The Rutherford County Correctional Work Center in Murfreesboro, TN has seen a significant drop in recidivism rates, and some of the credit is going to Pastor John Spurgeon, who oversees the inmate and law enforcement ministry in Rutherford County. In this radio interview, he details how some of his programs, such as Bible studies, have helped inmates “reconnect their relationship with Christ” and given them the skills needed to rejoin society upon release. How does religion help inmates keep away from re-offending after release?

Listen to the full interview at wgnsradio.com

When activist and musician Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was imprisoned in Russia in 2012, her family, bandmates, and her open challenging of the status quo –  (including letter writing and a hunger strike) made the conditions in Russia’s prisons an international headline. Most notably, Tolokonnikova brought the practice of forced prison labor to light, sharing how she worked long hours in harsh conditions with strict quotas. While Russia claims that complaints of this nature are rare, there have been other claims about work conditions and unpaid wages. 

30% of Russian inmates (about 219,000) work in prison, earning the equivalent of $5.50 a day. While a delegation from the Russian presidential Human Rights Commission found conditions at Tolokonnikova’s former penal colony to be satisfactory in May, is that the case in facilities across the country?

Learn more at rferl.org

Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour recently spoke with freshman senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rand Paul (R-KY) about the REDEEM Act, the legislation they recently introduced as co-sponsors. The bill would lift the federal ban on food stamps and welfare for some offenders, offer incentives to states who do not try children as adults until they are 18, ban almost all solitary confinement for children, and more.

Why is prison reform one of few issues encouraging cooperation from both sides of the aisle in a fiercely divided Congress? Can the reform goals of both parties be molded into one robust effort?

Learn more by watching the discussion at pbs.org

In the March 1, 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Reena Kaapor, MD shines a bright light on the use of solitary confinement and its effects on prisoners, prisons, and society. The use of solitary confinement, especially with mentally ill prisoners, has been a main focus of many prison reform efforts for years. It is not uncommon, and has been shown in studies, to cause feelings of loneliness, confusion, and agitation in prisoners, as well as higher rates of suicide and self-harm. 

In several high-profile court cases, use of solitary confinement (22 or more hours a day) on mentally ill inmates has been found to be cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment. In response, many states have drastically reduced their use of solitary confinement. Do initiatives that minimize the use of solitary confinement bring about positive results?

 

Read the full paper at jaapl.org

The city of Oakland, California recently received a two million dollar grant, with most of that money going to programs that aim to reduce recidivism. While the city has seen reductions in crime in recent years, Oakland also has some of the highest incarceration and recidivism rates in the state. Funds will be used primarily for programs that offer job and housing assistance to released convicts, alongside drug treatment, mental health counseling and efforts to ensure that every released prisoner has a state ID card and enrollment in Medi-Cal, funded by a separate grant. 

The rest of the funds will go to support policing efforts in the community. One program many have high hopes for is the “Ceasefire” initiative, where suspected offenders are sought out and offered help for their problems prior to, and instead of, arrest and incarceration. While this strategy is still in its early stages in Oakland, will it and the other programs help bring recidivism rates down?

Read more at ktvu.com

The Smarter Sentencing Act (S zovirax generic. 1410) is a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Mike Lee (R-UT), and it is currently co-sponsored by 32 US Senators. The bill does not repeal any federal mandatory minimum sentences, but instead reduces prison costs and populations by creating fairer, less costly minimum terms for nonviolent drug offenders. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 30, 2014. It has a House companion bill, H.R. 3382, with 50 House representatives as co-sponsors.

What would The Smarter Sentencing Act mean for the criminal justice system? Here are the five main points of the legislation:

• Save billions on the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders.  While it does not call for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences, it does reduce them.
• The bill slightly expands the federal “safety valve” for drug offenses, allowing offenders an additional criminal history point when qualifying for inclusion in the safety valve program.
• The Smarter Sentencing Act will allow for 8,800 federal prisoners currently incarcerated for crack cocaine offenses to have their cases heard again, to correct the disparity in sentences for powder and crack cocaine. This would have a significant effect on the African-American population, as they make up 87% of inmates currently serving sentences for crack cocaine.
• S. 1410 will address overcriminalization, requiring the Department of Justice and other related agencies to compile, and make publicly available, lists of all federal laws and regulations, their criminal penalties, and the intent required to violate the law.
• The fifth point is a contentious one: creating 5-year minimum sentences for sexual abuse and terrorism offenses and a 10-year minimum for interstate domestic violence. However, Victims’ Rights groups oppose these measures, arguing that such strong sentencing will prevent victims from speaking up and reporting crimes. FAMM believes that these mandatory minimums should be removed before passage of the bill.

While it is clear why this legislation is important as part of the larger prison reform effort, there is one specific reason why it is important right now. With Congress on summer break, your Congressional representatives are in their home states and ready for visits from members of the community who support this legislation.

For information on how to set up a meeting with your Senator or House Representative, click here

 

This Minnesota Department of Corrections study examines the effects of prison visitation on recidivism among 16,420 offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 2003 and 2007. It takes into account different measurements of visitation: number of visitors, frequency of visits, total number of visits, etc., and also looks at recidivism via new crimes committed as well as parole violations. In the end, the study found that prison visits significantly lowered recidivism rates. The study includes a full breakdown on which types of visitors were the most beneficial to inmates; and with approximately 40% of the study group receiving no visits at all, it strongly encourages prisons to create resources for the population of prisoners who receive few or no visitors.

For the full results and conclusions, read more at doc.state.mn.us

Last month, the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee was set to consider a proposal that would give felons who had completed their sentence voting rights. The goal of the proposed legislation is to establish a process of re-enfranchisement for nonviolent first-time offenders once they finish serving time behind bars, probation or parole. Current laws only restore voting rights to those who have been pardoned by the Governor, or have had the right specifically granted by the state’s parole board, a process the board does not have complete guidelines for.

The Wyoming chapter of the ACLU believes the new law would have allowed 4,200 nonviolent offenders the right to vote in Wyoming between 2000 and 2011. Studies show that the ability to vote upon release helps curb recidivism; will Wyoming see a lower rate of reincarceration if the new law is passed?

Find out more at washingtonpost.com

The growing number of calls to address prison overcrowding and poor conditions continue to intensify. Jeffrey Brown of PBS NewsHour recently led a debate on the shifting perceptions of the criminal justice system from Bill McCollum, former attorney general of Florida, Bryan Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiative, and Pat Nolan of the American Conservative Union Foundation. With the goal of determining if the ground is shifting on criminal justice issues, what does Brown discover in this panel discussion?

Read the transcript and watch the video at pbs.org

The FCC was set to vote this past Friday on reforms to the prison phone business. Families of inmates have pushed for limits for over a decade on how much inmates can and should be charged for making phone calls to their loved ones. Studies have consistently found that prisoners who maintain close contact with their family members while incarcerated have better post-release outcomes and lower recidivism rates, dating as far back as a 1972 study entitled “Explorations in Inmate-Family Relationships”. With rates soaring and making calls to family and friends often prohibitively expensive, the reforms could directly link to overall reductions in recidivism, and that is something to call home about.

Watch the video at yahoo.com