The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/tag/prison-reform/)
The grants to the Urban Institute and the Vera Institute of Justice are aimed at transforming prison environments and “the culture of incarceration” in selected state facilities.
Plans to create a system of smaller detention facilities around New York City to replace the controversial Rikers Island jail complex could make the city a model for ending the nation’s “tragic reliance on mass incarceration,” says former New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
The long-stalled bill to overhaul federal prisons and sentencing passed 87-12 late Tuesday night. “(It’s) large but modest, and filled with numerous exceptions to gain the backing of law enforcement organizations, whose support was critical in gaining Trump’s endorsement,” said one commentator.
A West Virginia researcher calls them “prisoners of fate” and argues that “Family Impact Statements” assessing the health and psychological effect of a parent’s imprisonment should be mandatory in pre-sentencing reports.
“Extralegal violence” against inmates has diminished as prisoners gained standing under U.S. law, but courts, lawmakers and prison administrators have carefully limited civil rights of the incarcerated—ushering in what some advocates call the modern era of hygienic, systematized and lawful cruelty, says a TCR op ed writer.
TRUE, a pilot program at a maximum security facility in Connecticut, offers prisoners a path back to normalcy, with educational programs and schedules they help devise. It’s one of several innovative experiments in changing correctional practices that reformers hope will change the face of U.S. prisons.
The Vera Institute of Justice calls for “a new and fundamentally different approach to incarceration” that prioritizes respect for human dignity in a groundbreaking report that recommends radical changes to U.S. correctional practices and prison design.
With the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh pending, The Crime Report asks legal scholars around the country for their views on the criminal justice challenges the next Court will face.
Prison is often just a stop along the road for individuals who have been struggling with victimization all their lives, says Bruce Western, author of a new book exploring returning inmates’ experiences. That’s why the justice system should rethink its approach to who it punishes—and how—he argued during a talk in New York Thursday.
On the 10th anniversary of the Second Chance Act, veteran corrections administrator and researcher Stefan LoBuglio says attitudes towards prisoner reentry have undergone a “sea change” since the 1990s. But in an extended chat with TCR, he warns of a retrenchment in programming that threatens the overall functioning of the U.S. corrections system.