Returning to life outside of prison: It’s called re-entry. Getting people ready to go home just makes sense if you want them to succeed, and over 95 percent of all imprisoned people are eventually released. But we didn’t always do much to assure reentry success, and in many places and many ways, we still don’t. What does the evidence show about what works?
Read MoreCOVID-19 has exposed systemic injustice and institutional failures at every level of society, and nowhere more than in the criminal justice system. Incarcerated people are already being hit hard by the pandemic, but the situation is rapidly deteriorating -- and the effects will be felt beyond the walls of prisons and jails.
Read MoreSqualid and unhealthy even in the best of times, prisons and especially jails are especially vulnerable during a pandemic. That's not just a danger to incarcerated people -- it's a disaster for public health.
Read MoreWhy are so many people dying in Mississippi state prisons? As with most systemic problems, the causes are many and complex.
Read MoreRecommended: NPR's November 4 report on the release of hundreds of prisoners in Oklahoma after their sentences were reduced by the state's Pardon and Parole Board.
Read MoreRegardless of how it looks, there’s no direct evidence that Jeffrey Epstein’s jailhouse death on August 10 was anything other than a suicide. But there’s abundant evidence of a systemic problem with prison suicide — something that’s far more common than most people realize.
Read More$17 million in new grants from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation seek to refocus attention on an area of criminal justice reform that's been largely overlooked in the push to end mass incarceration: conditions inside prisons.
Read MoreAs reported by George Joseph and Debbie Nathan in The Intercept and The Appeal, inmates at many U.S. prisons are coerced to submit digital voice print samples before being allowed to use the telephone.
Read MorePrisons in the U.S. frequently use long-term solitary confinement, even though the evidence makes clear that solitary has devastating effects on prisoners’ mental and physical health. Some authorities call long-term solitary nothing short of torture. So what can we make of our prisons using solitary for people with significant disabilities? If solitary devastates so-called normal prisoners, what does it do to those with severe physical or cognitive impairments?
Read MoreIn the US, we incarcerate our fellow citizens at the highest rate in the world. And once they are in prison, we give the incarcerated not another thought. But one program works to help improve our imprisoned population, by teaching them college courses inside – along with college students, from the outside.
Read MoreMass incarceration in the U.S. created crisis conditions in prisons everywhere, and modern prison systems now have to address much more than just locking inmates up.
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