Prison Reform Archives

Action Alert for CA: Sign the petition “California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: Prison reform: Voice for the voiceless”

·May 18, 2021
·20 Comments

Crystal B. started this petition to CALIFORNIA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: The prison system affects thousands of inmates and their loved ones including myself. There are inmates who are…

National

TX: What I learned working in a Texas prison: Retribution, not reformation

·March 11, 2021
·3 Comments

[baptistnews.com - 3/11/21] I served as a pastor for 33 years and then worked nearly six years as a counselor at the most high-profile maximum-security prison in Texas. There, I…

Commentary

Our System Is Not Doing the Thing It Says It Intends to Do: Deliver Justice

·August 5, 2020
·10 Comments

[jacobinmag.com - 8/5/20] Carceral solutions to sexual violence won’t deliver justice. We need investments in public services that will actually reduce sexual violence. In the last few years, the #MeToo…

Commentary

Attorney General Barr Memo Excludes Release of Registrants

·March 31, 2020
·11 Comments

[ACSOL] It’s just come to my attention that Attorney General Barr recently issued a memorandum purporting to address the problem of COVID-19 for federal prisons, by recommending consideration of release from federal prison to…

National

Read the Joint Statement from Elected Prosecutors on Covid-19 and Addressing The Rights and Needs of Those In Custody

·March 17, 2020
·8 Comments

[fairandjustprosecution.org - 3/2020] COVID-19 has the world on high alert. In recognition that the coronavirus is spreading quickly among high concentrations of people in close proximity, schools are being shut…

Commentary

Five lessons pandemics can teach us about criminal justice reform

·March 9, 2020
·12 Comments

[prisonpolicy.org - 2/6/20] No need to wait for pandemics: The public health case for criminal justice reform We offer five examples of policies that could slow the spread of a…

National

Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration

·January 4, 2020
·0 Comments

[brennancenter.org - 1/3/20] NYU law professor and author Rachel Barkow offers solutions for tackling America’s criminal justice crisis. The forces that created and perpetuate mass incarceration have been entrenched for…

General News

Cotton wields sex offender report to tank prisons bill

·November 26, 2018
·20 Comments

GOP Sen. Tom Cotton is locked in an awkward fight with fellow Republicans over their push to change federal prison sentencing guidelines. And now he has a new attack line…

National

America’s Shadow Criminal Justice System

·June 1, 2018
·0 Comments

[newrepublic.com - 5/30/18] How the “supervised release” program pulls tens of thousands of former inmates back into prison without a fair trial By Jacob Schuman In the federal criminal justice…

National

Is The “First Step Act” Real Reform?

·May 23, 2018
·2 Comments

[themarshallproject.org 5/22/18] The First Step Act, which passed the House of Representatives Tuesday, has been a hot-button topic for Congress. It addresses the dire need for rehabilitative services in the…

California

CA: The Catalyst: Thelton Henderson

·April 23, 2018
·4 Comments

[themarshallproject.org 4/23/18] s the judge climbed the watchtower stairs in Pelican Bay prison, he heard muffled gunshots below. When he reached the top, he looked into the prison yard and…

California

Experts: Reducing Prison Populations Best Way To Keep Sex Offenders Safe Behind Bars

·February 20, 2015
·6 Comments

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California’s extraordinary rate of prison homicides is rekindling a debate over whether the state needs to further reduce its prison population to ensure inmates’ safety. Experts…

General News

Nonprofit Floats Unusual Alternative To Private Prison

·September 6, 2014
·0 Comments

A group of activists in Washington, D.C., have proposed a novel solution to a problem that has affected the United States for decades: the practice of locking people up in…

California

Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison reforms haven’t lived up to his billing

·June 22, 2014
·10 Comments

Nearly 15 months after launching what he called the "boldest move in criminal justice in decades," Gov. Jerry Brown declared victory over a prison crisis that had appalled federal judges…

General News

Making Punishment Fit the Crime

·March 13, 2014
·4 Comments

Todd R. Clear, dean of Rutgers University–Newark School of Criminal Justice, is one of the country’s leading criminologists. A former president of the American Society of Criminology, he is widely…

National

IL: Reflections on the Campaign to Stop Jail Construction

·February 19, 2014
·1 Comment

When we began our campaign to stop jail construction in Champaign County in early 2012, I thought we were doomed. The grand plan to spend $20 million on this project seemed…

General News

California prisons careening closer to cliff

·September 26, 2013
·2 Comments

For a minute there, it looked like California's prisons were on the verge of positive reforms. But the current situation in the state's massive prison system -- one of the…

National

Prison Quotas Push Lawmakers To Fill Beds, Derail Reform

·September 20, 2013
·5 Comments

After three violent inmates escaped from an Arizona private prison in July 2010, prompting a two-week, multi-state manhunt, state corrections officials demanded improvements and stopped sending new inmates to what…