It sounds like the first line of a joke: "Three state corrections teams and some experts who are old hands at visiting prisons go to meet their warden counterparts in Germany and the Netherlands in mid-January to see what they could learn."

But it's a true story—and what high-level delegations from Colorado, Georgia, and Pennsylvania learned through the Vera Institute of Justice's European-American Prison Project is no laughing matter. What we learned, in fact, has serious and timely boots-on-the-ground implications.

So begins an op-ed by Vera President Nick Turner and Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel in National Journal’s The Next America. Read about what those implications are, how Pennsylvania has taken action, and some strategies for reducing reoffending and creating stronger people and stronger and safer communities.