Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • The Radio Show Bringing Prisoners Messages from Home

    “Calls From Home” is an Appalachian radio show that allows people in prison to hear messages from family and friends. People call in the radio show, leave a message, and every Monday from 9 to 10 p.m. the messages are played over the airways making a message from home accessible to the 11 prisons and facilities within range. “The folks who are locked up here are also a part of our community. They’re the least visible parts of our community, for sure, but they are here, and I see that as part of our responsibly as a radio station.”

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  • Participatory Defense

    While there are many factors that have contributed to the sky high incarceration rates in the United States which have left prisons bursting at the seams, one of the causes remains the simple fact that the resources of a private prosecutor vastly outweigh those of publicly-funded defense attorneys.

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  • Redina's story: A mother's troubled journey home from prison

    For Redina, and others suffering from addiction, it is hard to break the cycle. 'Women Working for a Change' is a program that tries to change addicts' thinking in order to prevent a relapse.

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  • Inside a Philadelphia Prison, a Parenting Movement Grows

    When a man goes to prison, a child loses their father and this can have detrimental effects. It is especially troubling considering the number of men incarcerated. F.A.C.T is a parenting program that helps teach incarcerated fathers to be better parents while also helping to facilitate their involvement in their children's lives.

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  • Americans want fewer prisoners. What's art have to do with it?

    "Songs in the Key of Free" is a program in a Pennsylvania prison brings together inmates to play music and write songs that they perform inside, while professional musicians also play the songs in venues outside prison. The program is just a year old and is based on a successful theater program in California that cut recidivism rates and helped decrease prison infractions. The founders of "Songs in the Key of Free" are creating an album of the work, but after that, future funding is unclear.

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  • Inside Job: The Gourmet Restaurant in a Colombian Women's Prison

    Time served in prison often means the end of opportunity and hope for the incarcerated, but a special restaurant run from within the San Diego women's prison in Cartagena is working to change that. The women are trained by professional and even celebrity chefs to prepare gourmet dishes - or they can work in the garden or as waitresses - ensuring they have dignity and opportunity on the other side.

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  • Philly activists raising money to bail poor defendants out of jail

    For many low-income people who are arrested, coming up with even a small amount of bail money is nearly impossible, leaving them to languish for months before their cases are ever adjudicated. That means lost jobs and housing and sometimes custody of their kids. In Philadelphia, a number of groups have banded together and raised funds to bail out inmates, following examples in other cities, as a temporary measure until policymakers can enact long-term bail reform.

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  • How a Temple professor and a prison inmate started an international movement

    In the Inside-Out Exchange program half of the students are college students, and the other half are prison inmates. The program has “expanded to about 150 correctional institutions across the globe” but the biggest takeaway is the effect it has on people. Students were “ engaged in a way they never had been in the classroom. For the inmates, suddenly their opinions mattered.”

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  • From Norway, Pennsylvania's prisons appear cruel and unusual

    Thirty years ago, Norway’s recidivism rate was more than 60 percent. Then the country put rehabilitation at the core of its corrections system, training prison guards to act more like social workers than punishers. Recidivism fell dramatically. The country of 5.2 million now has just 3,900 prisoners. Norwegian delegates are meeting with officials in Pennsylvania to share their insights.

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  • Opioid crisis puts Ohio jails at the center of burden and opportunity

    As jails in Ohio struggle with the skyrocketing numbers of people addicted to opioids, they are increasingly becoming the state's primary detox centers. This article explores how several counties are addressing the issue by connecting inmates to jobs, training and housing to cut down on overdose deaths and reduce recidivism. Medicaid has also made it easier to get inmates health insurance coverage, which gives them access to treatment and medications upon release.

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