed wrists.
By Cindy Sanford
May 9, 2016
Cindy Sanford | Hunger Strike | Pennsylvania | Solitary ConfinementEver question what kind of impact a long-past drug conviction can have on a person’s future? Ask Corey Sanders and Jason Sarasnick.
On the surface, the two men appear to have little in common. Sanders, who is African-American, runs a barbershop in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
By Steve Rempe
April 6, 2016
Corey Sanders | Jason Sarasnick | MeKeesport | Pennsylvania | Second Prison ProjectThe following column originally appeared in the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, a national news site that covers juvenile justice issues daily, and appears here with permission.
The other day I visited a young black man from Philadelphia doing time for an armed robbery.
By Cindy Sanford
March 23, 2016
Cindy Sanford | In-Prison | Juvenile Justice | Pennsylvania | Philadelphia