Launched as part of Prison Visiting Week for Vera’s Reimagining Prison initiative, this explainer video focuses on alternative approaches to incarceration in use by countries such as Germany. Comparatively, “tough on crime” practices in the U.S. have been ineffective. We spend $80 billion on incarceration per year, yet more than half the people who leave prison return within five years. There has to be a better way. It's time to #ReimaginePrison.
Developing Quality Postsecondary Education Programs in Prison
With its July 2015 announcement of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program, the U.S. Department of Education ushered in what could be a new era of expanded opportunities for postsecondary education in our nation’s prisons. The Second Chance Pell Pilot makes students incarcerated in state and federal prisons eligible for need-based financial aid in a l ...
Common Misconceptions and Emerging Safe Alternatives
While the precise number of people held on any given day in what’s commonly called solitary confinement—though also known as segregated or restricted housing—is not known with any certainty, estimates run between 80,000 to 100,000 in state and federal prisons. However, evidence mounts that the practice produces many unwanted and harmful outcomes—fo ...
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 ...
