- ‘I’m somewhere bettering myself’: prison reform unlike any other in America, By David Kidd, August 2018, Governing: “Terry Pullins is on his second tour in the North Dakota prison system. He’s also done time in California. Since he never got farther than the fifth grade, the 40-year-old Pullins has spent nearly as much time behind bars as he did in school. But last December brought the most acute punishment he has ever suffered: Pullins lost his daughter in a car accident. Most inmates in most prisons endure that sort of grief alone. But Pullins is at the Missouri River Correctional Center near Bismarck, N.D. This is a prison designed as much as possible to imitate life on the outside…”
- Phone calls from New York City jails will soon be free, By Zoe Greenberg, August 6, 2018, New York Times: “People who end up in jail in New York City will now be able to use the phones there for free, after Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a bill into law on Monday that will eliminate the charge. The city had been collecting about $5 million per year from calls made by incarcerated people and their families…”
- Bail reform bill considered by California legislature, By Marissa Gerchick, Fiona Kelliher and Emily Lemmerman, August 8, 2018, Napa Valley Register: “In late 1987, Sheri Costa drove her three young children from Alameda County to Fresno County to see her husband in jail. He had been arrested more than 30 days earlier in Fresno on charges of drug possession with intent to sell and distribute, and the price of his freedom was set: $100,000…”
Tag: Prisoner re-entry
Prison Education Programs
Throw the books at them: How more training for Wisconsin’s prisoners could help companies, By David D. Haynes, July 26, 2018, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Mike Williams finished high school at age 15, and by the time his classmates got around to receiving their own diplomas, he had another one: an associate’s degree in computer electronics at Milwaukee Area Technical College. He was judged as a bright young man by his instructors, someone who learned quickly. But Williams also ran with the wrong crowd in those days and made a series of poor decisions as a young man that would upend his promising life for many years. He sold marijuana and was imprisoned for the crime, then was sent back to prison on probation violations…”
Baby Nurseries in Prisons – Ohio
Parenting in prison: Ohio nursery offers inmate moms, children a chance to bond, By John Caniglia, March 4, 2018, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “One-month-old Javon Jackson fidgets with his mom’s jacket as he drinks from his bottle and holds her hand. His mom coos. Her friends laugh, and a precocious, 2-year-old toddler stops by and waves hi. In all, it is a typical, upbeat moment for any mother and child — until prison officials tell Javon’s mom, Janisha Meredith of Cleveland, that a head count is scheduled in 5 minutes. Javon and four other children, who were born while their mothers were incarcerated, are being raised by their moms in Ohio’s prison nursery, a facility that sits less than 30 feet from the razor wire that circles the Ohio Reformatory for Women…”