On October 10, 2018, the Vera Institute of Justice and staff and residents of the T.R.U.E. unit at Cheshire Correctional Institution in Connecticut convened to Reimagine Prison in the United States.
The event, and coinciding report release, culminated the work of Vera’s Reimagining Prison project, launched in June 2016 at historic Eastern State Penitentiary, with the goal of transforming the how, what and why of incarceration in this country in pursuit of a dramatically smaller correctional system that places human dignity at its philosophical and operational core.
The event includes a simulcast and a discussion with incarcerated young men and corrections officers from the Connecticut prison where the T.R.U.E. unit operates as an example of radical reimagining and re-engineering.
Prison in America causes individual, community, and generational pain and deprivation. Built on a system of racist policies and practices that has disproportionately impacted people of color, mass incarceration has decimated communities and families. But the harsh conditions within prisons neither ensure safety behind the walls nor prevent crime an ...
Before hurricanes Helene and Milton, officials failed to evacuate people in jails and prisons—yet most states rely on incarcerated people to work disaster response for little to no pay.
Incarcerated women fill sandbags before Hurricane Dorian in Florida in 2019. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA via Getty) When the need arises for disaster preparation, response, and recovery efforts, incarcerated people are put to work. With cleanup efforts underway in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, they have cut down trees and cleared hundreds of miles of ...
